Cleaning: Best Way To Pick Up Pig Poop

[ChristyG]

Does hay stop up the vacuum by any chance??? Cause no matter how much I shake off, scoop up, etc--there is still hay.

[Duffinvt]

Originally Posted by Peggysu

As far as I know, you can't get ringworm from feeces.

Sorry, I was not clear. He meant wash up after handling the guinea pigs in general. The girl got ringworm from the pig's body, not the feces.

[Peggysu]

Originally Posted by Duffinvt

Sorry, I was not clear. He meant wash up after handling the guinea pigs in general. The girl got ringworm from the pig's body, not the feces.

Hand washing should happen after exposure to any animal not just guinea pigs. When I go into homes with pets I do not interact other then to get a dog out of the room. I don't want to take anything home to my pets.

[princesspoppy]

I use the dust pan and brush for the hay and any little pieces that are stuck to the fleece i use the vacuum.

[ChristyG]

Originally Posted by princesspoppy

I use the dust pan and brush for the hay and any little pieces that are stuck to the fleece i use the vacuum.

Does hay clog up your vacuum?

[Porky's Mom]

I have tried a dustbuster, a mini broom and dustpan, and not to be gross but just picking up poop and hay with my hands. The dustbuster gets clogged too fast and the broom and dustpan work okay but I typicaly just flip poop everyone. It takes me less than 2 minutes to pick up poop for 6 pigs once a day. Granted I have 2 big littler pans at the ends of my cage.

I too am intrigued by a soup ladle. I can see it being helpful for getting all the poos piled up but does it really work to pick them up without just scooting them everywhere? Interesting.

[MissFormosa]

This is a great thread because I am hating my broom and dust pan. I haven't gotten to building the loft kitchens yet, so the hay is still on the main level. What a mess by the end of the day. I sweep in the morning and it's not too bad and I kind of do just a quick job. At night, different story. I might be pretty picky, but I like to get everything off the fleece. My husband calls me a perfectionist. I take everything out, and sweep every poop and piece of hay off the fleece. It takes about 10 minutes each cage. Am I the only one that cleans this thoroughly on a daily basis?

My husband suggested a powerful little wet/dry vac. I know it will work, but I told him I thought it would suck the fleece all up in it and make it hard to move across the fleece. Anyone use a vacuum more powerful than a handheld?

I can see where the ladle would work. Maybe I can use it in the morning for my quick jobs.

Say, how sanitary is the broom and dust pan thing? I've been thinking about this too. My boars are always boar stinking, which gets wicked through the fleece, but I think it leaves a residue. So after sweeping I think I've just spread that all over the fleece. We are washing and changing the fleece twice a week now because it would get boar mucky. I had a friend over and later he told me not to be offended, but there was a bad smell coming from the bedroom.

[Tessa Bea]

To answer the various hand vac questions, here are my experiences. Those who are not interested in vacuums need not read through this lengthy post, save your eyes, haha.

I have a Dirt Devil Kone. It has a rather small canister, so I often have to empty it two or three times during a thurough cage cleaning. It has replaceable filters, but I haven't replaced those yet. I found it at a Big Lots! for ten dollars.

I am able to pick up poop easily, hay is a little difficult because sometimes it's longer than the canister itself. If it gets stuck, I usually reach my fingers into the canister and remove it and place it back in the kitchen area. I also use this method to pick up hay without having to reach all the way to the floor of the cage.

The noise startles my pigs sometimes, but usually not any more than me putting my hands in the cage; or trying to pick them up. Sometimes, they're really stubborn. They run to one side while I vacuum, and then when I need to vacuum the other side, they won't move!

I also use the vac for clean up after floor time, or bedding/poop/hay that gets out of the cage while the pigs are running laps or popcorning.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask me more questions.

[jeananne]

Keep it simple: use a napkin to pick it up and put it in another and toss.

[Heady]

Originally Posted by Dichotomy83

Okay...now I feel kind of out of place. Am I the only one that just picks up the poops with my hand and then washes my hands with antibacterial soap.

There cant be anything wrong with that, right? :-\

Completely bypassing the posts that came after this one, I have to say that I do the same thing!!! I actually have a bottle of hand sanitizer right next to the cage on a shelf. I also have another bottle next to the cats' litter boxes. I got them at Wal Mart and they were a buck something a piece!

Since the cage is in the living room, I walk by it frequently and I noticed that if I walk by, pick up poops and stray pieces of hay, it seems to make the "big" cleaning much easier! I don't do this every day, but I usually do it (it really depends on how I'm feeling). Not to say they wade in their own poops, because they don't...but there are some days that I just can't do it every so often and instead opt to do it at the end of the day!

Oh how I love hand sanitizer!!

[barbanderson]

This IS one cool thread I have done the by hand/by paper towel/by mini dustpan-broom/hand vacs/big vac and can really say ALL the methods work fairly well but I use a combo of the three now (the big vac attachment sucks up the fleece really BAD) and I think the combo of the mini dustpan-broom and small hand vac works out best least for me. I actually have TWO hand vacs and with SO MANY models out there to choose FROM, that has kinda been a drawback too. My little cordless dustbuster (7.2V) is handiest but the charge doesn't last long enough to do my 3x6 cage so I use it in conjunction with the mini dustpan-broom for daytime cleanings and in the AM after the long night in the cage, I use the corded mini vac to do a better job. My cordless is a Black&Decker and the corded is a Shark model. The cord is luckily long enough to reach well and it has a hose connected to the vac permanently so you can use the cover on the main vac brushes so not to tear up the fleece. Then you can, after hosing all the poops up, bring up the cover and use the main vac for hair removal and it does a GREAT job. But of course the easiest of the methods is the cordless IF I could find one that has a big enough containment chamber AND a long enough CHARGE!!! Anyway, this thread has been most enlightening thank you LOL and unintentionally amusing as well

[ChristyG]

Originally Posted by Tessa Bea

To answer the various hand vac questions, here are my experiences. Those who are not interested in vacuums need not read through this lengthy post, save your eyes, haha.

I have a Dirt Devil Kone. It has a rather small canister, so I often have to empty it two or three times during a thurough cage cleaning. It has replaceable filters, but I haven't replaced those yet. I found it at a Big Lots! for ten dollars.

I am able to pick up poop easily, hay is a little difficult because sometimes it's longer than the canister itself. If it gets stuck, I usually reach my fingers into the canister and remove it and place it back in the kitchen area. I also use this method to pick up hay without having to reach all the way to the floor of the cage.

The noise startles my pigs sometimes, but usually not any more than me putting my hands in the cage; or trying to pick them up. Sometimes, they're really stubborn. They run to one side while I vacuum, and then when I need to vacuum the other side, they won't move!

I also use the vac for clean up after floor time, or bedding/poop/hay that gets out of the cage while the pigs are running laps or popcorning.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask me more questions.

Hmmmm, I just may have to go look for one of those. I want to buy a hand vac, but odnt want to spend tons of money on one, espically since it is for poop and hay. Thanks for the advice!

[GuineaPigMum]

I clean up my guinea pigs poop with plastic gloves and a bag. I keep my left over grocery bags to clean up my guinea pigs poop. I also buy cheap hand gloves.

I put one hand glove, Pick up the poop and then stick it in the bag. I keep repeating this untill all the poop is out of her cage. Then i put more bedding where I clean up her poop.

I have a funny story about my guinea pig. About 3 months ago she had a Pet store cage. It was a guinea pig starter cage which was very small. She only had enough room to sleep, eat and use the bathroom. She pooped in one corner which was very easy to clean up. Now I have a much larger cage. She uses it freely where ever she chooses to. Now I have to figure out where she poops at.

[rahunter]

ok so in an earlier post I said that use a vacuum and that I didn't get the plastic spoon/ ladel thing! So I had to clean out our cage tonight so I grabbed a big plastic spoon from the kitchen...... I'm sold!! It was soooo much easier that dragging out the vacuum. I just glided the spoon across the fleece dragging the poop to the corners and scooped up the 4 corners. I probably will still us the vacuum at least once a week since I can get up some of the shedding hair with the brush tool. Thanks ya'll!!

[YayPiggies]

I have a dustpan and brush but also rubber gloves to just pick the stray ones up one by one..

[Cogni]

After several cage cleaning cycles, I have moved on from the squeamishness factor. I have got to the point where I just scoop up the bedding with my hands, poop and moisture and all, and dump it. Then I wipe the bin down with white vinegar (then use plenty of antibacterial soap on my hands!). I can clean each side of the cage that way (right now the base is two long shallow bins) easier than picking up a whole bin and tipping it in the trash bag. Can't wait to get my coroplast base, which will happen when hubby gets back from China. It's going to get easier.
For some reason I don't even find the soiled bedding particularly smelly. Maybe I have very unsmelly piggies. They make messes, but not stink.

[Sugar&Ellie]

I use a dust pan and a small broom. Once i get everything all into a little pile I pick out things that wont be picked up by a vaccum (Large chunks of carefresh, hay) and then I vaccum it up with a small hand held dust buster. Then I spot clean with it, in corners and in small places that the piggies might want to put themselves away and poop in corners.