smelly fleece

Status
Not open for further replies.
kteeea

kteeea

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
56
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
staffordshire and/or bedfordshire
so i made the transition for sawdust to fleece a week ago, and although the guinea pigs are lovin' it, me... not so much.

The cage smells within 2-3 days of me changing the fleece. Is this normal? And is there anything I can do to prevent this? Its annoying having to change it every 3 days, considering i only had to change the sawdust once a week...
 
I found fleece quite smelly to begin with too, but it makes really good bedding, so I found a few ways around it.

Firstly, when the pigs are out and about having floor time or being cuddled by my boyfriend, I use a dustpan and brush (dedicated to the piggies, so I don't end up accidentally flicking their droppings everywhere when I'm cleaning anywhere else!), and sweep out any bits of hay, food or poops lying about.

I've found putting in fresh hay twice a day really cuts down on the soggy, or unpleasant smell it tends to give off after a wee while.

I also put quite a lot of newspaper down under the fleece, as well as scrunching some up and putting it in the corner the boys tend to pee in, this doesn't soak it all up, but it catches a wee bit.

Either way, I still find a full cage clean, replacing and washing the fleece and using vinegar and water on the bottom of the cage, essential every three days.

I know it's time consuming, but it depends on the size of the cage and the age of the pigs too.

Sorry that I babbled for ages without really helping!
 
Usually fleece should be changed within three days, its a pain, but it does smell if left too long, unfortunately it smells quite quickly if your pigs have strong wee (like two of mine seem to at the moment).

If you decide to ditch the fleece, is it worth trying another bedding such as Megazorb rather than shavings?
 
I agree with the above - I bed my gang on a combination of newspaper, fleece and vetbed. I sweep the whole area daily, change the newspaper in the food/hay end (sometimes twice daily if it's really soggy) and the beds/sleeping area daily and I change the whole lot out every second day.

It is time consuming but I can't stand the thought of it smelling if it's left any longer!
 
i use vetbed rather than fleece in the cage, and it goes a whole week beofre being changed. i do it every friday. i only use fleece for when i make their hammocks and beds etc and also their blankees for when they are out of the cage.

my vetbed is underlined with lots of newspaper. i have separate areas for hay, where i line with newspaper, carefresh/auboise and hay and this is where the piggies have leasrn to wee mostly.

i also hoover the vetbed twice a day with a hand held pet hoover.

i wouldnt go back to sawdust, its just so messy!
 
Just ordered my vet bed it's coming tomorrow yay! I am going use a litter tray in his fave wee corner which should hopefully have most of the wee on and for the other "Occasional" corner I have bought some plastic mats to go on top of vet bed & pile them up with newspaper. Will **** change them in morning & when I get home from work when I put him in his play pen (will also be time to then pickup all the stray poo's etc..)
 
Caviesgalore said:
I agree with the above - I bed my gang on a combination of newspaper, fleece and vetbed. I sweep the whole area daily, change the newspaper in the food/hay end (sometimes twice daily if it's really soggy) and the beds/sleeping area daily and I change the whole lot out every second day.

It is time consuming but I can't stand the thought of it smelling if it's left any longer!
Click to expand...

How do you wash it? Washing machine?
 
kteeea said:
How do you wash it? Washing machine?
Click to expand...

yup washing machine is fine. Just hoover/brush it off and pop it in - i do this with both vet bed and fleece.

Remember though, DO NOT use conditioner as it will make the fleece unabsorbant!
 
Yup washing machine. I sweep up the poos/shake the fleece/vetbed into a rubbish sack and then take it all outside to give it a jolly good brush/beat (think old fashioned carpet beating!:(|)) before popping everything inside some old pillow cases, secured with hair elastics and then in the machine they go. Washing machine stays clean - was always worried stray hay strands would block it up and then I would be in mega trouble with other half!

As Moonie said, don't use fabric conditioner otherwise the fleece/vetbed won't do it's job properly.
 
With my boys, I have fleece, folded length ways and tucked under newspaper so it makes a double layer of the fleece. I find generally that the newspaper smells before the fleece. As was said before, I generally sweep out the cages daily to get rid of any hay, poo and food that is laying around. (I have a mini dustpan and brush that I got from Tesco).

Three days is the mark when I clean the boys out. I put Ben and Dave on the floor to do so yesterday - big mistake! They didn't want to come back in! However, I cleaned round Garry and Minty, rolling back the fleece to one half, cleaning that half of the cage and then doing the same with the other side - it only took about 10 minutes so isn't too time consuming.

I just get the worst of the hay etc. off the fleeces and then bung them in the machine. At the moment, I'm using a concentrated liquid from Lidl which smells really nice - no adverse reactions from the boys so far!:))
 
Oops just got my vet bed! I was obviously feeling stupid at the time i bought it. my exsisting cage is 30X20inch I wanted double to have two sets so ordered 60x40inch imagine my surprise when what looked like a roll of carpet arrived :)).

Anyway all is well that ends well as I am looking to buy a new cage to take on a new guniea and will be buying a equalient of nero 4 so should fit that :)

Can **** use for that! ha ha how funny!
 
I bought my vetbed last weekend and it too looked like a roll of carpet! its really easy to cut though, i left mine as a complete piece but it only just fits in the washing machine so might have to chop it in half!
 
Is it the actual fleece that is smelling or the absorbent layer underneath?
But you are right, I notice my fleece smelling after about 3 days. But I change out their bedding about every 2 days. Mainly because I stay at home and I can do it. I wash everyone once or twice a week. I keep enough fleece blankets & old towels on hand to last the week.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top