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Guineapigs indoors very smelly!

flowerfairy

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I have just moved my five guinea pigs indoors and they smell so bad. They are on fleece which I change every couple of days.

I have four sows and a neutered boar in a 6 and a half x 2 c and c cage on ikea tables. I hope to expand it a bit when I change the room around.

I cant understand why the small (wee I think) is so bad. Would aubiose or similar help with odour controll?P_20201009_163344.jpgP_20201009_163348.jpgP_20201009_163354.jpg
 
Guinea pigs shouldn't smell very much at all, although boars (and maybe sows too?) do scent mark especially after cage cleans. It may help to leave unwashed cosies/ soiled hay in the cage after a clean so it still smells like them. Changing the fleece less often can actually help reduce smells as they don't feel the need to scent mark quite as much. Adding adsorbent pads in high traffic areas and changing those often instead can help too.

Though if the smell is really bad that won't be happening for no reason. A more experienced member should be able to give you an idea of what could be causing such a smell if it's not just scent marking.

I hope this helps 🙂
 
I change the fleece under the beds every couple of days cos they get wet. The main cage area has fleece liners in for a few days. Their hay trays have newspaper in and a hay rack for the posh hay.

Scent marking is a good point. It is embarassing to have such smelly pets. Makes me look like a bad carer.
 
Does it smell like wee, stale hay (that’s been wee’d on) or a different smell? It may be the boar scent marking.
 
Some days mine stink for no apparent reason but generally they are fine. It does seem that there are a lot of piggies in a relatively small space though which might be your issue?
 
Don’t forget that changing their home can get them scent marking galore. So multiplied by 5 scent glands that could be the reason. For the next couple of days could you try changing some but not all areas daily? By leaving some of their scent marked bedding it may discourage extra scent marking.
Or has someone got the start of a UTI perhaps?
 
Scent marking hmm I really hope it is that. Uti noooo but will keep watching and sniffing!

They only have high traffic areas cleaned daily which includes under beds and hay trays this still leaves the rest of the space with familiar scents in.

Thank you all for the ideas. Will work on extending their space too. They had 11 x 2 in the other room but we need it now so they have a smaller room ...
 
I change the fleece under the beds every couple of days cos they get wet. The main cage area has fleece liners in for a few days. Their hay trays have newspaper in and a hay rack for the posh hay.

Scent marking is a good point. It is embarassing to have such smelly pets. Makes me look like a bad carer.
You are NOT a bad carer.
Some guinea pigs are just smellier than others, and hopefully it will settle down with time as they adjust to their new space and surroundings.
I find newspaper does get quite smelly when wet so maybe try a more absorbent bedding in their hay trays?
 
Thank you for your positive comment Swissgreys. I will give it a few days to calm down and then try some other hay tray substrate. I do clean the hay tray out daily so hardly any wet newspaper stays around.

I also have 4 mice and they smell whatever you do! They are brilliant and entertaining though.
 
Yes I also was thinking this could well be scent marking their new territory! And if they've been outdoors for a while you might just have forgotten that welcoming pong of a room full of cute little pee and poop machines busy turning hay into poops and spraying pee at each other :)
Hopefully they will settle, some days my lot like to work up a good hormonal pee smell, and the worst smell is always after I've soaked and scrubbed everything with vinegar to get the pee residue off, they like to get that back as fast as they can!
 
That's good! Hopefully now things are calming down now they don't feel the need to scent mark so much
 
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