Cleaning out a piggies cage is probably the worst thing about owning guinea pigs but one of the most necessary.
The times I go to clean out my piggies cage and it is the last thing I want to do and I think of a hours and other things that I’d rather do.
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However in terms of looking after them well it is vital that I do this, so this spurs me on to do it.
You may notice that guinea pigs tend to poop and pee a lot.
When I first stopped using shavings in my guinea pigs cage, after realising the health problems they cause them, I was shocked at how sodden the newspaper would get after a few days.
At first I thought this might just be a leak in the hutch roof of something, but I realised that actually they do pee an awful lot.
I knew they pooped a great deal but pee tends to be absorbed by shavings.
This meant that cleaning out the cage became more imperative and by cleaning out the cage I mean cleaning out the hay, newspaper and poop and replacing it with fresh material.
Another factor was that the more piggies I had the more frequently I needed to clean it out. At present we have four guinea pigs and they need cleaning out thoroughly ever two days to keep their cage in a good state.
However when we only had one guinea pig we used to clean them out weekly. But as we have added more, cleaning the cage has had to become more frequent and so we have had to clean it out more often.
So we basically decreased the amount of days between cleaning out the cage and the way that we gauged it is that;
One guinea pig needed cleaning out weekly.
Two Guinea pigs needed cleaning out every four days.
Four guinea pigs need cleaning out every two days.
Any more than four guinea pigs and I would do it once a day as there is just too much poop and pee in the cage for my liking.
By doing this frequently, it keeps the cage nice and fresh for them and when they have fresh hay and newspaper laid down for them, I always find that our piggies really appreciate it which is why I try and do it every other day for them.
The cost has gone up because we now have four guinea pigs, but to be honest meadow hay is really cheap and I really don’t mind buying lots of it for our piggies. They really enjoy sitting on it and eating it.
I will still give it a deep clean once a month with disinfectant which involves taking them out of the cage and cleaning it out thoroughly.
This is the method which works well for us. You may find a method that works for you and your guinea pigs, but this is a tried and tested method which works well and you are welcome to try it.
I use fleece for my piggies, . I used to use newspaper then shavings or sawdust but it was smelly and messy,
Now what I do is use a hand hoover to clean up the poops twice a day, The fleece is doubled over and absorbs a lot of pee and dries quickly. The cage is a home made six feet long by two feet wide, so the size of fleece I use is 75 x 100 cm doubled over a bit lengthwise to fit, I have about 8 fleeces in total, I change the fleece every three days and put a clean one in, Once I have a bundle and running out I put through a mild wash and they dry very quickly.
My piggies love their cuddly fleeces, they are in nice bright designs too, I also supply plenty wee cosy houses, tunnels, plenty hay and green veg every day too, they are happy and so am I
Cleaning them out isn’t so much a chore now, and once every fortnight the cage gets a really thorough clean, but I find hovering the poops up twice daily keeps them nice and clean and fresh and
My guinea pig used to need his cage cleaned once a week, now it’s once a day! He is peeing so much that the entire cage is soaked within a day. I use cedar shavings but it isn’t absorbing. Is this abnormal?
I have a little boy whose clean cage is awful the day after I clean him! He is long haired and his fur holds smells. I adopted him from a shelter and he is still a little wild. His older sister was adopted from the same shelter and has chronic gut issues due to a bad reaction to Baytril, but Kali is more snugly.