The smell oh the smell 😷

E

emilovely1

New Born Pup
Joined
Jan 30, 2024
Messages
37
Reaction score
31
Points
155
Location
Pennsylvania
Yall I CANNOT with the stink these furry boys have. I clean their cage every other day but literally in an hour it stinks again. Tips and tricks for a less smelly room would be helpful. Is there certain bedding I should be using? I have pee pads down and fleece blankets, which tend to get moved around anyways when they are rambunctious. So you recommend daily emptying out the old hay? Money saving ideas would be best too. If they are litter trained does it help? How does one even do that? But seriously I NEED HELP!
Added a photo of their cuteness to show off
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7291.webp
    IMG_7291.webp
    25.9 KB · Views: 6
Vinegar! It works wonders!
Wipe down the hardware in the cage (plastic hideys, tunnels and even the plastic floor of the cage) with a little white vinegar to get rid of the bacteria causing odor.
I would also defiantly change the hay daily. Dirty hay will attract bugs and nasties. It also soaks up the pee and ends up making the cage stink.
Basically, if you spot clean regularly and use vinegar to wipe down things every now and then, the smell will be kept to a minimum.
 
The main issue is likely that you are cleaning too much - you can’t really do that with boys, particularly as yours are young/coming up to teen boys.
Obviously you need to make sure the cage is dry and that you poop pick the cage each day but otherwise doing too much too often (of bedding changing) can make things worse.
The more you clean, the more they will scent mark again, the more it will smell.
Changing bedding too often is a new territory change for them which can cause a new round of dominance.
Changing out half the bedding at a time and wiping the clean bedding with soiled bedding to transfer some scent can help them not feel the need to scent mark so much.
But, teen boys are a bit of a testosterone filled delight and it can get a bit…..fragrant!
Make sure the air the room each day.

What absorbent layer do you use under the fleece?

Piggies cannot be litter trained - they are going to pee and poop everywhere - but yes you do need to remove wet hay each day.

What do you require money saving ideas with? If you mean hay wastage, then there is no thing as wasted hay! Any hay which is thrown loose in the cage which they can play in, run through, pee on, of course eat, is not wasted. Theyve has their fun and usage of it. You are going to throw a lot of hay away though.

As mine live in my shed, I have to use disposable bedding and hay. I have four boys. There is the odd time when I can go in there and the shed is filled with testosterone but usually it’s fine and smells don’t seem to stick to disposable bedding quite so much. Wet areas of bedding and hay are removed every day but a full cage clean is once a week.
 
I found when my boys were young they scent marked alot. The more I cleaned the more they had to claim their kingdom back. I started spot cleaning. I found the odour awful too but as they grew older they did not scent mark as much. I found spot cleaning helped as they did not have to re-stink everything🤣
 
Zorro1 said:
Vinegar! It works wonders!
Wipe down the hardware in the cage (plastic hideys, tunnels and even the plastic floor of the cage) with a little white vinegar to get rid of the bacteria causing odor.
I would also defiantly change the hay daily. Dirty hay will attract bugs and nasties. It also soaks up the pee and ends up making the cage stink.
Basically, if you spot clean regularly and use vinegar to wipe down things every now and then, the smell will be kept to a minimum.
Click to expand...
Oh I have been using vinegar and water for cleaning since I got them haahaa. It’s just the stink is so bad. I will definitely start spot cleaning now. If it helps with the smell I’ll do anything
 
Vinegar really helps get rid of the smell, but I forgot about the fact that boars will scent mark when the cage is "too clean"....
as @Piggies&buns pointed out.
Piggies&buns said:
The main issue is likely that you are cleaning too much - you can’t really do that with boys, particularly as yours are young/coming up to teen boys.
Obviously you need to make sure the cage is dry and that you poop pick the cage each day but otherwise doing too much too often (of bedding changing) can make things worse.
The more you clean, the more they will scent mark again, the more it will smell.
Changing bedding too often is a new territory change for them which can cause a new round of dominance.
Changing out half the bedding at a time and wiping the clean bedding with soiled bedding to transfer some scent can help them not feel the need to scent mark so much.
But, teen boys are a bit of a testosterone filled delight and it can get a bit…..fragrant!
Make sure the air the room each day.

What absorbent layer do you use under the fleece?

Piggies cannot be litter trained - they are going to pee and poop everywhere - but yes you do need to remove wet hay each day.

What do you require money saving ideas with? If you mean hay wastage, then there is no thing as wasted hay! Any hay which is thrown loose in the cage which they can play in, run through, pee on, of course eat, is not wasted. Theyve has their fun and usage of it. You are going to throw a lot of hay away though.

As mine live in my shed, I have to use disposable bedding and hay. I have four boys. There is the odd time when I can go in there and the shed is filled with testosterone but usually it’s fine and smells don’t seem to stick to disposable bedding quite so much. Wet areas of bedding and hay are removed every day but a full cage clean is once a week.
Click to expand...
 
Piggies&buns said:
The main issue is likely that you are cleaning too much - you can’t really do that with boys, particularly as yours are young/coming up to teen boys.
Obviously you need to make sure the cage is dry and that you poop pick the cage each day but otherwise doing too much too often (of bedding changing) can make things worse.
The more you clean, the more they will scent mark again, the more it will smell.
Changing bedding too often is a new territory change for them which can cause a new round of dominance.
Changing out half the bedding at a time and wiping the clean bedding with soiled bedding to transfer some scent can help them not feel the need to scent mark so much.
But, teen boys are a bit of a testosterone filled delight and it can get a bit…..fragrant!
Make sure the air the room each day.

What absorbent layer do you use under the fleece?

Piggies cannot be litter trained - they are going to pee and poop everywhere - but yes you do need to remove wet hay each day.

What do you require money saving ideas with? If you mean hay wastage, then there is no thing as wasted hay! Any hay which is thrown loose in the cage which they can play in, run through, pee on, of course eat, is not wasted. Theyve has their fun and usage of it. You are going to throw a lot of hay away though.

As mine live in my shed, I have to use disposable bedding and hay. I have four boys. There is the odd time when I can go in there and the shed is filled with testosterone but usually it’s fine and smells don’t seem to stick to disposable bedding quite so much. Wet areas of bedding and hay are removed every day but a full cage clean is once a week.
Click to expand...
Really every other day is too much? Here I was thinking it wasn’t enough cuz it’s so bad. I use pee pads underneath their fleece blankets. But they are wild sometimes so it’s always moved around and sometimes they are just on the actual bottom of the cage. I will definitely start removing the wet hay daily if it helps. I know they poo and pee A LOT so that’s definitely a contributing factor. I wish they were like cats and you can just litter train them, life would be so much easier. By money saving I just meant like cleaning supplies and stuff like to clean out the cage. I know they LOVE their hay, I replenish that a lot. Do you think that when I give them more I should take out the old stuff, not that there’s a whole lot but it gets so spread across the cage.
 
Jelly/Jam said:
I found when my boys were young they scent marked alot. The more I cleaned the more they had to claim their kingdom back. I started spot cleaning. I found the odour awful too but as they grew older they did not scent mark as much. I found spot cleaning helped as they did not have to re-stink everything🤣
Click to expand...
Oh gosh I really never knew you could clean “too much” with them. Here I’m thinking every other day is not enough 🤣 I’m new to this world so I’m still learning. I guess it’s like male dogs when marking their territory. I will def start spot cleaning and not do a huge clean every other day. I’m just over the smell haaha. I love them but boy I do not love the stink. They are in my room and it’s not a huge room so the smell is stuck in a small space. I can’t wait for it to start warming up outside so I can leave my windows open.
 
emilovely1 said:
Really every other day is too much? Here I was thinking it wasn’t enough cuz it’s so bad. I use pee pads underneath their fleece blankets. But they are wild sometimes so it’s always moved around and sometimes they are just on the actual bottom of the cage. I will definitely start removing the wet hay daily if it helps. I know they poo and pee A LOT so that’s definitely a contributing factor. I wish they were like cats and you can just litter train them, life would be so much easier. By money saving I just meant like cleaning supplies and stuff like to clean out the cage. I know they LOVE their hay, I replenish that a lot. Do you think that when I give them more I should take out the old stuff, not that there’s a whole lot but it gets so spread across the cage.
Click to expand...

If you are removing fleece then yes every other day could be too much and causing them to scent mark even more. Boars need to feel they are still in their territory and by removing their smell too much you make it worse for them.

I use F10 as a cleaner. It’s a vet grade disinfectant and I buy it as a concentrate from amazon. It’s an initial outlay but given a bottle of concentrate has lasted me well over a year it doesn’t work out expensive at all.

I remove hay which is wet but leave the rest in until the next cage clean.
 
The F10 as a cleaner on what items pls. I use vinegar? I have now read the furtatoes hate vinegar☹️Does it clean pee and poop spots and does it freshen? I will get some if so. Thanks for the info. Is it safe for fogs and cats too? My senior golden retriever had diahrrea on the rug today😢Can it be used on carpet?
 
Jelly/Jam said:
The F10 as a cleaner on what items pls. I use vinegar? I have now read the furtatoes hate vinegar☹️Does it clean pee and poop spots and does it freshen? I will get some if so. Thanks for the info. Is it safe for fogs and cats too? My senior golden retriever had diahrrea on the rug today😢Can it be used on carpet?
Click to expand...

I use F10 to clean the hard surfaces including the wood of their hutches.

It’s a disinfectant but there is a version with a detergent in it as well - f10 scxd is the detergent version.

Yes it’s safe, it’s a vet grade disinfectant.

I’m not sure about using it on carpet
 
I have just had to deal with boar stink again as I moved house. The boys have had 2 new cage set ups to deal with so I expected it and set aside some slightly soiled fleeces to put in the new cage and then the new penthouse.
After advice from this forum I started doing half and half fleece changing when they were young and it works. If you use a cage sized main fleece, get some small ones, bath mats or pee pads that you can put in to retain some scent when the main one is clean.
 
Piggies&buns said:
The main issue is likely that you are cleaning too much - you can’t really do that with boys, particularly as yours are young/coming up to teen boys.
Obviously you need to make sure the cage is dry and that you poop pick the cage each day but otherwise doing too much too often (of bedding changing) can make things worse.
The more you clean, the more they will scent mark again, the more it will smell.
Changing bedding too often is a new territory change for them which can cause a new round of dominance.
Changing out half the bedding at a time and wiping the clean bedding with soiled bedding to transfer some scent can help them not feel the need to scent mark so much.
But, teen boys are a bit of a testosterone filled delight and it can get a bit…..fragrant!
Make sure the air the room each day.

What absorbent layer do you use under the fleece?

Piggies cannot be litter trained - they are going to pee and poop everywhere - but yes you do need to remove wet hay each day.

What do you require money saving ideas with? If you mean hay wastage, then there is no thing as wasted hay! Any hay which is thrown loose in the cage which they can play in, run through, pee on, of course eat, is not wasted. Theyve has their fun and usage of it. You are going to throw a lot of hay away though.

As mine live in my shed, I have to use disposable bedding and hay. I have four boys. There is the odd time when I can go in there and the shed is filled with testosterone but usually it’s fine and smells don’t seem to stick to disposable bedding quite so much. Wet areas of bedding and hay are removed every day but a full cage clean is once a week.
Click to expand...
I noticed the smell last week when I was cleaning the cage and they literally marked their territory as soon as I put them back in the cage . Oh boy that was definitely not a smell I was expecting, whew it was so bad I thought they had diarrhea or something 😷 I made sure to keep back when returning them to the cage after that hahahah
 
emilovely1 said:
I noticed the smell last week when I was cleaning the cage and they literally marked their territory as soon as I put them back in the cage . Oh boy that was definitely not a smell I was expecting, whew it was so bad I thought they had diarrhea or something 😷 I made sure to keep back when returning them to the cage after that hahahah
Click to expand...

Yes they will mark as soon as they go back in. Try not to clean the whole cage in one go as it’ll make them mark even more - just change out half the cage at a time. They are still going to mark but because the cage still smells of them on the area that hasn’t been changed, they shouldn’t need to do it so much
 
Their poops really smell after about a week, so if you can get all or most of them out while daily spot cleaning, it helps alot. They might have some poop stuck in their boar pocket ❤️ It's good to take them for a vet or nurse check up once in a while and they can show you how to help keep them clean there, but young piggies are less likely to have stuff collected there. Still, a check up won't do any harm.
 
When I had boars they never had any poop stuck in their "boar pocket". I had boars for around 5 years initially with Lenny and Gizmo then when I started with guinea pigs I had Dennis and Christian for around 4 and a half years.
 
I have 4 boars, 2 neutered and 2 intact. I never have a problem with any odour. The most odour causing things I can think of is hay. When they pee on hay it soaks in and smell bad. I used a tray with substrate then put hay on top. Wet hay removed twice a day, litter is every other day. Poo pick 2-3 times daily. Wipe down with white vinegar and add a splash into the washing machine when washing fleece. Air purifiers help. Also, how old are your boys. During the 'teen years' they're are more odorous.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top