Guinea Pig Freaked Out

tphilp92 · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:50 am

Hi guys,
My wife and I have had our Guinea Pig for about 3 1/2 years now. We have been using the carefresh bedding. We decided to change him over to fleece bedding because we had heard that it was better for him. We had wicked the bedding by washing it with an unscented detergent. But when we put the fleece in the cage and put him back in it he began to freak out. He was throwing himself around the cage and it was not his normal popcorning. So my wife caught him and pulled him out of the cage. Then we took the fleece out and cleaned the cage and put care fresh back in. We put him back in his cage and he started to freak out again so we put his house in there and he ran underneath it and he has not came out as far as we know. This happened almost 14 hours ago. We have been putting food and hay near his house which he will pull it in his house to eat. And he has barely drank anything from the water bottle. But we have been giving him veggies to help with the water. We do not know what to, any advice would be helpful. Please and thank you

bpatters · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:56 am

Who knows what goes on in guinea pig brains? They just get weirded out about the strangest things. Put the hidey near the water bottle and continue to put his food where he can get to it. It might help to drape a cloth over one end of the cage so he's protected from the eagles he's sure are flying around your living room. He'll get over it.

tphilp92 · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 10:13 am

Thank you for the suggestion. He is constantly sniffing the air. Is that normal when they are scared. He use to not do that as often as he does now it seems

bpatters · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 12:24 pm

Nothing is normal when he's scared. There's no way to predict what a scared pig will do, except that they'll hide. But I certainly wouldn't worry about him sniffing.

Did you do an extra rinse when you washed the fleece? And you often have to wash it several times, in hot water and bleach, before it will wick properly.

tphilp92 · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 12:28 pm

No we didn't do an extra wash. We didnt think that we had to do that. Would that have helped?

bpatters · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 12:53 pm

Who knows? But it couldn't have hurt. Sometimes it takes a while to get the odors out of new fabrics, and fleece often doesn't wick until it's been washed several times.

What kind of absorbent layer did you put under the fleece?

tphilp92 · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 12:56 pm

We went and bought regular towels. It absorbed the water pretty fast when we tested it out

bpatters · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 1:31 pm

Towels will smell quicker than potty pads or pellets. If you have a problem with odor, you should consider trying pellets. They're by far the most effective, the cheapest, and require the least amount of work.

tphilp92 · Post » Sun Mar 10, 2019 1:40 pm

Since he freaked out so bad we decided to keep him on care fresh. But it seems like he hasnt really calmed to much. He just sits in his house and doesnt come out at all. I put food and hay near him so he would eat it. But other that sticking his head out he hasnt done much