Guinea pigs digging???-c&c cage

Question

My 4 girl guinea pigs live in a 2-by-5 c&c cage which they moved into about a month and a half ago.

I bed them on a layer of newspaper, towels and fleece on the top.

I shake their fleece blankets out once a day which takes aboout a minute so its really good time-wise. I wash their bedding once a week.

The other day I noticed the fleece had been pulled up a bit and guinea pig poo on the towels.

I had to take out the towels and shake them off too which took an extra 10 minutes cos they were more akward to remove than the fleece.

The next couple of days was the same- having to shake off the towels aswell and it became increasingly annoying as it was really time consuming.

The next day when I went to clean out the guinea pigs, I watched them as I put them back in their cage.

Each of my four girls went to a corner of the cage and started to kind-of "dig" and pull the blankets up and then burrowed under them.

It is sooo annoying as not only does cleaning take longer, but the towels get dirtier quicker cos when the guinea pigs walk ontop of the fleece, all the poos get squashed into the towels.

I put some stones down to keep the guinea pigs from burrowing but they just keep finding more ways to get under.

They have a pigloo, a hammock, a bed and snuggle sack to go in so why do they keep trying to go under their bedding???

Does anyone else have the same problem???

Does anyone have any good solutions or ideas for this annoying problem???

Keeping in mind that I need something that wont take much time to remove or something so I can quickly shake the blankets out.

Thanks

Answer 1

     Cage Size Standards

   13 sq ft more is better 30" x 76" 2x6 grids 27" x 84"

i use ceader shavings buy at pet store

Answer 2

we have had twenty two guinea pigs all over a ten year period and i wonder, why are you going to so much trouble, all they need in their cage is a two inch layer of wood chips, cedar works best, a pigloo for them, food, water and some toys, remove the items and scoop out the chips every couple of days to change it, i use a dust pan bought just for this purpose, they do not need bedding, towels, rocks etc, where did you even get that idea?  the only time they need bedding to burrow in is if you keep them outdoors when it is cold and then you use hay, not towels and rocks and fleece............hope this helps, take it from a guinea pig owner many times over

Answer 3

Hi, I have my girls in a cage about the size as yours and I also use the fleece method for bedding.

I mainly rely on bricks - make sure they are heavy enough, eg house bricks, so the pigs can't move them. I use 6 in my cage - one in each corner, plus one in the middle of the longer side.

I've also started using binder clips (aka bulldog clips). If your fleece is long enough to reach to the top edge of the coroplast, just fold it over and clip it in place.

I use one binder clip between each pair of bricks.

If you still have problems after adding more bricks or clips, try making one whole pad for the piggies. Instead of towels try a mattress pad (I started on towels, but since using the matterss pad I will not go back!) You can then sew the fleece onto the mattress pad so the pigs can't get between them.

Hope this helps.

PS - to the above poster - the "fleece method" is a great alternative to loose bedding. Check out this link for more info.

http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/bedd...

By the way - cedar is toxic, potentially fatal, to guinea pigs and most other small animals. It contains high levels of phenols which are known to cause respiratory and liver disease. For loose bedding carefresh and aspen are far better.