Anonymous wrote:My now tween has been the primary caretaker of the guinea pig since they were 8 or 9. Cage must be cleaned every week, good, thick bedding and lots of fresh hay also help.
Teach your child how to throughly clean the cage and then set the expectation that they clean it every week. Mine needs occasional reminders but that (and buying supplies) is my only responsibility.

Could have written this myself! Weekly cleaning is a must. Part of the cleaning includes spraying the cage down with the deodorizing spray.

They attract gnats. 100s of annoying gnats.

Anonymous wrote:Urine smell is foul. Never again.

+1 I can still vividly remember the smell from my childhood. Nope!

Yes.

yes they stink

Hay can make them smell worse.

Scrub the cage weekly, scoop any obvious wet bedding daily.

Anonymous wrote:No but consider that they can live 5-6 years. Ours are 5 now even though we got them from Petsmart where the life expectancy is 1-2 years.

Our last guinea pig lived until 9! I wasn't expecting that from a Petsmart piggie.

Sometimes the paper bedding can actually stink more than the pigs

We use fleece for most of the cage bottom and then only a small part of the cage is covered with paper bedding. It makes it easier to clean up daily. The fleece can easily be brushed off an washed in the washing machine.

Wet paper bedding has to be cleaned up daily. It's pretty easy to scoop out the soiled paper bedding for disposal. The urine might smell but the poop doesn't. Also boys tend to be a bit smellier than girls.

Urine smell is foul. Never again.

We had two once my kids' hamsters died and they begged me for a pair. We adopted an older pair thinking they wouldn't live very long. Two years later we realized we were severely allergic to the hay and we didn't think they were having their best life with us. We sent them back to the shelter who promptly re--adopted them out. Know what you are in for, and don't go into it thinking it's cheap - our dog is on multiple medicines and she is still way cheaper than those two pigs we had.

No but consider that they can live 5-6 years. Ours are 5 now even though we got them from Petsmart where the life expectancy is 1-2 years.

They need to be kept in a group of at least two.
And no they aren't smelly if you clean the cage properly.

My now tween has been the primary caretaker of the guinea pig since they were 8 or 9. Cage must be cleaned every week, good, thick bedding and lots of fresh hay also help.
Teach your child how to throughly clean the cage and then set the expectation that they clean it every week. Mine needs occasional reminders but that (and buying supplies) is my only responsibility.

If you clean the cage weekly, not much. Just smells like fresh hay, usually.

Our tween is begging for a pig but from what I’ve read their care is involved snd they can create a mess and be smelly. Also, I think my kid won’t live up to promises of taking care of it and cleaning the cage.