Smelly piggies šŸ¹

kkewharding94

kkewharding94

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi guys I have 3 female guinea pigs and 1 male guinea pig, Jaffa is in a cage until heā€™s been neutered, I cleaned my house and cleaned their bedroom yesterday and Iā€™ve come home I can smell guinea pig urine, is there any advice on getting rid of the smell because my house is cleaned and I feel dirty because of the smell, I use antibacterial spray and a sponge to clean the floor and wipe over with a dry cloth, help! šŸ™ˆ
 
The cage is large itā€™s for 5 months old Jaffa and my girls donā€™t live in cages they have their own bedroom, I could always smell them but only a tiny bit like the hay and stuff but today it is soo strong, they have fleece blankets and I clean them up every 2 days, put fresh bedding on then put dirty bedding in a 90ā€¢c wash
 

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Lucky girls free ranging in their own bedroom!

I'm not sure what the problems is, you seem to be doing all the right things - it's strange that it's just started. Could it be that one of the girls is having a strong season - I'm not an expert. Is it just Jaffa - boys do tend to be a bit smellier in my experience - it's all that dragging of their bottoms , scenting their territory :vom:

Have you tried pee pads for the fleece bedding in the main pee areas, which are changed more recently? It might help.
 
2 of my girls keep trying to hump but once I had all 4 girls in season it was chaos poor milo trying to get out of the bedroom šŸ™ˆ sadly I have 3 girls and Jaffa, what else do you think it could be? I have puppy matts I do put them down but I donā€™t put them down for jaffa because heā€™s a little for rearranging the fleece blanket so Iā€™m scared if he eats it and choke, they all seem absolutely fine in themselves I weigh them every week peach is 1kilo 100 grams so is pixie they are 14 months old, Clio is 900 grams sheā€™s tiny and 3 years old in April and Jaffa 5 months and almost 600 grams his weight just keeps going up cos heā€™s growing but it could be Jaffa getting too excited over the girls and he canā€™t get to them so I think heā€™s trying to get their attention I donā€™t know
 
What do you mean something else going on, I want to know because if itā€™s bad then theyā€™ll be going straight to the vets
 
Some UTIs and gynaecological problems have a distinctive smell, when we took Piggle to the vets because it hurt when she peed the first thing the vet did was turn her upside down and sniff her lady bits! Maybe get the piggies vet checked to make sure, the vet can use urine test strips to check for blood or protein in the pee, or take a pee sample to test for bacteria, and just generally inspect their rear ends to make sure everything is ok.
 
They have no problem with peeing but Iā€™ll do some research on it and if they are showing signs I will get them seen too thank you everyone
 
kkewharding94 said:
The cage is large itā€™s for 5 months old Jaffa and my girls donā€™t live in cages they have their own bedroom, I could always smell them but only a tiny bit like the hay and stuff but today it is soo strong, they have fleece blankets and I clean them up every 2 days, put fresh bedding on then put dirty bedding in a 90ā€¢c wash
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My Finn and Lara are indoor piggies also, and they are potty trained to use their hay tray as their bathrooms. I don't smell anything inside the house.
Just like you I also use fleece bedding but mine don't go to the bathroom on their fleece, they use their bathroom/hay tray. When I throw away the contents of the hay tray and wash the hay tray often, I am essentially getting rid of the bathroom smell, so there is no smell on their fleece.
I also wash the fleece with detergent and soak them in the vinegar to kill the germs, for their health.

I feel cleaning is the easiest when my piggies use their bathrooms properly.
 
I know but how do you train them to do that? I feel like they should be free to live and do whatever they like, plus I have a 3 year old guinea pig too, it would be a lot better if they were toilet trained any advice and information on how to do it
 
I don't think its possible to potty train guinea pigs. They tend to poo and wee where they eat, so providing a hay box or similar is often helpful. Some are v good and naturally prefer to go in a favourite corner but others can't be bothered to leave their beds and poo and wee everywhere then lie in it! They vary greatly in their degree of fastidiousness!
 
kkewharding94 said:
I know but how do you train them to do that? I feel like they should be free to live and do whatever they like, plus I have a 3 year old guinea pig too, it would be a lot better if they were toilet trained any advice and information on how to do it
Click to expand...
I honestly did absolutely nothing but to just get them big hay trays with Carefree bedding on the bottom and fill hay on top.
Finn and Lara did everything on their own and designated their hay trays as bathrooms. They essentially trained themselves to go to the bathrooms on their own.

Finn and Lara live in separate cages for obvious reasons so they have a huge hay tray each with Carefree bedding on the bottom and hay on top. Their playpen also has a large hay tray with same Carefree bedding and hay.
 
I do try my best to get my piggies eveything they need to thrive. While providing them with many things it just happened that they are going to the bathrooms in their big hay tray filled with hay.

I made many posts regarding the ease of cleaning due to my piggies using their hay trays as bathrooms.
 
IF they all decide to use the same spot to pee, it can smell like ammonia as it'll never dry up. If you have them trained to use a box with hay in it, just change it daily or every other day. Maybe try training them to use an Aspen bedding-filled litter box instead as that will mask some of the scent. To train them, rearrange their home and put some soiled hay in with the bedding. Every time after holding one (hold for 5 minutes or longer) put them right into the bedding box. They should go.

FWIW, I have a larger cage/pen than you and use Aspen bedding, and usually within 5~ days it can become noticeable, but it's mainly because several of them like to use the exact same spot to go in, so it either needs removed or the bedding needs shuffled so it'll air dry. If it's humid in your place, it might be worse. Also, since you are using a small alcove (cool idea) or hallway, there probably isn't much cross airflow, so it can get stagnate.
 
Might be a good idea to pull everything up i.e. all the fleeces and get your nose down to the floor underneath. Pee could have got down between the flooring layer you have put down and the skirting board? I put down puppy pads for my 2 which goes slightly up the sides of the cage yet sometimes they still manage to get pee underneath it :hmm:
 
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