Still Stinky - Advice Needed

[jackie ramser]

I posted a thread appx. 2 weeks ago and advice was great. One last question - does kiln-dried pine have a pleasant aroma? My cage still stinks of urine and I'm cleaning it out every morning. I ditched the newspaper for the wet smell and just added aspen to the litterboxes. We had friends over this weekend and they noticed the smell. (Thank god for honest friends) If pine has a pleasant smell - to hide the urine smell - that has to be the daily problem- Im willing to ditch the fleece and aspen and live with the occasional shavings on the carpet.
My husband agrees with the new option COMPLETELY - his nose is quite accute.

Any help would be appreciated, esp from Slapmaxwell.

\Thanks Jackie

 

[LuvMyPiggers]

Your best bet would be definatley to switch to pine. It absorbs very well (Meaning no smell for 1+ weeks). It is pretty each to clean too. It may stick to the carpet but you can prevent that by having high enough sides and/or fabric around the edges of the cage. The aroma is very pleasant too. They are also VERY cheap. Good luck.

Luvmypiggers

 

[jaejae]

Do you have megazorb where you come from. Its very good at absorbing the urine and smells x

 

[jackie ramser]

Hi
No I havn't seen megazorb. I went to the pet store to find some pine - none of the bags stated "kiln dried" so I picked up some carefresh (ouch on the price). Does the bag need to state kiln dreid? I was looking at the Kytee brand of pine.

Thanks
Jackie

 

[guineapiglvr14]

Is your GP's potty trained. If they are not then try that.

 

[jaejae]

Megazorb is something we have over here in england which is similar to care fresh but ALOT cheaper. It was originally used for horses and comes in massive bags. Its very soft under there feet also, my piggies love it!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[widallas]

We went from pine, to fleece, back to pine and now to aspen. The fleece was wonderful for the pigs, but with the hot weather the smell was just too much. AND I wasn't sure if my poor washing machine could handle either the volume OR the smell! The aspen doesn't have a pronounced odor, but I notice I can smell the urine much faster than with the pine. I know the pine can have phenols, but we dumped 1/3 of our ENOURMOUS bag into a large plastic bin to air out, and it seemed to do wonders to diminish the smell. After the aspen is gone, we are going back to the pine -- I like the smell and the absortion better. As for tryig to determine if it's kiln-dried, I called the feed store before going, got the brand name for the shavings, and looked it up on their website to see if it was kiln-dried. (I think it was 'Premier' brand, and it is kiln-dried. It also gave a good description of the various types of pine bedding they sold, so I knew to request the horse bedding with larger shavings and less dust.) Good luck!

 

[Piglet]

jae, I too used megazorb and it was so absorbant and cheap.

You do really need to get kiln dried as the regular stuff contains phenols. Have you tried looking on the internet? Perhaps you can buy some bedding in bulk from the critter store or the ferret store.

 

[pennick]

I used pine and I couldn't stand the smell. My husband thought it was a urine smell. It wasn't we just didnt like the aroma of pine. I changed to Aspen and what a difference. Aspen works well for me. I dont know how big your cage is or how many piggies you have. My cage is a 2x4 with 2 piggies and I dont have to change the aspen for at least 2 weeks. No smells here. Some people like the smell of pine and some don't. You have to try it and see.

 

[SushiNut]

Carefresh in litter trays & a fleece bedding have been working great for me. Even my wife with her super sensitive nose smells no urine from the cage .

 

[guineapiglvr14]

sushinut did u put anything under the fleece?

 

[jackie ramser]

Thanks for all of the advice.
Here is what I just did. I put carefresh in the bottom floor of the cage (2x4) and used aspen in a square litter box that I placed in one back corner of the floor. On the top floor (an L shaped 1x2) I also placed carefresh but put another triangular litter box with aspen. The only issue I think I might have with the carefresh is spot cleaning the urin daily.
The pine I saw was Kytee and Limited.
We'll try this for now.
Thanks again for all of everybody's advice

Jackie and the boys (Charles and Chewy)

 

[guineapiglvr14]

Are you GPs potty trained?

 

[SushiNut]

sushinut did u put anything under the fleece?

Yes, I put a single layer of cheap white towels under the fleece. There are very few stains when I change the bedding since our two guys pee in the litter trays. It's not that they're potty trained as much as the placement of the litter trays (pics in my gallery).

 

[aqh88]

I found carefresh to be very inferior to wood bedding when it came to absorbtion and smell. My favorite is woody pet pellets. Extremely absorbent and I was told by the feed store they help break down the urine and eliminate ammonia smell. I did see a huge difference with my horse stalls. With pine shavings the barn would smell like horse urine whenever I stalled them overnight but with woody pet even 20mins after one of them peed you couldn't smell anything. It's the same result with guinea pigs. It absorbs it and dries it out to the point there is no smell. It does seem a bit uncomfortable for them to have to lay on all day though, but add a layer of carefresh, critter care(offbrand walmart carefresh), shavings, hay, or an old towel/shirt to lay on and they are quite happy. The only downside I find with woody pet is that it is dustier than most beddings because when it absorbs water or urine it breaks down from pellets to saw dust. Spot cleaning the sawdust patches could solve that problem.

 

[jackie ramser]

Hi
Yes one of the gp's is somewhat potty trained. When I put in the hidyhouses though, they seem to eliminate where they sleep.
There doesn't seem to be much of a smell this morning, but the day has just begun.
Where do you get the woody pet pellets.
I have noticed that they didn't popcorn much yesterday after I put in the carefresh though. Is it much harder to move around on the carefresh than the shavings and fleece? They just seem to be hiding around.

Thanks
jackie

 

[aqh88]

Carefresh will compact down and end up keeping all poop on the top. It also tends to get shoved up against the sides. You have to fluff it up every few days. I get woody pellets from the feed store. They sell it as bedding for horses.

 

[lencar44]

I thought that you should never use pine bedding because when mixed with GP urine it makes a toxic gas that can damage their lungs. Is this a myth?

 

[RubyPiggie2]

No, no it's not. We're talking about KILN DRIED pine, pine itself is harmful, but it just has so many oils in it- it dosen't create a toxic gas when it mixes in with the pine.