You can't potty train guinea pigs, BUT... (vinyl cage floor experiences)

Cheekypigs

Cheekypigs

Teenage Guinea Pig
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We're experimenting with keeping the guinea pigs on vinyl flooring and relying mostly on strategically placed pee pads in their beds and under the hay piles. I assumed we would also get puddles in the main area and have to use the pee pads to mop them up every now and then. However - NO pee puddles at all! They literally only pee in their beds and in the hay piles.

The only wet patch I've found was from drips under one of the water bottles, so now I've put pads under those as well. I've been really surprised by how well this setup works! They poop absolutely everywhere, but the dry surface means they dry out by the time we come to sweep them once a day, and it's so much easier to sweep them up from the smooth surface than from fleece. Definitely going to stick with this arrangement.
 
And the other thing to add is that, although they are peeing only on these small mats, the mats do not end up wet. They are only very slightly damp underneath (the towel side) and dry on top (the fleece side). I think the air is circulating round them so well that it evaporates. And the whole cage is much less smelly than any setup we've had before, and the hay dust is not such a problem, because we were always kicking up dust when sweeping the poops up from the fleece.
 
Are they using the whole floor space or just hanging out where the mats are?
 
Using it all. They only lie down where the mats are but they bustle around over the whole cage and often stand and do their staring into space thing out on the floor.

I took care to get a vinyl that has a grippy textured surface, and it has a felt backing so it's quite warm on their footses.
 
This is interesting. When I do a half and half cage change mine won't step on the Corex, they wait until I put the clean liner in and then step on that so I can change the other half. They do however run a round on our wood floor with no problems, although one prefers to stick to the carpet square or fleece liner stepping stones I put down.
 
Yes, interesting. When I imagine stepping on Correx in my bare feet, I don't fancy it either, though I can't quite articulate why. I just feel like it wouldn't feel nice. Plasticky and hard and not nice. Whereas vinyl flooring has a softer surface and a certain amount of "give".

I imagine some don't like the wood flooring because it's a bit slippy for their claws? I was concerned about that and took time to find a vinyl with a textured mosaic pattern, so it looks like tiny stone tiles and has plenty of grip. Me and the lady at the flooring store spent some time going round the roll-ends, feeling them and discussing which ones would be best for piggy feet! I don't think she'd had a sale like that before!
 
I just realised I put this in Daily Care for some reason, should it actually be in Housing?
 
Update on this, I am now finding some pee stains when cleaning up, presumably as they're getting more comfortable and spending more time out in the open. However, they are always dry by the time I find them so it's not a problem, and they wipe off easily.
 
We have been looking for quick wash / dry alternatives to our current flannelette sheet, vet bed, incontinence sheet set up as it takes two days to wash the bedding for our three groups and after seeing your post will now run a trial on this set up for the ladies so thank you!

Our previous trials (100% cotton, poplin cotton and craft cotton sheets - took too long to dry, polyester fabric - quick drying but virtually see through and this weeks Wynciette sheet - stains are proving difficult to remove) have all failed.

I will let you know on how it goes with the heavy piddlers we have.
 
Coming up on about a month with this arrangement now, and I absolutely would not change it. I dismantled and rebuilt the cage yesterday, so I had an opportunity to give the vinyl a thorough scrub. The only problem area was under the divider, where the hay piles were and where we couldn't reach the vinyl surface to clean it. It was quite badly gunked up. However, a brief soak with vinegar and it scrubbed up as good as new.

We've now got litter trays for the hay piles, so that we don't have to rely on fleece there. I've also changed the arrangement so that the vinyl is all inside the grids, as that's easier to clean. No sign of nibbling so far.
 

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Cheekypigs said:
Coming up on about a month with this arrangement now, and I absolutely would not change it. I dismantled and rebuilt the cage yesterday, so I had an opportunity to give the vinyl a thorough scrub. The only problem area was under the divider, where the hay piles were and where we couldn't reach the vinyl surface to clean it. It was quite badly gunked up. However, a brief soak with vinegar and it scrubbed up as good as new.

We've now got litter trays for the hay piles, so that we don't have to rely on fleece there. I've also changed the arrangement so that the vinyl is all inside the grids, as that's easier to clean. No sign of nibbling so far.
Click to expand...
I’m really glad the vinyl setup is working for you, I don’t think I have seen this one before. However, from you cage size it looks like a 5x2 which is 10 sq ft (0.929 sq m). That is a good size for two piggies living together. With the divider setup that way each pig only gets 5 sq ft (0.4645 sq m) which is too little for a lone pig. Minimum size requirement for 1 pig is 0.7 sq m. That is if you are using 12 inch grids, if you are using 14 inch grids the measurements wouldn’t change that much but it would be a little bigger. I don’t know if you have tried bonding them and it didn’t work or if there is another reason you cannot bond them such as avoiding pregnancy (although pigs and impregnate through grids). If you haven’t tried bonding them before I suggest that and if it went bad the first time you can try again making sure you bong them on things with neither of their smells and in a separate room they have never been. If they cannot be bonded I suggest finding space for a second cage so that both pigs can have the proper amount of room. Btw, I think I did the math correctly. If I did not, I blame America for still using the imperial system and not properly teaching the metric system.
 
I do have vinyl in the piggy room underneath the absorbent layer and fleece top bedding, which is making the room much easier to deep clean and the grid cage layout to chance and change.
Vinyl as a surface to live on directly is not ideal because piggies cannot run well on it due to lack of grip and they are sitting in their pees/spreading them around. The room will also stink up much more quickly because of that, believe me! Also beware if you have piggies with sterile IC; the pee can leave permanent marks on some types of vinyl. You can also get permanent rust marksunderneath the grids from where the pees (territory/scent marking) have corroded the metal of the grids once the protective coating has cracked/been bitten off. Loose vinyl on other flooring will travel around.

Just some of my experiences after 10 years of living with vinyl. Like everything, it has advantages but there are also some drawbacks.
 
Wow, ive tried that in the past with various pigs to no success
 
Tylerspigs said:
I’m really glad the vinyl setup is working for you, I don’t think I have seen this one before. However, from you cage size it looks like a 5x2 which is 10 sq ft (0.929 sq m). That is a good size for two piggies living together. With the divider setup that way each pig only gets 5 sq ft (0.4645 sq m) which is too little for a lone pig. Minimum size requirement for 1 pig is 0.7 sq m. That is if you are using 12 inch grids, if you are using 14 inch grids the measurements wouldn’t change that much but it would be a little bigger. I don’t know if you have tried bonding them and it didn’t work or if there is another reason you cannot bond them such as avoiding pregnancy (although pigs and impregnate through grids). If you haven’t tried bonding them before I suggest that and if it went bad the first time you can try again making sure you bong them on things with neither of their smells and in a separate room they have never been. If they cannot be bonded I suggest finding space for a second cage so that both pigs can have the proper amount of room. Btw, I think I did the math correctly. If I did not, I blame America for still using the imperial system and not properly teaching the metric system.
Click to expand...

Yes, we've got a space limitation problem as we only planned to have two pigs living together. If you look at the last photo you'll see I've managed to squeeze another grid space in so they've both got 2x3 for now. Long term we will not be able to do that, but we don't plan to keep them like this long term, as they're not happy being separate. If we can't get them to live together we're going to re-home one and get a girlfriend for the other (they're both neutered).

Basically what you're looking at is a hodgepodge emergency solution to an unexpected problem!
 
I posted this in my thread in Guinea Pig Chat, bit I thought people might be interested in seeing the vinyl cage setup as it is since the boys were reunited.

Still loving this setup, very easy maintenance. The hay trays act as litter trays and have been a great addition.

We haven't gone for free standing hideys, because we want to keep maximum floor space. The blankets at either end can be let down over the hay corner and the snuggle corner for extra privacy and darkness.

 
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