Blog Cage Cleaning Thoughts

[LifeAsItMayBe]

Let me start by saying I love my guinea pigs... but, they aren't huge fans of me. They enjoy running laps and wheeking loudly at the crack of dawn, and will occasionally stare at me for a while before popcorning and running off, but they absolutely hate being picked up. Even if I have a handful of veggies.

Today was the first time doing a full cage clean since the babies were born. I have only spot cleaned lately as I have been oddly busy. As soon as I picked one baby up and put it in a big plastic tub (I think they'd get their little heads stuck in the pet carrier and no one was awake to supervise floor time), it started squealing. The next one (nicknamed "Whiney-Butt") was even louder. And of course when the babies are crying, mama doesn't want to be messed with either!

With the pigs out of the way, next I had to scoop up all the bedding. This takes FOREVER. Then I wipe down the coroplast with vinegar and water. Which smelled HORRIBLE. It reminded me that I need to invest in a spray bottle instead of having to pour vinegar water all over and slosh it around with paper towels.

During this experience I thought of the first week I had Zelda. I used fleece bedding then, but ineffectively. The under bedding was not absorbent enough, Zelda liked to dig up the fleece, the corners got really soggy and nasty, and it was difficult to sweep up poop because the fleece was too loose.

However, I think I preferred daily maintenance of fleece to occasional disposable bedding hell. The only advantage I can see to disposable bedding is it takes a long time to smell bad. If/When I get a job and move out of my parents' house, I think I would like to try fleece again.

 

[SuperCavy]

I can sympathize. My two females are still pretty scared of me as well, although they've gotten a lot better. They no longer scream when I pick them up, but they do tend to bolt from me if they think I'm going to pick them up. And they've progressed to tolerating me holding them, but definitely are a long way from enjoying it. I'm used to rabbits that at least ask to be petted, even if they don't like being held! My two girls seem to merely put up with it.
I also found the disposable bedding maddening for a big cage and settled on towels for most of the cage and bedding for the (mostly) pee/poop area where they have hay and pellets. I've got a largish cage (16.5 sq feet) so filling it up with bedding just seemed an insane waste to me.
However I am thinking about going with the fleece bedding as that seems like it needs changing less and absorbs the pee better. I keep hoping they'll get to be more littertrained, and they are better but still not perfect. Sometimes it's not their fault--I've scared them and then they go pee in the wrong spot. Oh well.