How To Clean A Guinea Pig Cage
So.
You’re looking into how to clean your guinea pig’s cage.
And you’ve landed here. Hint: You’re in the right spot 🙂
Part of being a phenomenal cavy owner is making sure you not only have a solid cleaning method, but that you set a schedule and follow it!
Let’s get started.
How To Clean A Guinea Pig Cage
Keeping your guinea pig cage clean is extremely important for your pig’s health.Â
Not to mention, who wants a stanky house? Not I, not you, not anyone.
And to add on to that, your guinea pig will stare at you with those beady eyes, judging your non-cleaning capabilities.Â
Who wants to be judged by their guinea pig? Not I, not you, not anyone.
When you approach cleaning, you can break it down into two methods:
- Spot Cleaning
- Weekly Cleaning
Let’s take a look at the steps involved with each cleaning method.
Spot Cleaning
Spot cleaning should be done at least once every other day (although many owners do it daily).
You can leave your guinea pig in its cage while you perform these steps:
- Remove any soiled bedding and add fresh bedding to fill in what you removed.
- Remove visible waste (ahem – pig poo).
- Remove food and hay that has been knocked onto the bedding.
- Remove any fresh fruits or vegetables that you provided the day before.
- Remove any food, hay or bedding that has been kicked outside of the habitat.
- For fleece liners, use a brush to knock any waste loose and remove it.
- Top up the hay feeder with fresh grub
- Empty the water bottle and refill
That’s it!
Spot cleaning your guinea pig cage is a must. It not only keeps everything fresh, it keeps your pig happy.
Weekly Cleaning
You will want to schedule your weekly cleanings to be done on a day you have off so you don’t need to rush.
With that said, it should only take 30-45 minutes to do a complete cleaning.
First, you will want to temporarily relocate your guinea pig. Some ideas:
- Pet carrier or playpen
- Your bathtub – Make sure the drain is plugged.
- Free roam – If the room is setup with no wires on the ground and not accessible to other pets, you can let your pigs roam around while you clean
Next, you will need a cleaning solution to wipe everything down. I recommend a mixture of water and white distilled vinegar with a 1:1 ratio. Throw that into a spray bottle and you’re on your way.
Let’s get to it. Here are the steps you will want to take for the weekly cleaning:
- Remove all items from the cage such as food dishes, water bottle, hides, toys (pretty much everything besides the bedding).
- Remove all of the bedding. Toss it.
- Remove all of the newspaper or potty pads (if you use those). Toss it.
- Wipe down the cage bottom, sides and wires with the vinegar solution.
- Wipe down all hides, toys (not the chew toys) and fabric items with the vinegar solution.
- Replace all of the hay in the hay feeder.
- Use a bottle brush to clean out the water bottle (clean both tube and tip).
- Lay down fresh newspaper and potty pads (if you use those)
- Add new, fresh bedding
- Add all of the toys and hides back
Basically, this is almost a complete breakdown of the cage.
Some other tips:
- Using potty pads or newspaper adds an extra absorbent layer. Most of the time, you can lift the newspaper out and get most of the bedding that way.
- A shop vacuum can be your friend. Use that to quickly pick up any stray bedding and waste.
And voila! The piggy palace is shining.
How To Clean Fleece Liners
If you are using fleece liners/bedding, you will need to approach that part of the cleaning process a bit differently.
Rather than throwing the bedding away (like with normal shavings), you will want to wash it.
First, remove any debris. You can use a shop vacuum for most of this. A lint roller will work best at picking up hair.
Next, throw it into your washing machine and put it on a hot water cycle. Use a detergent that doesn’t have any type of additives or fillers. Add a little bit of vinegar to use as a disinfectant.
Lastly, put in the dryer or hang dry.
Once you’ve done that, you can add the fleece back to your guinea pig cage and then work on getting all the other items added back in.
That's A Wrap, Folks
So fresh and so clean.
Remember, a poorly maintained habitat can be detrimental to your guinea pig’s health.Â
By setting a schedule of spot cleaning and doing weekly deep cleaning, you will have yourself one happy and healthy pig.
Happy and healthy pigs won’t judge you 🙂
Thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out in the comments below. Cheers!