It's Taken A Year - But Think I Have Finally Got Into A Routine!

4pigs&counting

4pigs&counting

Junior Guinea Pig
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I got my first piggies about a year ago and now have 4 (plus 2 rabbits). I have made quite a lot of changes in the way I do things as I have gone along and now think I have a pretty efficient routine and setup which is as follows - hopefully this will help other people but maybe it can be improved?
  • Adjacent cages on raised cupboard (storage underneath)
  • Fly netting covering entire cage (this has been a revelation - don't worry so much about flystrike now!)
  • 2-3 layers of paper in the bottom of the cage (I always pick up a free paper when I see one and always buy a Sunday paper as the larger pages are better!) - the whole lot can be rolled up in a matter of seconds!
  • A relatively deep layer of Aubiose on top of the paper (enough to allow for soiled bedding to be removed without the paper becoming exposed)
  • Fresh veggies first every morning
  • Hay about an hour or so later
  • I do a thorough poo pick up and spot clean and shake up the aubiose every evening (can top up if needed)
  • Top up hay and nuggets and change water each evening
  • Whole cage clean every 5-7 days (F10 disinfect every 3rd clean or so)
  • When I take out the dirty paper and bedding I drop it into a big bag for life - this makes it easy to separate the paper from the waste so that everything can be recyled/composted appropriately
Would anyone like to share their time saving/labour saving tips too?:)
 
My routine changes with the seasons and day to day with the weather depending if the piggys can go outside in their runs or not. We are now adjusting to winter routine and indoor floor time. I use vet bed so when I clean them out I fold it up into a parcel, take it outside and shake it over the veg plot. If only doing a quick poop pick it goes into a bucket and gets tipped on the garden or into the compost heap. I use large plastic underbed storage boxes and cat littler trays for hay, these are lined with puppy pads so I just roll everything up into the pad and shake it in the compost.
 
C and c cage on tables. Shake out the fleece liners every morning and put any damp ones out to be washed. Hoover cage to get rid of every poo!

Wipe cage with warm water and sometimes vinegar or disinfectent (pet safe).

Lots of fresh hand picked grass and hay throughout the day.

Change litter trays every other day (hemp bedding and hay hay hay).

Give them a handful of pellets between the three of them scattered round the cage before bed.

They get fresh veg during lap time and when they go back into the cage afterwards.

I found newspaper just held the wee so dont use it now.

Love cage liners (fleece zorb fleece or fleece matteess protector fleece). Dont putnanything under them but have mini liners under their beds which get changed if wet.

The bigger the cage the easier it is to keep clean. My 3 have two hay tray areas, one each end of the cage. It is 10 x 2 grids.

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I spot clean twice a day as it just seems like less to clean up and takes less time. It used to be only at night before bed but I found myself being so tired that spot cleaning felt like it took over an hour when it was only 15mins. I'm lucky patchy and coco are quite tidy except last night, OMG the mess! Something I am really OCD about is pee pads, I have made about 20 odd because they must be changed daily or sometimes twice daily as patchy is a soaker when she pee's and I don't like the idea of them sitting on wet pee pads.

I think the best thing I have ever changed since getting the piggies is using hay bags to put their hay in as it has reduced the amount of hay getting pee'd on and has kept the hay mess mostly just to one area because when I used to use a bowl I would often find it had been pee'd in and hay tossed out of the bowl and dragged away into their hideys.
 
Sounds brilliant! It always takes time to figure out what works and what doesn't. My time saving tip is to weigh out the food for each day in to little bags at the start of the week. Means I don't have to faff around twice a day sorting out their food. :)
 
Will veggies stay fresh cut up ahead of time?
Cuddles With Cavies said:
Sounds brilliant! It always takes time to figure out what works and what doesn't. My time saving tip is to weigh out the food for each day in to little bags at the start of the week. Means I don't have to faff around twice a day sorting out their food. :)
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We had a pet sitter in for a few days once and I pre-cut all the veggies to make it easier for them - big mistake as they went off very quickly once cut!
 
As an addition - I have recently added a shallow cat litter tray which I line with paper to fill with hay - this has worked very well as they tend to just wee in the tray and it can be changed very quickly and easily! :)
 
We only got our piggys last thursday (our first ones) this is a picture of their setup, it is good to hear peoples routines
at the moment we are changing their hay at 8am along with a little fresh veg, dry food and sweep up all of the poop (and change puppy training pads under their hideaways) then at night before going to bed they get fresh veg snack and another sweep of poop. So far so good, as you can see i have gone for fleece (i own a fabric shop so it made sense lol) under the fleece i have puppy training pads i have made it so that i can change the corners and under their hideaways daily. At one end i have an old hamster cage in this i put wood pellets litter and on top their hay which i change daily and will change the pellets once a week and i am planning on washing and changing fleece once a week. As i said i am a newbie at this so if anything wrong please tell me! So far they have settled in very well :)
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I find that the Moor often I clean my cages the less time it takes, vet beds especially! I used to clean cages every 4 to 5 days but it was a chore! Since I have been doing them every 2 to 3 days every thing is so much easier
 
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