cleaning guinea pig hutches

Tracey04

what stuff is cheap that I could clean a guinea pig hutch out with. Also does anybody just use shreaded newspaper for their bedding and fruit/veg bits for their food. Im trying to cut down their bill as it costs me £10 a month for, food, hay, and sawdust.

thank you Tracey

morganb

For cleaning the hutch you need to be careful you don't use too many chemicals around the little creatures. You can buy specialist hutch cleaner sprays which last for ages so may be worth getting. Otherwise simply use hot water.

Regarding using shreadded paper for bedding - be careful of paper dust as it is not good for their breathing.

As for veg in their diet - they will like fresh veg but just check that they can cope with all types of fruit/veg. For example, I know rabbits should not have lettuce...

LizD_2

I understand you want to cut down, but please consider keeping to a proprietry feed - it's balanced with everything they need. It would be difficult to make sure they're getting the right nutrients. Ideally, Pigs shouldn't have too much wet food, as it can give them the runs, which may lead to dehydration. My pair get through a bag of Pets at Home pellets every 5-6 weeks (£3.39). Hay I buy every 3 weeks from Pampurred Pets, (about £2.50 for a large bag). Shavings - I buy an economy size bag from Haskins garden centre every month (£2.50). I just use our local free paper to line the hutch.

If you can, put them out in a run on grass, as this is their natural food. It gives them fresh food and also cuts down on cleaning, although you will get little pellets all over the garden! (GP droppings are actually as good for the garden as horse manure).

For cleaning, I just use a tiny squirt of antibacterial surface cleaner on kitchen towel to scrub the corners.

If you want to give veg, I can tell you that mine love carrots (including the leaves), broccolli, melon, apple, strawberries and Florette salad. Whatever you do, DON'T feed them anything that comes from a bulb, it's deadly.

Can post a list from my book at home of good/bad foods, if you like.

flufff

I stopped using sawdust as it made such a mess.I use straw in hutch as mine have a big run underneath so I just scrub it with antibacterial washing up liquid and boiling water.......bunnies out of way first.Have had Poppit on rampage on loose all week.Thankfully my daughters home from trip tonight to catch her.

Becles

I've found sawdust is best for absorbing wee's. You could line the hutch with newspaper, and just put a handful of sawdust in the wee wee corner to save costs. That's assuming it always uses the same corner as a toilet!

For cleaning, I normally spray it all over with the proper hutch cleaner, then give it a good scrub with hot water and a scrubbing brush. The hutch cleaner lasts ages and it's not harmful to animals.

They get all the fruit & veg scraps apart from lettuce as it gives my rabbit the runs. They also like dandilions, but make sure they are out of your own garden and haven't been treated with chemicals. Ones on public land might have been sprayed with harmful weed killers.

I would still buy a proper guinea pig food. They have a problem with vitamin C and need to eat a decent amount. Specialist food is enriched in vit C so you don't have to worry about piggy not getting enough!

System

I used woodbased cat litter on my rabbits/guinea pigs and now i use it on the floor of our chinchilla cage. It soaks up the urine and it isnt half as messy as sawdust. I buy it at Tesco and it costs £3.99 (I think) for enough to last me about 8 weeks. Be careful about using paper, have you ever had a paper cut? Well small animals can have them too.

upferret

to get cheap hay and straw buy it by the bale from your local farm/horse supply shop. You can get a bale of hay/straw for the price of a little bag from the pet shop.

Miss_Behaving

If you go to your local horse feed supplier you can buy hay for about £3.00 a bale - it is generally better quality than the dusty stuff you buy in pet shops. An enormous bag of shavings (the size of a bale of hay) costs around £5.50 and again tends to be better quality as it has had the dust extracted to make it suitable horse bedding.

PoshPaws_3

One point on feeding - Guinea Pigs can develop sores if fed with apple. Which is a shame, because my little Chris Tingle really liked his apple - but since I've stopped giving it to him, his crusty top lip has completely healed up and he can give whooffly kisses again!

tru

PoshPaws, thanks for that, I didn't know pigs shouldn't have apple. Mine love them, they haven't had any problems but maybe they've been lucky. I'll stop giving it to them.

One of my pigs loves to kiss people too

janeawej

Guinea pigs are the only animals that cannot make vitamin C in their bodies so ensure that u use a proper guinea pig food as this will contain is. tho they like vegs ect too as a treat.

Try to leave your cage open to the sun when empty and clean as the ultra violet light will kill bacteria! Free and effective!