Indoor guinea pigs stinkier than expected!

[Piggiefan]

I have moved our two female piggies into an indoor cage but they are a bit smellier than I expected to be honest. I'm using newspaper and Megazorb as bedding - the Megazorb itself has a bit of a smell. There's a definite rodenty smell as soon as I come into our house, and then it's stronger in the living room where the pigs are. I thought GPs weren't supposed to smell! They have only been in this cage since yesterday so it's not because it needs cleaning out. Do I just have to get used to the smell? It's not awful, but it's not my preferred house smell either! I love the smell of hay so I wouldn't mind that, but it's a bit more whiffy than that.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Piggie my boars are indoors in winter at night (in our small bedroom) and they do need cleaned every day I found.

The upside is , their Pighouse (the wooden playhouse in the garden) can go 5 days between cleaning (they have deep litter bedding in winter) because I think they do 99% of their pooh/wee at night.

I gave up with Megazorb after the first bag because they didn't pee on it. And when I clean the cage or the Pighouse, I take everything out. (I used to pick out the soggy bits, but it got to the stage it was quicker to roll it all up )

Indoors, I used cardboard over the tarpaulin (which was to protect the carpet) then newspaper all over .They won't walk on cardboard .
Puppy pads under their towels (one each ) and in the hay trug.

Every day, the hay trug pad was soaked, so they peed loads in there. I swilled out the trug with washing up liquid, rinsed, dried.

Boars are , erm, distinctive, and wee loads especially when they are territory marking. But we try to keep their aroma contained (and the small bedroom hasn't got a door, so we leave the window open a couple of centimetres, apart from if it's freezing)

[fortifiedwithtea]

I prefer boar smell. I now have sows only. Sows spray pee to ward off unwanted advances. Unfortunately this also includes their cagemates if they are in a grumpy mood. So invariably the girls smell of pee. Mine are so overdue a bath.

70's boys are very judgey about what they will walk on Clearly they think laminate floor and cardboard is new fangled and not to be trusted (is it a boar thing)

Conclusion, you love your guineas, embrace the pong that goes with them

[phoebeflangey]

I've had my two girls indoors since we has them due to foxes and deer in the garden, they're 3 and 1/2 now and all I've ever used is : newspaper and bio catolet litter for base, then hay from local farm (£2 for huge bag) all over base of case, extra hay on top of houses/shelter for food and no smell at all in between cleaning, which is weekly. Also as the paper is lined in huge pieces, I just roll from one end to the other and it's collected in one big roll :)

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

they won't walk on laminate, cardboard or tiles (it's handy if we want to put them somewhere and make them stay put )

GP1 was very impressed with the 3 French Blokes in Heels on Britains Got Talennt. He reckons they walked on stilts on laminate as children .

[Muskey]

I don't use newspaper with our two little piggie boars as I found that held the smell more. Having said that I then have to clean them out every day but I'd rather that than the smell. The little dudes are so lovely I don't seem to mind

[HelpMeGetOutOfHere]

Agree with pp, newspaper makes it smell more. I don't use it. I just put the bedding down and hay and it lasts a good few days before smelling whereas newspaper made it smell within a day.

[Piggiefan]

Maybe it's the newspaper then. Do you just sweep up the bedding into a dustpan if you don't line with paper? I've been rolling up the newspaper then sweeping up any bits that drop out (loads). I'm a bit worried it will be impossible to clean if I put the bedding straight in the cage as the bottom has a slightly raised grid so it's not straightfoward to sweep. I have been poo-picking at least once a day and scooping out obvious wet every day but it's difficult to get it all and of course they do more straight away anyway.

The girls do seem to bicker quite a lot so that could be increasing the weeing. They were together at the rescue but with a boy as well, maybe he kept the peace.

I might have to experiment with different beddings and see what smells the least. The smell doesn't particularly bother me but I am more worried that it will be unpleasant for visitors who don't share my love of the gorgeous guineas.

[Muskey]

I sweep up the whole lot everyday bin it and then put fresh wood shavings down

[dietcokeandwine]

I have four indoor pigs (boar/sow pairings in two separate cages) and they can generally go 3-4 days between clean outs without getting smelly.

I absolutely hated megazorb as I found the smell completely rank tbh-it made me feel sick! OP it is worth trying another bedding to see if that helps. I now use Finacard which is a shredded cardboard-very effective and doesn't smell like the megazorb does. I also don't use newspaper-just the finacard straight onto the plastic base of the cage, topped with hay. I use a cage disinfectant when I do the clean out (roughly twice a week).

[dietcokeandwine]

Another thought is that it could be that your girls are in season-my two are a bit more whiffy when they are 'on'!

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

YY they can get a 'waxy' secretion when they are in season - worth a look to see ?

[3mum]

When my G pigs lived indoors I put a layer of cat litter about 1cm thick (oxygen based is best) under their usual bedding. That seemed to do the trick. Also clean the cage with a G pig disinfectant each time you change the bedding.

[PinkHamster]

I'm not quite sure if I've got lucky with my piggies, but mine rarely smell. I'm always a bit when people say indoor piggies need cleaning out every other day or every 3-4 days because that's never been the case with mine.

I used to have three guinea pigs and even then they didn't start to smell until about a week after they were cleaned out. Now I only have one left she can even go longer than a week before her cage starts to smell. I only clean her out once a week and she's fine.

I use carefresh for bedding.

[weegiemum]

We've 6 girls indoors in (very) large hutch, out from 8am on every day (we've a massive urban fox population here).

Cleaned out twice a week, lots of sawdust chips and loads of hay, there's very little piggy smell.

[Piggiefan]

I'm trying a new thing of putting down newspaper and Back 2 Nature litter, then another set of newspaper and a small amount of megazorb spread thinly. I'm changing the top newspaper and megazorb daily. So far they seem to smell less but it's only been two days so I'll do it for longer and see how it goes. It also means I don't have to laboriously poo-pick daily which I was doing. I would really like to only have to do a full clean once a week. I might give Finacard a try but it's not as easy to get hold of as Megazorb.

Those who clean once or twice a week, do you poo-pick in between as well?

[dietcokeandwine]

I don't do a daily poo pick, but do a general freshen up after a couple of days (scooping out poo, soiled hay etc) in between full cleans.

Re finacard I order via their website Finacard, get two of their 'megabales' delivered and keep them in the garage...no delivery charge and they generally arrive within a couple of days of ordering.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I used to pooh pick but it became a bit like painting the Forth Road Bridge .

When my boys have winter deep litter ( out during the day) their bed doesn;t get too bad ( though their indoor nightcage does )
I pull the bedding back and scoop out anything nasty (nice with barehands ) and let the floor air.

Last winter I covered the whole floor except their food area with hay , and banked it up round the sides with soft barley straw.
We found the pigs liked their own space and don't tend to share a sleeping area (GP1 and GP3)