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Smelly fleece :/

cavycorner

Junior Guinea Pig
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Nov 6, 2019
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After switching to fleece it’s so far been cost effective, clean and neat. However, after only two days a urine smell has taken over my room. I made the cage liners myself, with a mattress topper in the middle of 2 fleece sheets. I spot clean daily, and I have pads for high traffic areas but only recently put them in after seeing their wee leak through. I also picked up one of my pigs and she smelt quite strongly of urine. I’m doing a full cage clean tomorrow and washing the fleece with just water and vinegar as the smell may be because of detergent build up? (I washed the fleece in liquid detergent while wicking every time so would that be a possible reason?) any odor control tips would be appreciated, as I am quite hopeful for keeping fleece and not switching back to substrate.
 
Is there anything under the fleece which absorbs the urine? And if it’s disposable, how often do you change it?

The only time I really notice the urine smell with mine is if I leave their hay area for a long time without changing. What is their hay on and is it changed regularly?

A tip for washing is to use vinegar in place of conditioner. And do a wash on a higher temp maybe once a month.
 
Is there anything under the fleece which absorbs the urine? And if it’s disposable, how often do you change it?

The only time I really notice the urine smell with mine is if I leave their hay area for a long time without changing. What is their hay on and is it changed regularly?

A tip for washing is to use vinegar in place of conditioner. And do a wash on a higher temp maybe once a month.
I have sewn a mattress topper in between the fleece, and also am starting to lay down newspaper and towels. Their hay is contained in a hay rack so they can’t get on it. I think I might need to make my cage a bit bigger so they don’t just saturate a specific spot. I’ve heard of baking soda in between layers helps neutralise the smell, do you know of that?
 
I use fleece on top of incontinence pads so the pads absorb the urine. They do smell if I leave them more than 2 days so I wash them every other day.

I wash the fleece at 60 degrees with a non-bio detergent, which gets them thoroughly clean and fresh smelling.
 
I recently bought Guinea Dad fleece liners from the US and they are AWESOME! I have 4 very young female piggies and I wash up the liners every 5 days. No smell problem at all doing this. I use hypo allergenic pods for the wash with 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar every wash. And dry these on very low heat...2 cycles. Hope this helps. 😁
 
I read on here about scent marking when it’s too clean which makes sense. Again for me it’s the hay that gets whiffy as they have a tray. I spot clean daily and full change weekly and it works fine. I’m not a fan of washing liquid full stop though so I just use whatever powder is cheapest with occasional vinegar rinses. In my cloth nappy days the people using liquid tended to talk about issues more.
 
I’ve not heard of using baking soda. To be honest I’m not sure that would be a good idea. Remember the particles are very fine so they could possibly inhale it.

I’m not sure about towels to be honest, I think they smell a lot more quickly than, say, inco pads. How often do you change the newspaper? Is it soaked after one day? Remember they’ll mostly pee where they eat, so you may have to clean that area more regularly.

When you say the wee leaks through, what do you mean?

Scent marking is also another factor I’m afraid 😁
 
If your guinea pig smells of wee as well as the bedding, maybe they have an infection? Might be worth getting it checked out at the vets.
 
My piggies use their hay trays as their bathrooms. I also use puppy pee pads under the fleece and throw them out after changing. I use both Carefree paper bedding and fleece.
Smell has never been an issue when they stay in the great living room BUT, I moved them for the winter to a smaller and cozier room because I thought they would be warmer. When I change their hay trays/bathrooms frequently, there is no issue with smell even in the small, cozy room they currently stay. They will move back out to the great living room in the spring though.

Below is my boy Finn's personal hay tray/bathroom. Lara has one for herself in her cage. I don't mean to brag but my boy Finn uses his bathroom so well. He is 2 years old and has used his bathroom since he was a baby. Bless him, love you boy.
IMG_4734.jpg
 
I use Halo sportswear detergent (a tip from someone on here). It's a specialist anti-bacterial detergent and there's no smell. It's so good I wash my clothes with the fleece (in a horse bag). It even works at low temperatures.
 
I have recently switched from the dark side also lol🤣🤣
I use puppy pads with a towel on top and the fleece on that,I have a hay litter tray.
It has been a week and a half now since I switched,I bought 2 fleece blankets and a noodle bath mat,I changed their bed after a week,the puppy pads were still nearly dry,I changed the towel,and the noodle mat which was also still dry,and replaced with fleece...I think I might get another noodle mat as the fleece doesn't seem to be as absorbent as the mat.
The only thing I find that smells quickly is my litter tray,I have to change it twice a day..which I spose means they are using it often and not peeing in their beds lol.but is wasting quite a lot of hay😫
 
I got some white vinegar today but I think I bought the wrong one...it says white distilled malt vinegar
Should I have just got white distilled vinegar?
Thanks
 
I got some white vinegar today but I think I bought the wrong one...it says white distilled malt vinegar
Should I have just got white distilled vinegar?
Thanks
It's the same thing really just different labelling by the different brands.
 
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