Do guinea pigs smell? The simple answer is yes, they do. What they smell like is a different matter altogether. In my experience, people’s sense of smell is always vaguely different but very similar. For example, I characterize a guinea pig’s normal smell like freshly cut hay. But I have heard people say their guinea pig smells like freshly cut grass. This is even the case when we are using the exact same bedding material.
In my experience though, the smell and strength of the guinea pig’s smell will really depend on a few factors. These being:
- The size of the cage
- The type of bedding you use
- How often do you clean your guinea pig cage
Concerned About Guinea Pig Smell?
Odds are, if you are asking this question, you are contemplating buying a guinea pig. However, you might be slightly worried about the smell and how this is gonna affect your everyday life, Correct? If that’s the case, there are a few solutions you can look at to sort out the smell from your guinea pig.
CritterZone Odor Control
Personally, I love having my guinea pigs inside. It means they are always close at hand, I can check up on them whenever I want and it means they never get cold. In saying this, their cage and the room that they are in can get smelly from time to time. So I have placed CritterZone’s odor control filters around and next to the cage. These little devices have pretty much completely gotten rid of the smell while cleaning the air at the same time.
I always recommend these air filters to anyone even if they aren’t asking me if guinea pigs smell. These air filters, unlike chemical-based ‘air fresheners’, clean their air rather than introducing a new scent. Critterzone’s air fresheners can actually improve your guinea pig’s health as well by providing a higher level of air quality than was previously possible.
Check it out below, they go into a lot more depth than possible can in this one article, but they have honestly been such a game-changer.
If you are looking for a more in-depth review, feel free to check out this article here.
Outdoor Guinea Pig Cage
The first thing you can do is look at buying an outdoor cage for your guinea pig. Guinea pigs are more than suited to live outdoors, as long as they have adequate bedding and protection from the rain. If you are looking for a good cage that will be suitable for the outdoors check out this article here.
Getting an outdoor cage won’t exactly get rid of the guinea pig smell, but it will certainly remove it from inside your house. Once again, just make sure you have adequate guinea pig bedding and that your guinea pigs have enough protection from the elements.
Clean Your Guinea Pig Cage
As far as health aspects go, you really don’t need to clean your guinea pig cage once a week as some people recommend. You can get away with cleaning the cage once every two weeks and even three if the cage is pretty big. The real reason people do a deep clean of their guinea pig cage is due to the smell. My advice though is to get hold of one of the critter zone’s devices. If you are having to clean the cage and change out the bedding every week, you are gonna be spending a bit of money unnecessarily. Critterzones’ air filter prevents exactly this. It means you only have to clean your guinea pig cage when it is truly needed rather than when it smells like it is needed.
Buy A Scented Bedding Material
Getting scented bedding is great if you want to mask the guinea pig smell. However, when you are looking at buying scented bedding, make sure you get one that is chemical-free. A lot of the beddings out there have been infused with harmful toxins just to create a ‘fresh scent’ which is incredibly bad for your guinea pig’s respiratory system.
If you are considering this option, take a look at this article here.
So Do Guinea Pigs Smell?
Yes, they do! But if this is deterring you from becoming a guinea pig pet owner, don’t let it! There are so many solutions out there that make this problem pretty much disappear. Check them out and tell me which one has worked best for you!