Guinea pigs are great pets. They provide companionship and comfort, and are not high maintenance to take care of. That being said, there are some necessary steps you should take if you care for a guinea pig. One of the most important aspects of a guinea pig’s life is hygiene. If you aren’t diligent about keeping their space clean, it can cause their cage and even the room to smell.
In today’s article, we are going to cover everything you need to know about how to get rid of guinea pig smell in a room.
How to get rid of guinea pig smell in room
The key to getting rid of guinea pig smell in a room is to do a weekly thorough clean, spot clean daily, set up a litter box, use cage spray, special bedding, bath occasionally, and avoid gassy foods.
Weekly thorough clean
The best way to get rid of a guinea pig smell in a room is to thoroughly clean their cage once a week. When you do this, you should start by getting rid of all the “used bedding.” This means the bedding where you guinea pig used the bathroom, and also the bedding where they laid down a lot.
It should be pretty obvious which bedding your guinea pig has used, as it will either be damp or pressed down more compared to the unused hay. You should remove the rest of the unused hay so that the bottom of the cage is visible.
Next, you should use warm water and soap and scrub down the bottom of the cage as well as the sides. You can also put some white vinegar in the water while cleaning. This will help mask some of the odor. If you have a guinea pig fleece, you should put it in the washing machine.
Doing a weekly thorough clean is also very important for you guinea pig’s health. A guinea pig living in a dirty environment might develop crusty eyes or start losing hair around their eyes.
Spot clean daily
It is important to spot clean on a daily basis. This should only take a minute or two. All you need to do is discard any of the bedding that has poop in it
Set up a litter box area
You can save a lot of time if you are able to train your guinea pig to poop and pee in the same spot of the cage. This will make it easier to remove the smelly bedding. To litter train your guinea pig, put a lot of bedding near where they eat, as this is where they tend to pee and poop.
You should only use bedding in the litter area, as cat litter can be toxic to a guinea pig if they ingest it.
Cage Spray
There are plenty of cheap spray you can buy on amazon that you can use to mask the smell of your guinea pig and their waste. You should try to find an enzyme based spray, as these work the best for concealing odor.
Make sure that the spray bottle you get is safe for guinea pigs. Before you spray the cage, remove all of the bedding from the cage that has been used. After you spray the cage, you should wait a couple minutes for it to soak in. Afterwards, wipe the cage down with a clean towel. Once the spray has dried, you can put in fresh bedding. Once the dry bedding is placed in the cage, you can put the guinea pig back inside.
Special bedding
There are plenty of special bedding hay that is designed to mask the odor of the guinea pig. This hay works similar to cat litter, and soaks up moisture and odor. While this bedding tends to cost more than regular hay, it is a great way to keep your cage smelling fresh.
When you place bedding in your guinea pig cage, you should make sure there is around 2-4 inches worth.
Occasional baths
While guinea pigs usually do a good job of grooming themselves, you can help them stay clean by giving them an occasional bath. You should only bathe your guinea pig when you notice they are really smelly and have matted fur.
To learn more, check out my article on Can you bathe guinea pigs?
Avoid gassy foods
While guinea pigs love vegetables, there are some vegetables that you should not feed your guinea pig. In particular, you should not feed your guinea pig broccoli or brussels sprouts. Guinea pigs have a hard time digesting these foods, and it can cause them to become gassy. As you might expect, a gassy guinea pig will soon be a smelly guinea pig.
Things you shouldn’t do when cleaning guinea pig cage
There are certain things you should never do when trying to clean your guinea pig’s cage to remove smell. In particular, you should never put any bleach based solution into your cage, as this is very toxic to guinea pigs.
As I mentioned earlier, you should also never put cat litter into your guinea pig cage.
Lastly, make sure that your guinea pig cage is completely dry after you clean it. If you put a guinea pig in a cage that is moist, it can cause their fur to get wet and cause their body temperature to drop.
Conclusion
I hope this article gave you some good ideas on how to get rid of guinea pig smell in a room. If all else fails, you might want to consider moving your guinea pig cage to a different room. A guinea pig cage will be less smelly if it is placed in a larger room because the smell can become more dispersed.
Another last ditch effort is to spray the room with febreze. If you do this, make sure that the febris does not get inside the cage. There are also some air fresheners you can plug into an outlet if all else fails.