Eating/cleaning up poos

[herriotfan]

I know from researc that guinea pigs eat poos and this is normal. I also know from research that keeping their 'home' clean is important for their health.
My question is how long do I need to leave poos in the cage for before taking them out?
Sorry if this is a stupid question but it's a bit of a confliction.....:{

 

[Amanda1801]

I know from researc that guinea pigs eat poos and this is normal. I also know from research that keeping their 'home' clean is important for their health.
My question is how long do I need to leave poos in the cage for before taking them out?
Sorry if this is a stupid question but it's a bit of a confliction.....:{

Piggies produce two types of poo - they produce the hard little pellets that you see in their cage, and a second type that are slightly softer. It's these that they eat.

You often won't see them eat them - you may see your piggy bend over quickly and look at it's bottom - it's eating it's poo! The reason they do this, is because their digestive system isn't particularly efficient - it's difficult to digest plant matter. They have a pouch-like part of their intestine called the caecum, where they ferment the plant material to get the nutrition from it. It's poo from here that is re-eaten, so that it can be digested again. Eating what has passed through their digestive system once already is a very important way of them getting all the "good bacteria" that they need.

In short, they have finished with the poo that you see in the cage!

How often you clean them out depends on how dirty they are, the size of the cage, number of piggies in the cage, what bedding you use etc.

Hope that helps!

 

[Toffeewoffee]

Depending on what bedding you use really? I use a thick layer of newspaper then a layer woodshavings/sawdust then a thick layer of russel rabbit soft straw, i clean this out once a week, the poo's get buried under the sraw and wee wicks through to the sawdust and newspaper and it always looks clean and doesn't smell, other than the area under the hay rack which collects hay and where the pigs tend to do most of the weeing and pooing, so i just get a carrier bag and scoop it all up and replace with fresh straw every other day.

If you using wood shavings alone then they will probably need to be cleaned out twice a week or more depending on the size of the cage and number of piggies.

Fleece will need to be changed every other day and poop scooping done a couple of times every day.

So long as the cage is regularly cleaned, the poos wont do them any harm.

 

[Toffeewoffee]

DP

 

[herriotfan]

Thanks. Basically that means I've got it right with what I'm doing! -c