Guineapigs - what am I doing wrong?

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8 months of the year, my pair of boars live happily in an outside hutch with free reign of the lawn.

4 months of the year, the pair come inside and live in a C&C cage.

When I read up about how to keep the cage clean, most advise to do a daily spot clean and then change bedding once a week. This worked fine for their outdoors hutch.

My problem is that inside, even by the next day from changing their bedding, it seems to be covered in urine and poo everywhere. I use newspaper all over the bottom of the cage, with a thick layer of sawdust (from pets at home) over the top. This then usually ends up covered with hay as the pigs pull it out their hay rack.

They have their own tray and hide with newspaper covered in the sawdust too. Everything just seems to get soaked all the way to the newspaper which makes it smell. How can people say they change it just once a week?

What am I doing wrong? Are the fleece linings or bath mats better at soaking up the wee? Is the newspaper the problem?

My guineapigs seems to urinate everywhere, despite not having any food or hay in or around their sleeping area as I know they wee when they eat.

They ignore the designated 'toilet area' as they just tend to lay in this instead.

What bedding do you use?
How often do you change their bedding?
How often do you clean out their hutch?
Do fleece linings just become soaked in urine?

Please help me and my pigs!!

Yes fleece bedding, over a layer of newspaper and a coroplast base. Changed every three days. Sawdust is really bad for guinea pigs, a risk of respiratory problems and I imagine not very absorbent anyway. We’ve never had guinea pigs that mastered a separate toilet/food/sleep area, they just do what they like, which is why it’s important to fully clean often. We put hay in every house/hidey hole rather than just a hay bag and they bed down in that. The fleece (get ours from Kavee) is absorbent and stops the wet coming back up so they stay dry. It’s also way less smelly than just newspaper and hay.

Thank you! I forgot to mention that they do have a few little fleece mats to lay on in their hides.

The fleece liners are very bad for environment OP. The micro plastic fibres get into the water system and the energy needed to wash them all the time adds to your carbon footprint.
Try and use natural bedding like wood or straw and compost them.

I wouldn't use straw as it's too sharp for them.

Ww used to use this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Megazorb-Animal-Bedding-85-Litres/dp/B003L79596

It's really good

Oh yea I'd forgotten about megazorb. I did use it one winter. How often do you clean out their cage with this then please?

I used to do a complete change once a week with fresh everything and a soapy wash out of the cage. And then do spot cleans during the week.

Two boars do just stink though.

I used to have guinea pigs and a C & C pen indoors. They never lived outside. I took them out to their outdoor run/attached house in the morning and brought them back inside at teatime in good weather. They stayed indoors in cold weather.
I had a coroplast liner in the C & C run which I lined first with old towels and then with sheets of fleece which I bought from fabric shops. I had sufficient towels and fleece for 3 bedding changes. I also put meadow hay in one corner of the run for sleeping on and some timothy hay in a hay rack for them to eat. They also had a hidey box or pigloo each to hide/sleep in.

The urine goes through the fleece into the towels leaving the surface of the fleece dry. I had a little dustpan and brush to sweep up the droppings daily. I changed the fleece and towels weekly. If it got really stinky it got changed more often.

But wasn't everything totally soaked? There's so much urine even after just a couple of days.

Hi I use looped bath mats and change every day

so there is sawdust/ hay and then the bath mat gets wet and changed

make sure you give a good shake so you don’t clog washing machine

thr ones I use are from Tesco and called micro chenille there is no rubber backing

I have indoor piggies and use aubiose. It is AMAZING. it's a hemp bedding and is designed for deep littering horse stables. I dont deep litter though, but if it gets left longer than usual it still doesn't smell particularly and the surface is usually still dry.

I've had guinea pigs for years and tried all sorts bedding.
No to sawdust,very bad for them
Newspaper hopeless
Fleece bedding needs washed , not hygienic in washing machine,bits hay etc.

Puppy pads are the way to go, they soak up loads and less smelly,
And guinea pigs poop loads so I just dustpan and brush the poops daily .
Puppy pads replace when necessary.
Put hay in one corner only.

Thank you! What do you mean by a puppy pad please?

Go to Amazon and put in search Puppy pads

They're square and very absorbent and less smelly and you just bin them , they're about ,20 pence each and around 55 x 55 cm square so they are convenient to use.

No because the megazorb absorbs the wet- hence the name.

Thanks I was looking at this as our fleece liners do smell after a couple of days. What do you put them on? We have a c&c cage with the Coroplast base. I put bath mats on top so our liner isn’t too wet but it still smells!

Also I was worried they may try to ear puppy pads and apparently they are poisonous - as I did read about using them before

Bathmats or fleece over newspaper, look at Mason's Cavies on FB for more information.

Very useful post! I need to stop the smell too

I never had my boars ripping puppy pads, they were usually in one of the little hideaways or eating.

I used a C & C. cage, I put cardboard on the base.

Then some old towels and then the puppy pads. My cage was about 6 ft long and I used 3 or 4 pads, Their play tunnel and igloo etc on top, hay in one corner, Food bowl in another corner.

Definitely not straw! Can lead to hay poke. Proper soft meadow hay is perfect for bedding and eating. Timothy hay good for eating but a bit sharp for bedding, I find.

I found washable bedwetting matts off amazon to be excellent as an alternative to puppy pads for lining a c and c cage. I put fleece on top of that so it's nice and comfy for piggies. They have a big cardboard box full of hay for them to snuggle into and nibble on. They are very happy little piggywigs!

I spot clean daily, shake out the fleece put it back but every three days I wash the fleece and put a new one out. I wash the bedwetting matts, too. They are designed to hold a lot of human urine, so can manage little piggie puddles.

I have had Guinea pigs all my life and now have several in a huge c and c cage that takes up about 6ft by 8ft in our kitchen diner. I use large incontinence bed pads from Amazon and then lots of hay on top. Hardly any smell. I change them every 3-4 days ish. Just roll up the pads with the hay in it and throw away. They do eat the pads / chew them but it’s never seemed to cause them any issues at all.

Please ignore people telling you to use straw - it’s not suitable for Guinea pigs as it’s too sharp and they can’t eat it. They just need lots of soft meadow and Timothy hay (you can buy packs of a mix of both). It’s an essential part of their diet.

We used the shredded paper bedding, huge sacks of it, with hay in their houses. I don't think it was Megazorb, more like just loo roll offcuts. The Last Piggy died a few years back so I don't know if it's still available.

I never coped with brushing and washing fleeces except in the odd tiny area for them to lounge on.

Just putting it here again - Aubiose is amazing 😁

Puppy pads are cheaper than incontinence pads and are really good.

Yep, just roll them up and bin them

I put mine in the fire as well as I have open fireplace.