What Do You Clean Your Cage With?

[GeorgesHuman]

I have my boys in a hutch, but they live indoors. I have three lovely, but very messy, stinky boars. If I have cleaned them in the morning before I go to work, I can guarantee there are more than a hundred poops. They wee a lot too.

I spot clean their poo daily, but do a thorough clean cage every three days, firstly scooping up any debris with a dustpan and brush, and then wiping the floors of the hutch with a wet sponge and mild shampoo/pot liquid in warm water. The smell of wee is quite overpowering sometimes though, and no matter how hard I scrub, it always lingers a little!

So, please fellow slaves to the guinea pig species, tell me what you use to clean the cage and if it's any good, and also the price.

Thanks so much!

Anna and the very naughty, stinky and pooopy, but utterly adorable boys...Elliot, Oscar and Charlie! x

 

[MushiiPeas]

I use my little friends disinfectant as you can pick it up in the supermarkets.

it's pretty cheap £3 a bottle and it's lasts months.

They smell is quite strong so I make sure the window is open and it's dry before putting the bedding in, but it works great and gets all the muck off but i have plastic bottoms to my cages.

Could you put some off cuts off lino down on the bottom of the hutch to stop it getting wet?

 

[Lolly]

What have you got on the floor of the hutch? Mine are in a hutch but outdoors so they have a layer of newspaper, puppy pads and then Fitch bedding. The Fitch absorbs the wee so I remove the soggy bit and poo in the morning and put a bit more fresh down. The areas they wee in most I put an extra strip of puppy pad so I can just lift that with the Fitch every other day and replace it with a fresh bit without having to do the whole hutch. The floor of the hutch is dry then as the puppy pads absorb what the Fitch doesn't. We also have vinyl tiles on the floor and up the walls to stop the wood absorbing the wee.

We have a big clean out and disinfect once a week and I use F10 disinfectant on the whole inside of the hutch and I spray their hidey and wooden bridge. I got the F10 from the Vet UK site as it was the cheapest, it comes in 100ml bottles but you only need 2-4ml per litre of water so I just make it up as I need it and put some in a spray bottle. This is the disinfectant vets use and is anti fungal as well as anti bacterial etc.

 

[MyGuineaPigPals]

I would imagine once the pee soaks I to the wood of the hutch the smell will stay forever so I use plastic correx c&c lots of newspaper and bedding and I clean with hot water a brush to scrub and normal cage disinfectants

 

[Chief Guinea Pig]

We use this. The smell is nice (for a change!) and find it disinfects well.

It is a johnsons brand. Small animal clean and safe disinfectant.

 

[Harry&lloyd]

I use a vinegar/water solution in a spray bottle first which helps with pee stains & smells, wipe off then use the Johnson's clean & safe disinfectant, leave for about 15 mins and wipe off again. Vinegar is great for getting of smells

 

[Wiebke]

I use formula h concentrate (considering the number of piggies I have), warm vinegar/water mix for getting rid of the build up of stains in the trays and F10 antifungal/antibacterial disinfectant every now and then.

 

[aimzer]

I use formula h concentrate (considering the number of piggies I have), warm vinegar/water mix for getting rid of the build up of stains in the trays and F10 antifungal/antibacterial disinfectant every now and then.

Wiebke, would the vinegar/water mix get rid of stains on the plastic base of a cage? And how much of each do you use? also, would the piggies not smell the vinegar? thanks!

 

[sport_billy]

We use this. The smell is nice (for a change!) and find it disinfects well.

It is a johnsons brand. Small animal clean and safe disinfectant.

We used this for years too, very happy with it. After a fungal outbreak we switched to F10 spray and a are also pleased with that