Floor Time A few questions regarding floor time... - Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Store, Photos of Guinea Pigs and More Forum!

**TheJiraks** · #1 07-01-09, 10:52 am

Our pigs get free range of our carpeted home office for floor time. It's getting to the point though where it is hard to clean up after them...all the poops and hay, and the occasional pee spot.
My first question is, would it be ok to spray the Febreeze Pet Odor Control on the carpet after the pigs are put away? I've seen the posts saying it's a no-no on fleece, but I'm just wondering if it would be ok for the carpet.
The second question I have is about a "cage" for floor time. Right now, all of the nooks and crannys are blocked off, but like I said they basically have their run at the entire room. What if I was to get some more grids that I could unfold at floor time to make a 5x6 enclosure, and put some fleece down over the carpet? This would make cleanup so much easier, and help keep the carpet clean. I'm just afraid the pigs would start to feel like they are always caged and don't have floor time at all. What do you all think?

**Peggysu** · #2 07-01-09, 11:24 am

With my girls I make a big area with a tarp and blankets on top. This way if they pee, because they always do, it doesn't get on the carpet. Now with my boy I open up his cage and he cruises around my whole house when I'm home with certain areas blocked off. The point of floortime is to give them a bigger area then the cage, so if you use part of the cage and put some grids attached to it to expand the area, I don't see a problem with it.

**TheJiraks** · #3 07-01-09, 11:29 am

So with the male do you just follow him around with a pooper scooper then? My wife is getting irritated that we can never seem to get all the poops up, and when they pee it can start to smell. How do you take care of that if he's running all over your house?

**Peggysu** · #4 07-01-09, 11:36 am

Well it's a small appartment and he doesn't leave my living room/ kitchen. It's all carpet and he's goes back to his cage to use the bathroom. There are certain areas under a few things that I put a cozy down and he will poop in those sometimes so it makes it easy clean up. I can't do that with my girls they will run and hide under furniture and poop and pee everywhere if I let them.

He's an exception and does not act like your typical guinea pig. He's a rescue who was kept in a small pet store cage. He comes right up to me or my boyfriend when we call him. My girls run the other direction. His cage is open right now and he was running around, went and took a quick nap, ate some lettuce and is back out.

I have read that if they have access to their cage that they will run back to it to use the bathroom. I can't do that with my other cage or I would.

**TheJiraks** · #5 07-01-09, 11:54 am

Wow that is cool. Did you have to train him to go back, or he just figured it out on his own? Our cages are one grid height above the floor, so I wonder if I could build a ramp to see what they would do?

**Peggysu** · #6 07-01-09, 11:56 am

No I didn't train him. I think there were a few stray poops today but my dog ate them. You could probably make some kind of ramp.

**TheJiraks** · #7 07-01-09, 12:09 pm

...........

**TheJiraks** · #8 07-01-09, 12:09 pm

Mmmm fiber. Yum.

So do you have any ideas about the febreeze on the floor? I guess if I put down fleece first it wouldn't matter...

**Peggysu** · #9 07-01-09, 12:25 pm

I don't know if febreeze is safe for guinea pigs. My gut feeling says no.

**Ibbet** · #10 07-01-09, 01:58 pm

How many guinea pigs do you have? I think the grids would be fine if you really don't want them to go on the carpet.

Hippie gets out in the living room and hallway everyday and he always goes in his cage to potty. I don't know why, since I didn't train him but I'm not complaining, haha.

**TheJiraks** · #11 07-01-09, 02:05 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ibbet

How many guinea pigs do you have? I think the grids would be fine if you really don't want them to go on the carpet.

Hippie gets out in the living room and hallway everyday and he always goes in his cage to potty. I don't know why, since I didn't train him but I'm not complaining, haha.

I'm glad you brought that up. We have two males that are caged seperately because of fights. Every few weeks though we try to reintroduce them to see if they will get along better. I was kind of hoping this type of floor pen would work out because right now one always gets cornered under a chair or somewhere hard to reach and that's when they get upset. Maybe if they just have an open cage-type play area they will get along better.

I don't know if my guys would go back to there cage using a ramp or not, but I might try it out to see. That would be really cool though! You guys are lucky!

**PiggieMom** · #12 07-01-09, 04:11 pm

Do not use Febreeze near the pigs. Mine had a bad reaction to it last year.

**SFailed186** · #13 07-11-09, 09:46 am

What you could do, is every so often (some people I talk to do it every 2 weeks depending on the amount of pee) use one of those carpet cleaning vacuum systems. You can use a regular vacuum cleaner for the poop and hay.

**SheriMartini** · #14 07-11-09, 11:32 am

This is completely off the top of my head, and I have absolutely NO idea if it would work... but maybe sprinkle a little bit of baking soda on the floor before you vacuum? Not too much to damage your vacuum, but it might help with smell a bit? Or maybe make a paste with some water and use it on the spots on the carpet.

Now, I'm not sure if it would be more trouble than it's worth (may make a big mess), but to my knowledge it would at least be safe for animals.

**jenniwat001** · #15 07-11-09, 11:47 am

Don't use febreeze! I have a load of grids zip tied together, I attach this to the cage and remove three of my cubes on the side of my cage (it's 2x4) I then pull down the coroplast 'door' which I have cut into the side and put down a tarp and a large piece of fleece, it takes a coup of minutes to out up and down, the girls go back in the cage to do there business and eat and drink. I's so easy it can be left up for hours and so secur I leave it up over night. The 'door' mean that the whole space is flat and I end up with a 7x9 L shape cage!