Bedding Where is the odor coming from?!? - Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Store, Photos of Guinea Pigs and More Forum!

**aquaflyingfox** · #1 10-19-09, 07:13 pm

Hi,
I have a 2x4 c and c cage. I used to use a layer of fleece and quilt batting but people told me that that was causing the smell. So I switched to matress pads, but I didn't want to throw the quilt batting away, so I put it under the fleece for comfort. So I have the fleece on top, the batting underneath, and the matress pad on the bottom.

I just cleaned the cage out yesterday, but it already smells today. I have had my guinea pigs for about a month and they are 9 months old. I haven't given them a bath yet, nor do I plan to until the summer, but when I pick them up they do have a uriny smell to them. (This is probably because they have dug and slept under the fleece multiple time, until I stopped them with bricks and those clippy things for food bags.)
Obviously it can't be them that cause the whole room to stink, so can anyone give me advice on what to do!?
I'd open the windows a tad, but its freezing outside!

Please help!

P.S. I have taken them to the vet since the adoption and they were perfectly healthy. I do not think it is a health issue.

**ferndalezoo** · #2 10-19-09, 07:15 pm

Ditch the quilt batting. It's not helpful. What kind of mattress pad are you using? Have you tried towels instead? Or puppy pads? Are your pigs sows or boars?

**rahunter** · #3 10-19-09, 07:20 pm

We had the same odor issue w/ disposable bedding, it was unbearable. The fleece is working much better. It may your underbedding that is causing the odor. If the urine is not being soaked up then it would just sit and fester. Have you tried using several old towels? Do you have a litter/hay box? I have to clean their litterbox ever couple of days or else it starts smelling.

**aquaflyingfox** · #4 10-19-09, 07:22 pm

My piggies are sows. I do not remember what kind of matress pads they are. All I remeber are they were from Walmart, full size, cotton,.........
they have diamonds on them?

Sorry I can't be of more help. I haven't tried puppy pads, they are too expensive, and I would have gone to towels first, but I read that matress pads were better.
I'll try and find some old ones around the house to replace the batting.

**aquaflyingfox** · #5 10-19-09, 07:23 pm

I do have a litterbox which I clean everyday. It has newspaper and hay on top to make them want to go in it.

**lissie** · #6 10-20-09, 03:38 am

Did you try if the fleece wicks before putting in the cage? Did you wash-dry (without fabric softener) 3 times before using? Do you know what type of fleece you have? Anti-pill and Blizzard fleece from Joann are very good. Some types of fleece do not work. I've bought a plush fleece once and tested it, it didn't work.
Try testing it by placing a layer of fleece on top of absorbent layer, pour some water on. See if any water beads on top. It should take less than 10 minutes to wick (some wick right away). If after 10 minutes, it's still beading on top, you might have wrong type of fleece.

Newspaper is not a good bedding. You'll need to replace both newspaper and hay at least twice a day. I've done this with my pigs kitchen before. Hay gets really expensive so I switched from newspaper to Yesterday's News and start using a hay rack.

**aquaflyingfox** · #7 10-20-09, 03:32 pm

Yes my fleece wicks. I had others before that did not and they were causing a smell, but now that the new ones wick very well and this new smell that I am talking about is different than the one from the fleece.

Even when I take the litterbox out of the room, clean it, and put it back, the smell still remains in the room, so I think I ruled out the litterbox for the problem...

The only thing I can think of is that it is the underbedding, but I don't know what else to try.

I replace the fleece every 2 days and do a full clean every week.
The only way the smell is completly gone is right after I clean the cage out, and then the next night it starts to smell.

**lissie** · #8 10-20-09, 09:37 pm

Are they boys? If you replace their fleece every 2 days and completely clean out everything, they'll be re-marking their territory every 2 days. When you clean their cage, try to leave a piece of fleece or something that has their scent on. So they don't have to scent mark everything.
I heard sows will mark their territory too, but not as much as boars.

**akstrohm** · #9 10-20-09, 10:20 pm

Some mattress pads work and some don't. It depends what material they are made of. You have to have something that will absorb the moisture. Try a few layers of towels (and only one layer of fleece).

**blackarrow** · #10 10-20-09, 10:24 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by lissie

Are they boys? If you replace their fleece every 2 days and completely clean out everything, they'll be re-marking their territory every 2 days. When you clean their cage, try to leave a piece of fleece or something that has their scent on. So they don't have to scent mark everything.
I heard sows will mark their territory too, but not as much as boars.

This proved absolutely true with my boars - the more thoroughly I scrubbed their coroplast out every time I changed the fleece, the quicker and the more thoroughly they raced around stinking it up. It was BAD for a while there. The less obsessive I was about it, the less they felt the need to make it smell like a guinea pig locker room, LOL.

**GizzyandMe** · #11 10-21-09, 03:20 am

Gizzy is free range but has a kitchen that she uses as her litter box and this leaves no smell, I start with a layer of pet bedding:

Cover that with some hay:

I toss everything out every 4 days and the box has been lasting me a couple of weeks now. Good luck.

**lissie** · #12 10-21-09, 03:22 am

Is Gizzy litter trained? How do you keep other areas clean if she's not?

**GizzyandMe** · #13 10-21-09, 04:01 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by lissie

Is Gizzy litter trained?

Yes, Gizzy will throw a massive tantrum if for some reason she can not get to her box if she wants to pee. She has even bitten me in an attempt to get to her box in time.

Her litterbox/kitchen is in a little swimming pool that has a layer of moprags, towels and then fleece and she gets in an out of it very easily and will do 99% of her poops in there, the other 1% she leaves for when I have her on the sofa!!

Here is her Bathroom/Kitchen/hidey place....please note there are three tents set up and 9 other hideys specially for her in the house and it is just me and her so she is pretty save

**lissie** · #14 10-21-09, 04:19 am

It's so nice you can have her free range. I only let my pigs out when my kids are asleep.

**Fudgenrolo** · #15 10-21-09, 07:25 am

I agree with what's been said. It's likely that you're actually over cleaning. I have two boars (they were neutered by the rescue so I don't know if that makes any difference smell-wise) and I only change their bedding once a week. It simply doesn't smell. I have 4 changes of fleece so I can change it more often if I need to but I haven't found it necessary.

I use a layer of fleece on top, a layer of microfibre towels underneath the fleece and a layer of machine washable incontinence pads at the bottom.

I sweep the fleece regularly of course but I can honestly say I've noticed no smell whatsoever.

When I first put fresh fleece in they do scent mark but the smell wears off quickly. If however; I put fresh fleece in more often I should imagine they'd scent mark all time.

I do have a 'kitchen' where their hay rack is and where they eat their veggies and I change the litter in there twice a week as that's where they wee most.

**aquaflyingfox** · #16 10-21-09, 05:46 pm

Oh wow. I had never thought of the scent marking...
They are girls, but still...

Ok so I am going to try out the towels definitely since every seems to have good results with that.
Thanks everyone.

**aquaflyingfox** · #17 10-27-09, 03:21 pm

Towels made all the difference!!!!!

It is the second day and there is absolutly no odor! Which is a big difference from before!
I took out the quilt batting completly and replaced it with some old large towels that I had in my basement. (They were all clean of course)
I am so happy.

Thank you everyone for your help!