Stinky?!?!

[Dodge]

2 days ago I finished my new cage made of cubes and I put pine shavings in it, which are kiln dried. Well today the smell is disgusting! The cage is 2x4 and in it are 2 boars, recently introduced. Why is it stinking so badly in just 2 days?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Copperfox]

I think it's probably just because they are males and they tend to be messier and stinkier..I have two boars in a 2x4 cage also, and have to clean it every night because it smells if I don't. If I clean it in the evening, by the next afternoon it's starting to get a slight smell, then by the evening it stinks pretty bad again..

 

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Is the smell the boar musk or from their pee?

Some shavings are more absorbent than others. You may want to play around with different brands.

 

[Dodge]

So far I can't pin point the smell as to whether it is pee or from musk, but I newly introduced these two boars in this cage so it is probably musk from the ranking of who is higher up in status. Thanks everyone.

 

[Justin]

Last night, I came home tired from work. My wife pointed out that the cage smells bad. As much as I am tired, it was true. I had to clean up the cage. And I finally decided for carefresh.

 

[Dodge]

I would use carefresh but its 27$ for the big bag at the petstore and it would take a full bag to cover the whole cage that I made and I can't afford to buy a big bag every couple of days. So I'm gonna stick with pine for now, unless I get sick of it bad enough that I go back to fleece.

 

[auburnmare5]

There are so many options:
Fleece
Aspen
Pine
CareFresh
SoftSorbent
TotalComfort
Many more
Did you use enough? I use pine and put about 4" in for one. You may want to try more?

 

[wiggley_narco]

More than likely, it's the scent boars emit when they are establishing dominance. One of my piggies, York, smelled as strong as a skunk for a couple of weeks!

 

[Lourdes]

It's a good thing i got females then. I keep the order to a 0 unless you put it to your nose by using those cheap $1 store small cat box and filled it with aspen/carefresh/pine and changed out the wet stuff once or twice a day. I sweep poos if they get on the fleece daily. If you could add more room maybe the smell wouldn't be as noticeable? Then again i have two babies and they sure make a lot of beans.

 

[luvsgiraffes]

Maybe you could try mixing the pine with carefresh that way you dont have to buy so much?
Or... maybe you could put something under the pine like newspaper to change out more often?
Not really experienced with different bedding materials so I'm just throwing out ideas. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Guinea_Piggin]

My boys' cage gets rather stinky too. I also use kiln dried pine bedding, but I've found a trick to keeping the smell down. I buy the big bag of Carefresh and instead of covering the entire cage, I use it to line the area where the do most of their "business". Also, I have a fridge & freezer box of baking soda next to the cage and that makes a huge difference as well.

 

[Cherish]

Yep, that sounds about right to me!

My boys stink the place out every time I introduce a new pig to the herd.

 

[s_anthony]

I use a mix of carefresh and pine/aspen. I put carefresh towards the centers of the cages and pine towards the corners where they tend to do their business the most. I scoop the corners every day, and clean where appropriate in the carefresh daily.

 

[Jane_G]

I switched to fleece about a month ago and I will NEVER go back. Even my kids (who don't notice anything) noticed that Cookie's cage wasn't stinky after a few days.

I only use bedding in her kitchen area which is in a small litter pan. I change that about once a week.

 

[BiscoJosh]

Seriously - USE FLEECE! As long as you clean off the poop at night, it is sooooo much better! As with others, I only use a bit of carefesh in their kitchen area.

 

[bpartlo]

I have a three storey cage, find the 2 boars really smell no matter what I do. The cage is lined with fleece bedding. For the most part they are litter trained. They are both about 6 months old. I have heard that getting them neutured will help with the smell..??

 

[samoews]

Poop stinks! This is the problem with my boar's cage. I use aspen, and honestly, after one 24 hour period, you can smell them in the room (and I have them in the living room, which is pretty big). I have tried everything available, and the only thing I can do is at least a partial bedding change every couple of days.

 

[zachdave]

Is it the poop that smells or the urine? I assumed it was the urine.

 

[Matsue]

I use CareFresh, and after a week it starts to smell a bit ( I have a male), but I usually clean mine every 6 or 7 days.

 

[PIGGYMAMMA495]

Hello. I personally went completely insane worrying about the "smell" . I have 4 boars. I invited people I dont even talk to into my home and would ask them,"do you smell like guinea pig poop in here"? Of course they would say no, but I knew on quite a few occasions my boys were a lil bit stinky. I change my c and c cage twice daily now. I am paranoid, but it is better than having odor. I use newspaper ontop of my coroplast then I have Fleece overtop of that. This way, If my boys pee on the fleece on accident, then it will soak into the paper, and that takes care of that. Now for their litter box corner thing. I use something that my vet told me to try. I WAS using Kiln dried Pine or Aspen becuase it was cheap. But I couldnt stand the smell. So the vet told me abot something called "YESTERDAYS NEWS". It is not expensive at my vet's office. It is like newspaper in the form of a longer Pellet. When it gets peed on it expands to way bigger than it was. It controls odor AWESOME. And is a true lifesaver. It makes spot cleaning in the corner litter pan easy, and you get that stinky ball out right away. I love my piggies, and I make sure that I always have a bag of Yesterdays News and of course extra sets of fleece in their storage cabinets for changing. .I tried Carefresh but I personally like the Yesterdays News Better. Its in a bag that looks kind of like a dry dog food bag. I also out of paranoia, since I have so many pigs now, Went to wal-mart and got a HOLMES AIR PURIFIER and IONIZER. It was only like $67.00 shaped very similar to them IONIC BREEZES, but works great. I never worry about the boys smelling up the place even when a new foster pig comes into the house and they act up. I just turn on the Purifier to high and SMILE.
I hope that this may be of some help to you and anyone else that reads it. I clean my house at least 3 times a day because of little ones, so I always clean the cage in the morning do a full change out. Then in the evening I do a spot clean but if its pretty full of little turds, I do a full change as well then. This comes from the girl that goes through 8 middle grade walmart vaccumes a year because I wear them out. Have a great day~