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Daily cage cleaning

perpendxular78

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I recently built a 2x4 cage for my two piggies, but am finding that the cleaning aspect is not as easy as I had expected. The C&C website made it sound like it would be a breeze compared to cleaning the smaller cages. Cleaning the whole thing out entirely with the dust pan isn't so bad, but the daily spot cleaning is teadious and takes waaay longer as there is now more ground to cover, especially since my little ones tend to make a mess all over instead of just in one spot. This is causing me a ton more expense too as I use all Carefresh. Any ideas on how to make daily cleaning easier?
 

kittnkarr

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You can try using fleece as a bedding option. In the long run you will save money since you will not need to be buying bags of bedding once or twice a month to fill the cage. The initial expense of buying the fleece and any other materials used to place under it will be high at first but after a month's time it will pay for itself in the end.

There are plenty of threads out there that tell you how people use it and what absorbant materials work the best. You can also even try setting up a hayrack with a litter pan underneath. This way when they are there munching away they will do their business in that spot as well. :)

Best of luck to you.
 

BabyGrl

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I have been bouncing back and forth between using fleece and aspen. When I am using the aspen I will only spot clean the area below the hayrack where the pigs spend the most time. I check it every day but usually only have to pull out some of the mess every other day.
 

porkchopsmom

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I am using braided rugs in the bottom and I love it. I have 6 rugs that I change out every 4-5 days. They roll up easily and I shake them out then wash. The girls usually potty in the back under the loft so thats the only one I change more often.
 

JennG

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I use fleece (with newspaper/puppy pads 1st, then towels next, followed by the fleece). I've only used fleece since I got my girls last July.

I spot clean 2x daily (since I have 7 girls, they tend to poop alot more than when I had three). I change out the entire cage on the weekends. I haven't had any smell issues and it's alot cheaper for me. I do have a few potties with aspen on the bottom and a layer of Carefresh on top especially under the hay rack where ALOT of their messes are. I hope this helps.
 

pennick

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I use carefresh with plenty of newspaper underneath on the bottom level of a 2x4 3 level cage with 2 piggies. I do not do spot cleaning. Usually there is a major urine spot in the cage especially near the hay that gets wet. I usually just rearrange the carefresh. I push some dry bedding from one area onto the wet bedding. I never had a problem. I clean out my cage every 2 weeks. It may also help that I have a 3 level cage so they do spend some of their time upstairs.
 

perpendxular78

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Thank you all for the GREAT advice!! Looks like I'm on my way to WalMart this weekend for some Fleece and puppy pads :D
 

BabyGrl

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If you are going for less expensive then fleece is definitly the way to go. however in your first post you seemed to want to make your daily cleaning easier and fleece really does not do that. You have to vacuum or sweep up the poops at least once though better to do it twice a day. It is easy to do and takes less than 5 minutes depending on your cage but it is still a daily mainanence. Though I like fleece better, I also use bedding sometimes to not have to worry about the daily maintence. Mainly when I am out of town and my hubby will not clean the cage. Anyhow hope that helped a little.
 

aqh88

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I just don't spot clean. I remove some of the leftover hay they won't eat every few days but otherwise I never remove any bedding until it's time for a complete cage cleaning. That happens every 1-1 1/2 weeks.

Most of the time fleece does seem to take less work overall than bedding but it doesn't mean less frequent work. You have to vacuum or sweep at least daily and change at least sections of the underlayer every few days. It depends on your pigs and cage setup as to how often. I was managing to go 4 days before changing towels and a week before washing the fleece but at the same time I had to clean out their hay and litterbox areas daily. Along with the fact that I don't have a washer in this apartment fleece ended up being alot more work for me.
 

crystal43

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I had a question and I figured I'd just post it here,since I am responding anyways so if a piggy pees it doesn't go through the coroplast? I'm not really familiar with it, my friends bought me a 2x4 cc for my b-day.

I just lay down one layer of newspapers and have two on the outer edges of the cage since charlie just likes to pee in one corner near his food and pee and poop in his house. I sprinkle a little carefresh all over but not very much since it is expensive, and it doesn't smell. I don't spot clean either, I figure if Charlie starts to complain about his own mess then I will pick it up but until then he's on his own hehe.

Oh I have another question sorry Lol, I'm trying to litter train Charlie but I don't know if the litter box in the corner is big enough, I think its a medium size one, one step up from the small hamster one, do you think a big rabbit one would work better?

Sorry perpendxular78 I don't mean to intrude on your thread!
 

nikilovesdogs

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crystal43 said:
I had a question and I figured I'd just post it here,since I am responding anyways so if a piggy pees it doesn't go through the coroplast? I'm not really familiar with it, my friends bought me a 2x4 cc for my b-day.
crystal43 said:

I just lay down one layer of newspapers and have two on the outer edges of the cage since charlie just likes to pee in one corner near his food and pee and poop in his house. I sprinkle a little carefresh all over but not very much since it is expensive, and it doesn't smell. I don't spot clean either, I figure if Charlie starts to complain about his own mess then I will pick it up but until then he's on his own hehe.

Oh I have another question sorry Lol, I'm trying to litter train Charlie but I don't know if the litter box in the corner is big enough, I think its a medium size one, one step up from the small hamster one, do you think a big rabbit one would work better?

Sorry perpendxular78 I don't mean to intrude on your thread!


Coroplast is not absorbent at all. It will not absorb urine or other liquids. It is also very easy to wipe clean.

I hope when you are referring to sprinkling carefresh, you mean that you are putting at least one shallow layer all over the cage, covering the newspaper. Also, Charlie can't talk. Make sure that he's not stuck sitting in his own waste for any period of time, ok? Cavies need a really clean environment to survive and continue to be healthy. :)

I think that were I you and trying to litter train, I'd get a little bigger litter pan for him. Put a bunch of aspen or Carefresh in that, and see if he doesn't take to it.
 

valerie k

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puppy pads, a towel, polar fleece, and a shop vac! thats all you need. I poo suck at least 2X per day, and that keeps the cages looking ok, tho I swear, its thier mission to generate poo's after the shop vac to "decorate" thier home. :melodrama oohh try a corner litter pan, mine love thier litter pan to pee.... poo everywhere else.
 

aqh88

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Coroplast is waterproof except the corners can occasionally leak if the area has standing water/urine which shouldn't happen. With a thick layer of carefresh my pigs cage didn't even stay dry for a week. If you were only doing a thin layer I would think it would need at least spot cleaned if not completely cleaned out daily.
 
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PiggieMamaKelly

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For some reason, when I put piggie poo in the toilet, I flush and half the poos come back up! I have to flush two or three times! It's like everytime I turn around these days there is piggie poo staring at me from somewhere. The toilet is less than a year old and has no trouble getting anything else down. Does anyone else have this odd toilet problem?
 

aqh88

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Pig droppings float. You cannot flush them down the toilet unless you were to wrap them in something like toilet paper first to make them sink. Most new toilets are also made to conserve water. Only older toilets still in good shape would have enough power and water to flush something that floats as well as pig poo. Trust me I've tried to flush lots of stuff down toilets such as floating aquarium plant pieces, bits of dirty cork from my aquarium, guinea pig droppings, various beddings... Not as effective as you'd think at getting rid of things.
 
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