Odor and fleece

When I had towels as my second layer my cage was really stinky. I never had really good luck with them. I just use disposable puppy pads under my fleece and it works great. Occasionally I get a whiff of a freshly laid turd but not any worse than any other cage setup i have had. Just make sure to vacuum the poos reguarly.

Vacuuming the cage killed my vacuum. My husband said that the hay and poops made perfect S bricks! I am banned from using the new vacuum in the cage.

I think that you may need to play a bit with the right fleece combination for you. I think you need something under it to help wick away the moisture, like flannel or puppy pads, but it should not be something that will stay wet and not readily release to moisture, like newspaper. towels get pretty wet and also trap moisture in them, I use them only when I am in a pinch.

I started fleece about 3 weeks ago. I find my cage isn't stinkier, but my pigs are. They also have this bad habit of stepping in their poo before I can vacuum it out. So they get it in their nails and I usually pick it out. But other then that, I love it. I would never change back.

The corner where my pigs 'go' most, under the pigloo, and under the hay were getting way too wet under my fleece, so I put a few good layers of newspaper in the corner, which gets changed morning and evening, and the hay is kept on newspaper too, because they pee whilst they eat. Same idea with the pigloo but most of the pee gets soaked up by the blankets I put in for them to curl up in, icky but better than nothing. The blankets get changed with the newspaper. It's not the prettiest set-up, but much cleaner. i did have a litter box, but Aggie kept sleeping in it and they flicked litter and poo everywhere when they did laps round the cage and through the litter box!

I put a plug in air freshener in the room.

The air freshener might be too stong a scent for your piggies' sensitive noses. Someone on the forum recently suggsted a piggy-safe air freshener: half a lemon, filled with bicarbonate of soda. It's supposed to be really good, and cheaper!

Thats true. I actually have the air freshener in the kitchen which is right next to the pigs room. Above my sink there is a "window" (not with glass but a cutout of the wall) and one of the pigs cages is directly under that. The air freshener is plugged into the socket next to the sink because piggie poo smells were flowing into the kitchen while I was doing dishes. I guess I never really thought about the good smell overtaking the pigs room.

Well that might be ok? i'm not sure. Sorry, I mean it's not right next to the cage or anything, so it maight not be too strong, but chances are if you can smell it when you are by the pigs' cage, so can they but 10x greater. Air fresheners only cover odours, whereas the bicarbonate of soda absorbs them, and leaves a bit of a natural lemony scent I would imagine. I keep meaning to try it.

I just had a thought about the smelly pigs- I mean pigs whose bodies smell more because of fleece. Fleece has a more and a less absorbent side. I've found that on the more absorbent side moisture goes right through, but on the less absorbent side it sits in a bubble/puddle for a little while and then eventually absorbs. Maybe this is what is happening to some people? Your pig's coat may be absorbing the pee before the fleece can! And if you are noticing the smell more with fleece, bear in mind that it may be because the smell of woodshavings is no longer masking it. Again, if you can smell the woodshavings, chances are dangerous phenols are getting to your pigs.

Cavies-and-Kids said:

Vacuuming the cage killed my vacuum. My husband said that the hay and poops made perfect S bricks! I am banned from using the new vacuum in the cage.

I think that you may need to play a bit with the right fleece combination for you. I think you need something under it to help wick away the moisture, like flannel or puppy pads, but it should not be something that will stay wet and not readily release to moisture, like newspaper. towels get pretty wet and also trap moisture in them, I use them only when I am in a pinch.

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LOL!

The same thing happend to my central vac. Needless to say, my parents weren't pleased. I'm now trying to find a rental place that carries something called a snake?

I use a swiffer vacume instead. I bought it from Wal mart. It cost me $15. It uses a sheet of sticky tape that can be discarded after each use. I'm loving it.

I moved the air freshener to the other side of the kitchen. I have not been able to smell it in the pig room yet so hopefully it will work for the kitchen. I will have to try the lemon thing.

I switched around my bedding a little, I put down Yesterdays News on 1/2 the cage, (a 2x2 area) and left 1/2 with fleece, with a flannel underlayer. So far it is really working well. 3 days and very little odour. At first they stayed all huddled on the fleece, but I put the log hidey house and the main food bowl in the Yesterdays news, and they are becomming accustomed to it.