Smelly Pigs! Please Help, Advice Needed

[badger2503]

Hi, I have two four month old boars who are the little loves of my life.....but my god are they stinky! I've heard all about how piggies are clean animals and don't tend to smell until it's bedding change day, but my pair stink up really quick and I don't know why.

- They are on fleece. It has been washed multiple times, detergent only, no softenener, with vinegar. I have tested its wicking - the water passes through within a few seconds.
- I am using B&M puppy pads underneath the fleece, with towels in the high pee areas.
- I am spot cleaning their poops 2-3 times daily
- I am having to change the puppy pads in the high pee areas daily, and the puppy pads elsewhere every 2 days.
- Their pen is homemade - it's approximately 3.7ft x 3.7ft, so about 13 square feet.
- I deep-clean their pen with johnson pet safe disinfectant 1-2 times a week and completely replace all underbedding.

But their fleece...I'm having to change EVERY day and even then they start stinking! I will literally do a deep clean, put new pads down etc., put a freshly dried, clean fleece blanket on....and the next morning there is a certain whiff to the air of piddly piggies! I'm wondering if my piggies themselves might be smelly, as they have a frustrating habit of choosing to lie in the high poop/high pee area of their cage when there is miles and miles of clean space. I've tried putting all of their hidies/toys/hay in the opposite end, but still they seem to enjoy lying in the toilet corner....
I've now taken to adding a newspaper-lined box filled with cheap P&H hay in their piddle zone to add an extra layer of absorbency that is easier to change regularly, rather than having to change the entire fleece. Still, my piggies are ponging. They're also in the living room, so you kind of can't help but notice it......

What am I doing wrong with bedding? Should I use a different under bedding? Different bedding? Any tips or tricks as to reduce stink? Do they need a bath? Any hypoallergenic/pig-friendly air fresheners I can use? Is it an age thing? I feel like I spend all day every day changing the fleece, changing the pads/towels and yet they still stink up the room.

 

[rome_italy]

is the fleece smelling or the boars themselves? because I also use fleece (and newspapers/leaflets underneath as absorbant layer) and there is no smell at all (and my nose is extremely sensitive). yesterday another friend with a nose worse than mine came here and told me there was no smell...
I wash my fleece once a week and only fro changing the colour of the cage. Once a day, during floor time, I remove the fleece and I hang out to dry, I remove the wet paper (but a lot of times it happens that I let everything there and with air conditioning (above the cage) the paper gets dried... and there is no smell as well.
In your case the smell maybe comes from the boars... Do they smell when you cuddle them?
I have two longhaired sows, one keeps her body and fur clean, the other one is a very dirty pig! I need to wash her once a month, sometimes more often; anyway she does not smell at all even when she is dirty... I give her a bath only for keeping light and soft her long hair.
Long ago I had a boar, but he also did not smell. Anyway I used to wash his butt once a day... (maybe it is a cultural habit, but here people and pets wash butts with special delicate soaps... also the vets suggest to keep the butt clean; but as I have written it could be only a habit because the italians always despair when they go abroad and don't find the bidet into the bathroom! Animals in nature don't have a bidet and don't care).
That boar I owned did not smell at all... and my sows now use to sleep on our lap but with their butts towards our face... therefore I am sure of what I am saying: they don't smell.
My advice for you is to try to wash regularly their butt with a specific soap for bidet (or with a delicate no-soap detergent for newborns).
If the smell comes from the fleece, well... I don't know and I don't even understand how it is possible...
Is it possible that the puppy pads cause all of this? you might try to use papers... you might save also a lot of money.
This is how I have arranged the cage's floor







as you can see below the piggies' butt is always near our nose:



and the same was with our former boar...
------
Anyway I have another hypothesis: the food! are you giving them too much pellet? what kind of pellets are you using? because at least in cats the choice of the food dramatically influences the smell into their litter!
A last thing: my piggies live into my living room and kitchen... and I almost never open the windows in summer because of the terrible hot air coming from outside

 

[badger2503]

It's a mixture of both. The piggies have an odour but so does the fleece and I think it's definitely the fleece that is worse. I've found newspaper doesn't cut it for me - it just melts and offers little absorbency. I occasionally use it as reinforcement, but the pads seem like they should be more absorbent given that puppies have much larger bladders. It's their fur that smells not their bums.

I use Burgess excel pellets and only give them a handful of pellets each and don't refill them until the next morning. They eat romaine or round lettuce, spring greens, bell pepper, cucumber, occasionally kale or carrots and courgettes. I have noticed that they do drink a fair bit of water and always have done, so maybe they are excessive pee-ers by nature

 

[piggieminder]

I have 4 boars in my living room living in 2 pairs. I use vetbed over newspapers and puppy pads, small fleece pads in the wee corners which can be easily removed if wet . The only smells I notice are hay and fresh poop. I poop pick twice a day. I change the vet bed every 3-4 days depending on the weather, sometimes once a week if they have spent most of the day in outside runs. I change any wet newspaper and puppy pads daily. They have hay boxes to burrow, eat, wee, poop, sleep in, these are lined with puppy pads and newspaper, the hay is topped up daily and if wet changed daily although sometimes I get away with 2 days. I sometimes get a urine smell from a hay box if the newspaper has got wet but that's easy to remedy.
As rome-italy says it could be something you are feeding your boars making their urine smell more (possibly kale/cabbage type veg?). I've noticed mine get smelly wind if fed green leafy veg or they've had lots of grass.

 

[eileen]

gosh you are having a difficult time,maybe try a different bedding to see if that helps.i use Aubiose ,which is a hemp bedding which you buy from a horse feed store or online.i have 2 sets of boars on this and it lasts a week,without smells until change out time,use puppypads or newspaper underneath.there is an overview of bedding in a tread,this may help you decide a bedding which works for you.i hope you find a solution.

 

[Jesse's pigs]

I use the same bedding as @rome_italy newspaper layer and then their fleece on top. I change their fleece every two days but clean them out twice a day- as in take the fleece off and shake it so hay and fluff comes off then get all the poos onto a layer of paper and remove it. When it was just Mo I got away with changing the fleece every 4 days. They both occupy my bedroom. On warmer days you sometimes notice a smell but I think that's due to the heat. Generally you cannot smell anything at all though their is the aroma of boar stink obviously. I give Mo bum baths because he can get quite smelly down there from dragging his bum around- just yesterday a whole food pellet fell out his butt! Steve had tipped the food bowl over after burying under the fleece and Mo must have dragged his bum through it.

 

[Swissgreys]

I would also add that sometimes I think we can clean our piggies out too much.
I have a female pair who seem to have a bit of an ongoing 'discussion' about who is really top pig (not naming and shaming, but actually it's Ruby).
When I clean their cage the smelliest time is 12 - 24 hours after the clean, as they (aka Ruby) go around and marks everything to reestablish ownership.

At this point I replace a couple of the smaller fleece pieces that I put in the well know marking areas, and then things settle down.
So if possible maybe try to wait it out a couple of days with regular airing but not a full clean.

The other possibility is that your fleece has a detergent build up.
This is one of the downsides of synthetics.
We all use too much detergent (because the manufacturers tell us too of course) when in reality we need very little.

So first 'clean' your washing machine.
Run it on a hot cycle with no detergent.
If you see any suds at ll then this means there is residual detergent in there and you need to repeat this process until you only see clear water.

Then rewash your fleece - also with no detergent.
Try to line dry if at all possible.

Hopefully this will help.

 

[Reenie]

Mine went through a few weeks when they were a bit smelly, but they're fine again, in fact, since Monday I've only had to poop pick. I guessed it must have been their food, but don't ask what I'd given them. You could try different things in their diet and see if it makes a difference.

 

[rome_italy]

It's a mixture of both. The piggies have an odour but so does the fleece and I think it's definitely the fleece that is worse. I've found newspaper doesn't cut it for me - it just melts and offers little absorbency. I occasionally use it as reinforcement, but the pads seem like they should be more absorbent given that puppies have much larger bladders. It's their fur that smells not their bums.

I use Burgess excel pellets and only give them a handful of pellets each and don't refill them until the next morning. They eat romaine or round lettuce, spring greens, bell pepper, cucumber, occasionally kale or carrots and courgettes. I have noticed that they do drink a fair bit of water and always have done, so maybe they are excessive pee-ers by nature

at this point I don't know what is the cause of that smell. Anyway, newspapers have a great absorbent power and don't melt even when my silly piggies play with the bottle wasting 150ml water in few minutes time. Of course under that spot I put some leaflets more but they absorb so perfectly that the towels of the first layer are always dry (in fact they have been there since March and I have never changed them...). There is something which does not work with your cage, but I don't understand what...
About their fur: my Calliope (the one you see on the pictures) is a very dirty girl... before weeing she moves backwards until her fur is just under her butt! and then she wees... a disaster... her fur not only was dirty, but even burnt for the acids of the urine...
I have found at supermarket an organic/natural shampoo and a natural conditioner with a very good smell (and also a special oil) and the problem is solved. Dirt aside, that product lets on her fur a wonderful smell... Maybe you should try to wash that part regularly. I understand there is nothing natural in doing that and maybe the piggies prefer their bad smell, but as they have to live with us into our homes, it is necessary to find a good compromise...
After the bath, also the fleece has a good smell of that shampoo... Give it a try.
Another advice: what do other people say about their smell? Is it possible that your nose is very sensitive and does not like that normal odour they have? and be careful with the hay because hay+urine produce a terrible smell!

 

[rome_italy]

another idea: try to hang the fleece outiside to the cool air for some hour, because it is what I do every day and maybe it is the reason why the fleece does not smell...
And I bought a lovely fleece with a different structure, but it does not kork: it remains wet...
Check your fleece: is it always dry? if it is wet that might be the problem...
the one which is not working at all is the one on the right... wasted money...

 

[Swissgreys]

I agree with @rome_italy
I have had a few fleeces that even after washing were still a bit smelly, and once in the cage got very smelly very quickly.
It helped to rewash them without detergent (I know it sounds strange, but this helps remove the excess detergent build up, when we are conditioned to think more detergent means cleaner things) and then line dry them.
Even when the weather isn't hot enough to get things dry (I use liners which take longer to dry than just fleece) just leaving things outside to 'air' for a day and then finishing the drying inside really helped get rid of the smell.

 

[Diane Owen]

I have 4 boars in my living room living in 2 pairs. I use vetbed over newspapers and puppy pads, small fleece pads in the wee corners which can be easily removed if wet . The only smells I notice are hay and fresh poop. I poop pick twice a day. I change the vet bed every 3-4 days depending on the weather, sometimes once a week if they have spent most of the day in outside runs. I change any wet newspaper and puppy pads daily. They have hay boxes to burrow, eat, wee, poop, sleep in, these are lined with puppy pads and newspaper, the hay is topped up daily and if wet changed daily although sometimes I get away with 2 days. I sometimes get a urine smell from a hay box if the newspaper has got wet but that's easy to remedy.
As rome-italy says it could be something you are feeding your boars making their urine smell more (possibly kale/cabbage type veg?). I've noticed mine get smelly wind if fed green leafy veg or they've had lots of grass.

I'm suffering exactly like you did you find a solution?

 

[piggieminder]

I think I've cut the smells down as much as I'm going to, to be honest it doesn't bother me. It's a case of love me love my smelly boars or don't visit!

 

[Piggy mum]

Maybe the hay you're using in the box is smelling when they wee on it? When I was using the P@H hay it stunk when they peed on it. Also when my 3 boys start to stink I sometimes find giving them a bum bath helps because their bits get a bit stinky!