Guinea Emergency

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cookiewinter

cookiewinter

Junior Guinea Pig
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Ok so the two guineas I rescued are doing amazing in every way.. But their cage isn't. We built a wooden 2.5 story cage. I had thought everything would be great but the volume of waste from these two critters is insane.. I clean the cage every morning and deoderise it with a pet safe spray. The waste has started seaping through the bottom of the cage.. Am I over feeding them or do they just literally go every 2 seconds? It just seems a little much for 2 little guineas. I've done everything and followed the posts on the forum and advice as close as possible but I'm finding it slightly overwhelming.. Help?!
 
cookiewinter said:
Ok so the two guineas I rescued are doing amazing in every way.. But their cage isn't. We built a wooden 2.5 story cage. I had thought everything would be great but the volume of waste from these two critters is insane.. I clean the cage every morning and deoderise it with a pet safe spray. The waste has started seaping through the bottom of the cage.. Am I over feeding them or do they just literally go every 2 seconds? It just seems a little much for 2 little guineas. I've done everything and followed the posts on the forum and advice as close as possible but I'm finding it slightly overwhelming.. Help?!
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Is the base wooden? If so this is the problem! If not, it could be the bedding you're using. I use a layer of newspaper with woodshavings ontop, and then hay and I find this absorbent enough to last half a week easily with a hay change in-between :)
 
LydiaMinx said:
Is the base wooden? If so this is the problem! If not, it could be the bedding you're using. I use a layer of newspaper with woodshavings ontop, and then hay and I find this absorbent enough to last half a week easily with a hay change in-between :)
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The base is wooden because I wasn't able to find anything plastic.. Aside from petstore cages
 
It
LydiaMinx said:
I see! If you could get your hands on some Correx you could line the bottom with that, that would make your life a lot easier I imagine :)
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It's creeping up the walls of the cage.. They go in the corners not just the floor so when it builds even a little it soaks in the wall
 
cookiewinter said:
It


It's creeping up the walls of the cage.. They go in the corners not just the floor so when it builds even a little it soaks in the wall
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Oh crud, well again if you get some correx you could cut it to size like a C&C cage so it has sides to stop it seeping. I'm sorry I can't be of more help :(
 
You would possibly even cut the correx so it covers the walls too which will mean the pigs aren't near the parts that the mess has been seeping up. Even a double sided tape would keep it up! At the moment a base of a few old towels might help until you can get plastic x
 
cookiewinter said:
It's creeping up the walls of the cage.. They go in the corners not just the floor so when it builds even a little it soaks in the wall
Click to expand...

This will happen if urine comes into contact directly with wood. I used to have a wooden hutch for my boys. I would line any wooden floor with waterproof terry towelling mattress protector & then use vetbed on top. The vetbed would wick theurine down to the mattress protector below. As the mattress protector had a PVC back it would not reach the wood below. By ensuring mattress protector & vetbed were about 2 inches wider than the floor, the fabric would extend up the walls a bit preventing any seepage upwards. I would then just poop pickup every day & wash the mattress protector & vetbed once a week. I had that hutch for 2 years with no problems.
 
But I have two stories..that being said, there are ramps and and a hole in the top floor to work around... I'm just really complicating things for myself
 
cookiewinter said:
But I have two stories..that being said, there are ramps and and a hole in the top floor to work around... I'm just really complicating things for myself
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This is the hutch I had

Vetbed & mattress protectors are easy to cut to the size you want. In the photo I used a strip of mattress protector for the ramp, both for the urine & to give them a grip. Later on though, I ended up buying a fleece ramp tunnel.
 
You need to line the wood or will go very disgusting and eventually d mouldy. Lino or a cut-to-size tray of coroplast/correx will do, both of which you then can easily wipe and keep clean. You can find cheap offcuts of lino in a carpet shop. Coroplast you can either source locally in sign shops (it is mainly used for shop signs) or order over the internet. Both lino and coroplast can be cut to size with stanley knife, so it can be adapted around your hole in the floor.

As guinea pigs are geared to mainly live off nutrient poor grass and hay (which should make up to 80% of their daily food intake), they need to eat a comparatively larger amount of food and have a very active and fast metabolism which amounts to quite an impressive output!
 
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