Spot Cleaning Help

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Frost

Frost

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I got my guinea pigs saturday and didnt realise i need to spot clean their cage everyday. What is the best way of doing this and is once a week for a full clean ok?
 
I think it depends on the bedding you use. I think most people who use fleece spot clean once or twice a day with a dustpan and brush but I use fitch (paper based bedding) which is extremely difficult to spot clean, although my boys are relativel contained to where they toilet so I clean these bits out as and when required - I occasionally put a disposable glove on and pick out poos as well but not daily. Once a week full change again is dependent on bedding, my understanding is that fleece is more frequent, I find with fitch every 7-10days works fine for us :)
 
Thank you i use wood shavings. They seem to poop everywhere and not in one spot. I'm thinking of spot cleaning once a day in the morning. Then the full clean once a week. Does that sound acceptable?
 
That sounds fine to me, although I've never used shavings so I can't say for sure. I think it's about making a personal judgement for yourself as to what needs to be done to minimise smell and ensure that the piggies aren't living in their own mess and walking over a soggy, pooey floor!
 
Keeping your piggies clean and dry really is important as it reduces the risks of illnesses such as urine/chest infections.
I swear by vet bed which I change every 4-5 days depending, it causes a lot of washing but air dries overnight so have stuck with it for the past 3 years :)
Fleece move around and are hard to poop pick I discovered, vet bed is easy to hoover, roll up, shake and wash :)
It's fun experimenting until you finds what suits best ;)
 
Hi, I used shavings at first and picked the poos and wet bits out everyday, this took me quite a while as they pooped everywhere! I've recently changed to using towels and fleece with a litter tray of hay. They have gradually started to use the tray to poop and wee in themselves with no training, (not sure if I'm just very lucky!) and I shake the towels/fleece over the bin and wash daily or when needed. It's so much quicker to clean them in the morning and saves buying shavings. I have vet bed which I use for beds and it's fantastic, I shake any poos off and can use it for a few days. Am considering using it as a full cage liner! I tried all sorts of combinations of hay, puppy pads, newspaper, fleece, shavings and towels before I decided on what I use! Hope this helps? :)
 
Hi where do you get the fleece/ vet bedding from? I am open to trying new ideas.
Do any of you have pictures of your cages so i can see what it looks like. Thank you
 
Hi, I use pet fleece blankets that are from the pound shop or asda, the throw, non bobbly type. The vet bed can be bought from most large pet stores, Pets at Home/Kennelgate but it is quite expensive depending how much you want but lasts for ages. I have fleece cage liners too which I've had made to fit my enclosures, they can vary on price depending who you buy them from and sizes. There's quite a few threads on here regarding bedding, there's a few names of people who make liners etc and I looked on facebook.
 
I also use shavings for my guinea pigs as I found washing and keeping the fleece clean too much hassle with my piggies as they are very messy lol, I just use a small litter pan scoop (which is kind of like a mini dustpan) to take out the dirtiest bits and just sprinkle some new shavings over. I also find my pigs poo and wee in their hay quite a lot and that tends to get smelly so I always make sure I take out the soiled hay and replace that every day. If your pigs aren't too messy/smelly though you could always spot clean every other day rather than every day :)
 
pigpigpiggies said:
I also use shavings for my guinea pigs as I found washing and keeping the fleece clean too much hassle with my piggies as they are very messy lol, I just use a small litter pan scoop (which is kind of like a mini dustpan) to take out the dirtiest bits and just sprinkle some new shavings over. I also find my pigs poo and wee in their hay quite a lot and that tends to get smelly so I always make sure I take out the soiled hay and replace that every day. If your pigs aren't too messy/smelly though you could always spot clean every other day rather than every day :)
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Thank you i do quite like using shavings and they don't seem to poo in there hay, all though the little monsters do like to poo in their veg bowl after they have eaten it lol
 
Frost said:
Thank you i do quite like using shavings and they don't seem to poo in there hay, all though the little monsters do like to poo in their veg bowl after they have eaten it lol
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Haha! Mine do that as well!
 
Nicola_ said:
Haha! Mine do that as well!
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It makes me laugh as i give them their veg then check on them after a little while to see if they have eaten it and they have left me little presents x
 
I use shavings, and confess that I don't spot clean - however, I do a full cage clean every 3 days.
 
Frost said:
Hi where do you get the fleece/ vet bedding from? I am open to trying new ideas.
Do any of you have pictures of your cages so i can see what it looks like. Thank you
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I use a supplier on ebay, a 5m x 1.5m roll in various colours costs me just over £70 and goes a long way :)
Christmas pens :)


Here's an old pic of my Winnie Woo, Christmas 2012 on her vet bedded pen - we've moved and built new pens since :)

 
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I use Megazorb and poo pick by hand every night - it's time consuming though as my two poop everywhere! Just bought one of those scoops, so will try that when it arrives to see if it speeds the process up.
 
Guinea pig slave said:
Just found one of half of the new piggy set up...much more simple :nod:

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Do your guinea pigs not jump over the sides? One of mine is a true stunt woman! Tries to leap off sofas and tables whenever the others wheek thinking that there must be food around! No fear! :)
 
If I use puppy pads underneath fleece, and spot clean once a day, how often do I need to change the fleece and pads and how often do I need to disinfect the entire cage etc?
 
Maddykins said:
If I use puppy pads underneath fleece, and spot clean once a day, how often do I need to change the fleece and pads and how often do I need to disinfect the entire cage etc?
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Depends on how big your cage is, how many are in it and if they use a litter tray. I have a 2 square meter cage for 3 of mine, one will only use a litter tray, one goes everywhere and the other is a mix. I have to change max every 4days.
 
I have quite a small cage for two sows, so I spot clean it twice a day, and do a full cage clean every second day. It seems like a lot of work, but I use cage liners so it's really easy to just pull out the cage liner, wipe down the cage base, and put down a fresh liner. It only takes about 5 minutes.

If I were using shavings I would spot clean every third day and do a full cage clean every 5-7 days.

It really depends how big your cage is, how many guinea pigs you have in the space, and what type of bedding you use that dictates how often you should spot clean :)
 
i use wood shavings and i recently discovered that you cab get little balls of paper like stuff that you can mix in with the shavings to soak up and wetness in the cage they also absorb oder, so i guess theyre like pig kitty litter!
its quite good cause it means the top layers of the cage always stay dry and you can spot clean ever couple of days if you get the mix right. Mine are quite good and only seem to pee in the corners so its been pretty useful and it means i only have to do a full cage clean every 5 - 8 days depending on how persistent iv been with my spot cleaning.
 
my boys have fleece on their bottom layer which I spot clean 2or 3 times a day. They have a litter tray which they direct their wee in and then a hay loft which has a layer of paper pellets underneath to soak up any wee. I spot this daily then change thier hay twice a week then every 2 weeks a full clean, seems to work for mine as they don't pee on their fleece or in their cozies so they stay mostly clean as I remove any hay each night which they've dragged from their lofts :-)
 
i have a main fleece with puppy pads underneath then extra smaller bits of fleece with towels underneath where they wee.They are sort of litter trained.The majority of wees are done in the litter trays but they poop everywhere.This gets swept up every day, sometimes twice and the extra fleece and towels gets changed when towels are damp. Sometimes it lasts couple of days. Puppy pads get changed as and when needed depending on how wet they are. The main fleece gets changed every week. Hope this helps
 
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