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Smelly Guinea Pigs

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Chessles

Chessles

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I have recently acquired 2 sows from a rescue, I already had two boars and they didn't really smell. I had read that sows were less smelly however, these 2 seem to smell quite strongly. I only cleaned them out a few hours ago and they already smell :( this is a problem because they live indoors. could they be ill?
 
I had always heard that boars are more likely to be smelly than sows . Can you describellum the smell? If they have come from a rescue recently, it may be worth speaking to the rescue.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Please could you add your location to your profile as with members all over the world it helps us to tailor advice/recommendations.

Is it the piggies themselves who smell? Are they long haired or short haired? The only time I have noticed my sows smelling is on the rare occasion when they had been soaked in wee either from infection or once because one had arthritis and stopped moving around.

Is it worth asking the rescue they came from if they had noticed anything?
 
Check their fur for matting and debris, check their lady bits for any discharge and their bums for poo, just in case they have any infections or have trodden on something and it's become embedded/ matted in their fur. It's usually males that get poo stuck in their anal sacks, but I have read that it can very occasionally/rarely happen in sows too.

If they are indoor piggies you could always consider giving them a bath once you become more acquainted with them. If they live outdoors then I'd wait till the weather gets warmer so that try don't catch a chill. :)
 
It's their bedding that smells, it's a kind of musty smell, not what I would have thought wee would smell like :s
 
Also, they are both short haired and don't seem to have any problems with doing number 2. They have come from my next door neighbour who wanted to trim down the number of pigs he was keeping. They lived outdoors so he didn't notice any issues with smell
 
Are your sows living close to the boars? If so, are you sure it's not the boys that smell? I'm not experienced with keeping both male and female pigs at the same time but could the boys smell the girls and possibly be rubbing their scent in the cage causing the room to smell?
 
They are but I'm pretty sure it's the girls as their bedding smells when I change it. Could they be making scents because of the boys?
 
A kind of musty smell on their bedding. May I ask which sort of bedding you use? Perhaps changing to a different type may do the trick.
I'll share what works for me, but it's not the only solution, or perhaps the best, as what we and our pigs like the best are very much individual choices. But I have a mix of fleece and vet-bed in the largest areas of the cages, and then I have a large tray (I made the trays from Correx) with a paper-based bedding called Fitch. The Fitch-trays are where all the messy stuff goes - they hay, the food etc. I have had a total of seven piggies and have found that all of them prefer to do most of their wee's on the Fitch, which absorbs it rather effectively, and poop where-ever. Then it is a case of cleaning out the wet Fitch and replacing with fresh each day (only takes a few minutes), replace the old hay with fresh, and scoop out the poop from off the fleece/vetbed. The only times I've had a musty smell is when a water bottle has slowly dripped and made a damp patch on the fleece that went un-noticed until the next day, whereby it started to smell a bit musty.

Perhaps others will share what works for them bedding-wise :) x
 
You need an absorbent layer underneath the fleeces to soak up the urine, such as towels, puppy pads etc. Otherwise the urine will just collect underneath the fleece and remain damp which will then start to smell. If you've already got some towels underneath then try adding more or putting a few puppy pads underneath the places that are weed on the most. :) Hope this helps
 
how clean was the home they came from? could it be that and they're a bit grubby and that smell is transferring to the bedding?
 
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