Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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~Rachel~
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Posted: Aug 12 2008 at 8:30am | IP Logged Quote ~Rachel~
Becky Parker wrote:
Okay, so what are we doing wrong? Why does our guinea pig create such an odor? My dd cleans the cage once a week. Should she be cleaning it more? We use cedar bedding. Is there something better. He really is cute. She loves him and carries him around a lot. His cage just really smells bad.


Becky, try cleaning out the toilet area of the cage on a daily basis. You may find that cedar just isn't the right bedding for your guinea pig. You can also use straw and hay- hay has the advantage of being edible too .
Is he an outdoor guinea pig? If he is an indoor one, you might try some of that odour neutralizer you can buy for the cage.
You can also try hosing the cage out every week with a cage cleaner.

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organiclilac
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Posted: Aug 12 2008 at 9:52am | IP Logged Quote organiclilac
Becky Parker wrote:
Okay, so what are we doing wrong? Why does our guinea pig create such an odor? My dd cleans the cage once a week. Should she be cleaning it more? We use cedar bedding. Is there something better. He really is cute. She loves him and carries him around a lot. His cage just really smells bad.


We have no problems with odor as long as we clean the cage twice a week. I think that you can also just clean out the wet areas every other day and add bedding to freshen the cage, and only do a total clean-out once a week. Everything I have read says that cedar shavings are not good for guinea pigs, because the aromatic oils are too hard on their respiratory system. Aspen is best, then pine. We use pine because the aspen is not quite as absorbent, and our guineas seem to handle it fine. Then there is also that Care Fresh stuff that looks like gray or colored fluff, but I think it is more expensive. Some people put a layer of that under the wood shavings, if you just want to use a little to help with odor.

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melanie
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Posted: Aug 14 2008 at 6:50am | IP Logged Quote melanie
We have two guinea pigs. We've had a few others over teh years. They are neat little pets, my oldest loves them. Some have been friendlier than others, though we've never had a biter or anything. Some have just been more nervous about being held and all. My daughter tends to pick them more on looks than personality , so I'd recommend not doing that. Hold several and pick the one that tolerates it best. :)

We just used pine shavings and she changes it once a week. The odor isnt' a problem, even with two in there.

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monica
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Posted: Aug 16 2008 at 6:20am | IP Logged Quote monica
thank you thank you to all responses. i think i am convinced to get a guinea pig. i think i will wait until christmas. one question, if you use straw or hay (these would be the most readily available here) can you put the used hay and straw in your compost pile?

thanks
monica

ps sorry about the typo, but i am glad it gave a few laughs
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SallyT
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Posted: Aug 16 2008 at 7:33am | IP Logged Quote SallyT
Yes, you can definitely compost straw, hay, or shavings. Guinea pigs are good for the garden! (so are rabbits -- as long as they themselves are not in the garden).

Sally

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