Advice/experience On Cleaning Out A Large-ish Number Of Guinea Pigs

Danielle Smith

Danielle Smith

Teenage Guinea Pig
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I know many of our fine members here have herds on the larger side, or multiple small herds. I myself have 9 perma-pigs (a pair, a triple, and a quad) and 2 foster pigs. At the minute everyone is on fleece, but there's a problem... the sheer amount I use the washing machine!

Each week I need to wash 6 2x3.5 liners, 2 2x2 liners, multiple 1x1 pee pads, noodle mats, and bits of vet bed, not to mention the cosies (around 8 each week). When I had two pigs they got a full change out twice a week, but I literally do not have enough drying space to do this with 11 pigs so everyone gets cleaned out once a week. This takes 3 stuffed-full loads in the washing machine, each of which take 2 days to dry if I'm lucky.

Each cage has a large hay tray (2x2 correx; or a regular litter box for the foster pigs), filled with wooden pellets -- some herds pee in these a lot, others mostly pee under their IKEA beds (which I move around so no one spot gets completely saturated). By the end of the week, every cage smells very much of urine (I hoover poops and completely replace hay once a day). Pee pads get saturated in a day or two, I replace them every couple days; I'm in the process of making more but I'm pretty sure we'll eventually end up on 4 loads of pig washing a week.

Can people share their whole-cage cleaning routines please? Do you do it all in one day or do a cage a day? Should I just swap to substrate like Aubiose or wood shavings (but then there's the problem of getting rid of the used shavings)? Any tips to cut down on cage cleans (apart from just carpeting the cage with pee pads :)))?

P.S. does anyone dry their liners in the dryer? Aside from shrinkage, I'm worried about getting fur and hay all over my regular clothes (I shake as much off as I can before they are put in the washing machine inside a horse bag, but the liners don't dry in the horse bag when put in the dryer for some reason :hmm:); does all the fur and hay just go into the lint trap or does it stick in the drum?
 
Maybe vet bed with puppy pads underneath would entail less washing... How many 2x3 pieces of vet bed fit in a washing machine I wonder? But then there's the cost of the puppy pads to consider too :hmm:
 
I'm in the same boat as you! I've only got the 5 pigs but I'm beginning to dread cage clean day and it does my back in.

I'm thinking about making my cage (once I remodel it) half fleece and half Carefresh. I already have plenty of hay trays with a pine based litter which really does minimise the mess so that helps.

I've got a post op piggy so I'm trying vet bed and puppy pads underneath for half the cage but I don't know how often I'll need to change it as yet.

I'm trying to balance cost and ease of cleaning (I hate washing and there is SO much with piggy stuff like you say). It's not easy that's for sure!
 
Glad I'm not the only one! Carefresh is meant to be great, but I also worry about the cost, but maybe something like Fitch is a possibility?

I'm also thinking forward, for when I have a petsitter in. At the moment they are happy to hoover the cages once a day and replace the hay, but they (understandably) aren't as thorough as I am, and the pigs suffer for it. Wondering if something like Carefresh/Fitch would last a week with minimal cleaning... or even sawdust, but keep topping up the layers (like the deep litter method for chickens)? This would only be when someone else has to look after them of course!
 
I'm a bit funny about shavings/sawdust if I'm honest, I know lots of people who've kept pigs on it who ended up with reoccurring respiratory issues and a fair amount of bladder issues. It could be a coincidence of course but I wouldn't use it as it's super dusty (even dust extracted) and when I looked after her pigs it always made me cough and sneeze.

I've not had any first hand experience with fitch but that's certainly something I'd consider giving a go! I've had experience with Carefresh for jammies and gerbils I've looked after so I thought I'd try that first.

It's so hard when people look after them, I know the lady who cleaned them out while I was on holiday was baffled by the fleece! As you say, no one can do it as nice as we do :D
 
Yeah, a number of my pigs got a bit wheezy even with Megazorb so as you say shavings aren't ideal. The price of Carefresh/Fitch though, ouch! Worth it if it's not all the time (i.e. only when someone else is looking after them) I suppose.
 
I have a herd of seven guinea pigs. A neutered boar and six sows.

I use fleece under the ikea beds (their chill out zones), with noodle mats under each bed,

Fleece liners under their hay trays

A thin layer of newspaper in the shallow hay trays and

Hemp bedding in the deep hay tray

I shake out all fleece bedding daily and turn it after a couple of days

I change newspaper daily and refresh the hay

They have a large hay rack on one tray, a small one in another and a wicker tunnel full of hay on the third shallow tray (a grow bag tray and two smaller shallow plastic trays).

The base of the cage is lino but is mainly covered in fleece.

I wash 2 loads of fleece a week and have plenty of spares.

I get through about three bin liners full of hay/poop,etc each week.

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The water bottle is standing in a shallow paper lined tray

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Grids removed to get a better pic

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I have a herd of 6 that are on fleece liners in one C&C cage. They have 4 hay trays which are filled with fitch and hay. Underneath the houses they have that don't have a base I put bath mats to soak up urine, they get changed every few days along with the hay trays. The main fleece liner gets chained on a Sunday.
 
i have 26 piggies at present,2 are foster pigs,ive 3 ,6 feet hutches in the shed,i use megazorb with puppypads under the megazorb,and either aubiose,aubichick,flax bedding on top of the megazorb.i clean them all out every seven days and take to the tip.my inside house piggies have puppypads and fitch in the winter,then in spring,summer and autumn,i use fleece liners in two thirds of the c and c cage with a 1/3 megazorb/fitch bedding and hay ,as a foraging area.eg 4 x 2 liner in a 6 x2 c &c cage,rest is fitch,i clean these out once aweek,and have a 10 kg washing machine,and line dry.ive 4 cages inside.it needs me to be organised ! it is like organised chaos ! :))
 
i find in the winter there is too much washing to dry,and to cold outside to hang out.i do not have a tumble dryer.i have two big loads of washing a week of piggie washing,i do use wooden log houses ,and cosies,with pads under them.ive herds with mainly 4 piggies in,each group.lots of trays help,but i found it was just easier to set aside two grids for substrate bedding so a larger area for 4 piggies to use simultanously.
 
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another option maybe a launderette,as you can fit far more washing into one machine,only takes on average half an hour on a warm wash.:)
 
For those of you who have multiple hay-trays (@flowerfairy + @Flutterby), do you throw out all the hay every day or do you just top up? At the minute I'm throwing a lot of hay away and can imagine it would only be worse with multiple hay trays!

I'm currently using a large area of my cage with substrate @eileen, but the pigs don't spend that much time in there for whatever reason (it has loads of hay with forage in, but no log tunnels or houses -- maybe that's where I'm going wrong). Unfortunately we don't have a self-service laundrette in our town, otherwise I'd very much do that. I doubt the full-service place would take all the liners that reek of wee, but I can ask!
 
Danielle, I tumble dry all my fleece liners. I haven't had any shrinkage, and the hay/fur all sticks to the filter, so they come out very clean and soft.
 
I top up, as long as the hay isn't filthy and every few days change the whole tray completely. My pigs are fairly good at eating more hay than wasting it though thankfully.
 
P.s I tumble dry my fleece liners in winter too (on a low heat setting) and they have been fine. In summer they go out on the line in the garden or in the conservatory.
 
i found it did take time for my piggies to adjust to a hay area,i place a 2 x2 fleece forest over the substrate area ,then they all started to use the area.ive hay trays the same as @Flutterby ,but some of my older piggies found it difficult to jump in and out of them.ive used a service wash for my liners on occasions,launderette were fine with this ! they say they get all sorts of washing in,rugby and football kits,work uniforms ! it is a shame you do not have a launderette near by .:soz:
 
Janey said:
Do you think if you left the rim on, it wouldn't be very stable? I was just thinking it might help to keep the hay in a bit more.
Click to expand...

I'm note sure as I just threw the rim away. I think it could make it more difficult to get in and out of though.
 
My washing machine is only a 5kg drum, I can get one 2 x 3 C&C size piece of vetbed in it with 4 or 5 pee pads. The machine will just take 1 piece of vetbed 160cm x 80cm from my other cage. I expect your machine is bigger (most are!) but hope that helps you work out how much you could wash at once.
 
I have four boars, 2 seperated 2 bonded.
I use fleece and hay. Cages spot cleaned daily, turn fleeces every couple of days and fully change weekly.
The hay gets fluffed up and added to daily. They can use this hay for burrowing, sleeping and eating. But I also give them "fancy hay" in a homemade feeder.
In one corner of Al the cages I give them a full fleece folded into a nice bed, this has saved on puppy pads
I would love to toilet train my piggies, but I can't see it happening.
 
CBFD467C-5DAD-48C5-8BC6-9D234A1B88C5.webp 4FC9AC7A-4771-4358-9C05-50BFC58FF934.webp 2C3CE465-1B6D-42CC-99AE-5AFC23649F6D.webp I had my two piggies kind of potty trained to two corners of the cage but now that the 3 babies are here it is a free for all! I use fleece and have a ton of different size extra fleece pads for high traffic areas. I just cleaned out the cage tonight. I love a clean cage, too bad it lasts about 5 minutes! I do a full clean out twice a week and change the extra pads and vacuum poop everyday
 
I change the hay in the hay trays every day. I put the hay racks and the hay tunnel onto the shallow trays so that any stray hay is contained as much as possible.

I do get through a lot of hay. I use soft ings hay for the two small dog bed hay trays and for the underbed storage box hay tray. The wicker tunnel contains much coarser timothy hay which they all LOVE.

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Dog bed hay tray and mini rack in shallow tray

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Primrose rather likes the dog bed hay racks!

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