cleaning the cage

[piggielover92]

For most of us, it's not our favorite thing about having guinea pigs, but it has to be done. Yep, cleaning those cages. I have a 4x3 C&C cage with four pigs in it. How often should I clean? What about "freashen it up"? I heard when it gets messy you should just throw some new beeding in there to make it last longer. Any tips on cleaning it out? Thanks a bunch!

[cr4zill4]

Just clean it when you see lots of poops and pee all over the cage. Scoop out some when you see a major spot to prevent a final clean up from occuring so fast. I noticed that they poop alot when they eat hay, ha. I don't know about throwing more bedding on top though.

[beccapooka]

Originally Posted by piggielover92

For most of us, it's not our favorite thing about having guinea pigs, but it has to be done. Yep, cleaning those cages. I have a 4x3 C&C cage with four pigs in it. How often should I clean? What about "freashen it up"? I heard when it gets messy you should just throw some new beeding in there to make it last longer. Any tips on cleaning it out? Thanks a bunch!

I'm new to this, so admittedly not an expert. This is my experience so far: I have a 2x4 cage for my 2 girls. I have cloth diapers in 3/4 of the cage with 1/4 being newspaper covered with carefresh. For the first coupld of weeks they were peeing almost exclusively in bedding. Now they are peeing in one of the other corners (food dish in 4th corner) and all along the back, behind their house. UGH.

My original intent was to spot clean as needed, hoping to do a full clean once a week, but I have found that it is generally easier to just clean the cage entirely twice a week.

If they continue peeing all over, I might just switch to cloth diapers in 100% of the cage. I'm not sure yet, and i have almost 2 full bags of bedding left, so plenty of time to give it some more thought. maybe cloth diapers throughout with 3 small corner litter boxes? I have no idea yet.

If I don't have time to do a full clean when it's needed, I will spot clean to make the cage fresh enough to last another day, but generally I've found it to be easier to just do the full clean.

Rebecca

[kennethlhm]

Most people clean it once a week, with spot clean in between.

[supertramp]

You don't have to thoroughy clean out the entire cage too often if the cage is big and the pigs are few. I find that for my two girls, thoroughly cleaning twice every three weeks is sufficient. However, it makes a huge difference to spot clean by picking out the poops every day or few days. They process so much food that a lot of droppings are inevitable, but it's easy to pick them out. It's wierdly quite relaxing too...

[mom to cujo]

I have only one piggy but I spot clean at least twice a day and thoroughly empty and clean once a week. Wit each spot cleaning I add new bedding as needed. I just can't imagine myself laying in pee and poop so i just assume Cujo wouldn't much like it either!

[piggielover92]

Thanks so much everybody!

[cavylover_76]

I use an off brand of Carefresh called Crittercare. I spot clean as needed and only have to do a major clean every two weeks.

I haven't tried other beddings, but so far this is working for me financially and time wise.

Happy Cleaning!
Marie

[cinn&sprinslave]

Originally Posted by supertramp

You don't have to thoroughy clean out the entire cage too often if the cage is big and the pigs are few. I find that for my two girls, thoroughly cleaning twice every three weeks is sufficient. However, it makes a huge difference to spot clean by picking out the poops every day or few days. They process so much food that a lot of droppings are inevitable, but it's easy to pick them out. It's wierdly quite relaxing too...

sometimes i spot clean my cage too and it is relaxing even if it is weird

[LiciaMommycott]

Originally Posted by cinn&sprinslave

sometimes i spot clean my cage too and it is relaxing even if it is weird

Ha Ha! Me too. I call it my "zen gardening"