Cleaning your guinea pig’s cage is an essential part of their care routine, ensuring a healthy and hygienic environment. This article explains how to perform a daily spot clean, a full clean, and offers some of the best hacks to make cleaning your guinea pig’s cage easier.
Daily Cleaning: How to Spot Clean a Guinea Pig Cage
Weekly cleans are not sufficient to maintain a healthy environment for your guinea pigs. Daily spot cleaning between deep cleans is a quick and easy task that is necessary to keep their habitat hygienic, safe, and odour-free.
- Remove Poops: For washable bedding, use a dustpan and brush to clean up poops. With disposable bedding, a cat litter scoop works well to collect and remove any piles of poops.
- Damp Areas: Replace damp or dirty pee pads. For disposable bedding, remove any wet areas on the surface and add fresh bedding as needed.
- Remove Old Food: Discard any uneaten fresh food and soiled hay from the cage.
Weekly Cleaning: How to Deep Clean a Guinea Pig’s Cage
Your guinea pig’s cage needs a full change of bedding and a deep clean at least once a week.
Depending on the type of bedding, the number of guinea pigs, and the size of the enclosure, more frequent cleans may be necessary. Smaller cages become soiled much faster than larger ones, especially with multiple guinea pigs.
Before you start, make sure you have all the necessary cleaning supplies on hand:
- Cage disinfectant for small pets (or white vinegar)
- Cleaning cloth or scrubbing brush
- Small old towel or large cloth (to dry the cage)
- An old toothbrush (optional but handy for corners and edges)
- Dustpan and brush (some use a handheld vacuum cleaner)
- Cat litter scoop (if using disposable bedding)
- Bucket or tub for water
- Bin bag
- Clean Bedding
Step 1. Remove the Guinea Pigs
Before starting the cage clean, place your guinea pigs somewhere safe. This could be a pen, a run, or a large cardboard box with high sides to prevent escape. Make sure they have plenty of hay during this time. If you have an extra-large cage like mine, you can clean half the cage at a time while the guinea pigs remain in the other half.
Step 2. Remove Accessories and Old Bedding
Take out all the hideouts, food bowls, and hay feeders. Then, remove the old bedding.
For disposable bedding, use a dustpan and brush to scoop it into a bin bag (or compost it if possible). Ensure you brush away all the remaining bits.
Some people like to use a handheld vacuum cleaner to suck up the small bits of hay and poops. Personally, I find it easier with a dustpan and brush.
Step 3. Disinfect the Cage
If using white vinegar, mix equal parts of vinegar and water in a bucket. Soak your cloth in this solution and thoroughly wipe down all surfaces.
If using a pet-friendly disinfectant, fill your bucket with warm water, spray the cage with the disinfectant, and use your cloth or brush to scrub the cage clean.
Make sure you get into all the corners and edges, using an old toothbrush if needed. Clean the sides of the cage as well.
If any of the hideouts or other accessories need cleaning, do this at the same time. This is also a good opportunity to give the water bottle a deep clean.
It’s important not to use ordinary household cleaners or bleach, as these chemicals can be harmful to your pets.
Step 4. Dry The Cage
Once the cage is thoroughly cleaned, dry all surfaces with a towel or large cloth. If you are cleaning a wooden hutch, you may need to allow extra time for the hutch to be fully dry.
Step 5. Add Clean Bedding & Accessories
Once the cage is completely dry, add the fresh bedding. At this stage, I like to spray the cage with Pestavert. This aromatic product is designed for use on guinea pigs to keep pests away and is 100% safe. Spraying the bedding provides added protection and leaves an amazing scent!
Replace the clean accessories in the cage, ensuring the water bottle is refilled and the hay is refreshed.
Step 6. Put Guinea Pigs in Cage
Now that you’re finished, you can put the guinea pigs back in their clean cage.
After all your hard work, your guinea pigs will show their appreciation by exploring every corner of their refreshed environment. They might even reward you with some happy popcorning! Their joy is a clear sign that their well-being is greatly improved by a clean and healthy habitat.
Hacks to Make Cage Cleaning Easy
There are several hacks that make it easy to keep the cage clean. Here are some of the best tips that I’ve found helpful:
- Use Pee Pads in Hideout Areas: Hideout areas tend to get soiled quickly, so use pee pads in these areas. They are easy to swap out between full cleans. I cut bobble bath mats into four and use them as pee pads.
- Create a Dining Area: Eating areas can get damp quickly, so create a dedicated dining area to keep the rest of the cage relatively unsoiled.
- Use Bobble Bath Mats as Bedding: I’ve tried all bedding types, both washable and disposable, and found bobble bath mats to be the best for making cleaning easy. They’ve made a massive difference in my cleaning routine.
- Spot Clean Regularly: Regular spot cleaning keeps the environment fresh and reduces the need for more frequent deep cleans.
- Organise Cleaning Accessories: Keep all your cleaning accessories in one place, preferably in a cleaning caddy. This is the best way to stay organised and cuts down on the time it takes to do spot cleans and full cleans.
By implementing these hacks, you’ll find it much easier to maintain a clean and healthy environment for your guinea pigs.
The Importance of a Clean Cage
Maintaining a clean cage has numerous advantages, not least of which is the happiness of your guinea pigs. Here are some reasons why it is vital to keep the cage clean:
- Prevent Urine Scalds: Damp areas can cause painful urine scalds on their feet and make their bottoms sore.
- Avoid Flystrike: A dirty and smelly cage attracts flies, which can be lethal to your guinea pigs. (See my page on flystrike for more information.)
- Control Odours: Excessive urine and faeces in a cage will cause bacteria to grow and create bad odours.
- Prevent Disease: A buildup of bacteria can cause disease in your guinea pigs.
- Enhance Well-being: A dirty cage is detrimental to a guinea pig’s well-being.
While cage cleaning is not a popular job, it doesn’t take very long to spot clean or to do a full clean. A spot clean is very quick and takes me about five minutes, while a full clean takes around twenty minutes to half an hour. If I have to clean the wooden hideouts, it takes a bit longer.