Help! My Guinea Pigs make such a mess!

[DeathandTaxes]

I never realised that they produced SO much poo. That no matter what bedding we would use, be it hay, wood shavings, carefresh, that it would spill out onto the yard all the time and get walked into the house, and that their poos would spill out of hutch onto their yard and get walked into the ground and into the house!

We are stuck with them now as my daughter adores them but GOD could they be any dirtier.

Is there ANY Hutch out their that minimises mass and is easy to clean, cos even cleaning the hutch out leads to having to sweep our yard clean after cos everything gets blown around..

Has anyone heard of or used the EGLU which I saw on a website? They are very expensive, like £300, but if they make my life easier and save me hours of constantly picking and sweeping up after these creatures they are worth it.

And Breathe...

I never found ours to be particularly messy. How often are you cleaning them out?

If it´s getting walked into the house, that´s hardly the GPs fault!

Ours are on newspaper, a towel & a fleece.

Easy to shake the poo off/out-everyday.

I don't find ours that bad.

You could start using fleece on top of towels, then shake it all into the bin every few days and wash the towels and fleece.

You could also stick some vinyl onto the floor of the hutch, this makes it far easier to clean out - sweep out the mess, wipe floor with damp cloth. leave to dry while piggies are out in run etc.

Well we clean out the poo every day.

Do a big clean out once a week, change newspapers and woodshavings or carefresh and spray with disinfectant etc, takes around 40mins.

How do you use towels and fleece though I mean does it not get really wet with their wee all the time?

No one know anything about these eglus then?

It goes through the fleece so that the material next to them stays dry but the toel 6 papers get wet.

I find it better as I have Texels & the sawdust tends to cling!

No idea what an Eglu is.
(off to google!)

Just googled!

How will they make less mess though?

I know they are safe, but I would find it hard to clean on the floor.

The run part isn´t very big, is it?

We dont use wood shavings anymore and just have ours on newspaper in the hutch with a lining of it in their little plastic house thing with a load of hay - our free range most of the day though so tend to go poo in mass uder the bbq area (which we clean before we bbq!)

If you put layers and layers of newspaper and do it everry other day there shouldnt be that much and you can just roll it from edges in and no leakages? Id loe an eglu for chicks but not sure about for guineas as low on floor.

Diddl could you tell me how the fleece thing works, do you have to buy a special type or anything and does it go on top of the newspaper and towel layer?

Did you see the video of how to clean the eglu on their site, just detach it and empty everything into bin, I thought it looked very easy and less mess making..How do you mean you would find it hard to keep on the floor, do you keep your gp's inside?

The run isnt big, no, but we have an enclosed yard so I let them run about there.

Nappy - Might just try having newspaper then and just changing the lining every couple of days then? That sounds easier..

We bought a cheap fleece cover from Ikea.

Cut in half so that we´ve got two so can wash one & use one.

Towel under that, newspapers under that.

My back´s not that good, so that´s why I would find it hard to clean.

GPs outside in a hutch.

They do come in for Winter though.

I've actually just stopped doing the fleece because I was adding hay for bedding, and it got stuck through the fleece and was bunging up the washing machine all the time.

If anyone knows a way round this I would be glad.

I'm using shavings and hay again but the floor is still really good vinyl, and that means it never gets saturated even when you clean it with water.

I don't know why more people don't use it tbh - an offcut is about a fiver from your local carpet shop. Cut to size and stick down with acrylic floor adhesive, leave to dry for a day or so in case of dodgy fumes then you are all set. Nothing worse than a soggy hutch bottom in the winter and nowhere else to put the pigs.

Oh ok, well that sounds preferable to faffing around with wood shavings, might give that a try then, though I do like the look og the eglu thingy, bloody expensive though!

Yes FA that does sound better than the soggy wooden floor problem, but I thought that if you used the fleece then you didnt need hay bedding as well?

I put in the hay for them to eat - they need it as main part of their diet I think though I could be wrong. mine dislike the hay rack I bought them!

Also they are outside and I feel they need something to keep them warm at night even in the autumn or spring.

Ours are outside, our hutch (wooden) has like a plastic slide out tray so doesnt get that soggy but im kind of wishing i ha not thrown my vinyl off cuts away! Im a bit worried about the winter as we keep ours outside and have the last 3 yra but last winter was particulrly baltic but fortunatly we had a half built extension to shelter them in. This yr could be tricky. How old are all your piggies?

My Gp's are around 17weeks now. I really really dont want to have to take them in to the house for the winter if I can possibly avoid it. Obviously if we get a baltic winter like last years I will just have to, but meant to ask that question on here to, IS it actually possible to keep them outside in a sheltered yard, if you have a hutch hugger on the outside, and loads of hay or fleece lining on the inside??

We have never bought ours in - when it gets cold we up the hay in their little inner house and just do what we cn to keep them dry in the hutch - in past just put bubble wrap over the hutch and a hessian blanket. This year i do think i will splash out on a hutch snuggle thingy but dont know how effective they are. We have two so they huddle together to keep warm. I am going to see my niece today who got 2 babies this morning for her 5th birthday - 9 weeks old tri coloured and a bit skitty so want an experienced hand (liek i have a clue!!). Im excited to see them though

I have to say, i am not an animal person really, and totally resisted getting these creatures until my daughter wore me down, and now I totally adore them, even though their mess drives me mad, just looking at them cheers me up!

Im the same, i secretly bring ine in on a night when dd in bed and just sit with it on my lap. My neices today were lovely and cutey and all small little tri coloured identical brothers ahhhh made me want some mroe.

Ours always lived outside, year around.
It's very important to keep them out of drafts, they are a domesticated species (kept in Peruvian kitchens as a ready source of stew protein) and don't like the breeze at all.

They also need to be kept dry. They can handle cold fine, though, even when it's snowy all around the cage.

Ours are only occasional visitors and live on the grass as much as possible. The 2 boys I mind now produce easily twice as much poo as my previous 4 girls did!

Guinea pigs are the business aren't they? I love our little critters (and so does 6ft 4in 19 stone dh - don't tell him I told you).