Is it a girl thing?

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Asha

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2012
Messages
146
Location
Florida
*sigh* Well here it goes......I love my two female chinnies very much, but I'm not too sure what to do about their potty issues. Of course they both pee in a specific corner of the cage, but this is getting super frustrating because it ends up all over my tile floor! I don't have a fancy FN or anything, no wheels either so its not up off the ground. Its just a simple all metal cage that sits on the floor. Is this a common issue with female chins? Do they have tendencies to let their pee go everywhere? I also have 4 males, none of which make this type of mess! Its probably time for a cage upgrade, but in the meantime I was curious if other people had these issues with females or if mine are just particularly messy.
 
Some girls are known sprayers. I don't know if you could do anything about that. I would suggest to put something underneath their cage or on the floor area that you could wash, wipe or throw away. I have a sheet of fleece that covers the entire back part of my boys' cages for that same reason.
 
Are they spraying out of the cage and staining the walls too? or is it just getting on the bars of the cage and running down the outside? If they are just peeing on the bars you might try finding or making a larger litter pan for the cage to sit inside of. You could get a plastic pan from tractor supply that might work, they sell some for rabbit cages they carry, or you could try short but rather large plastic storage bins. They sell quite a few different size ones at walmart that might work. If one bin by itself isn't big enough, you could always buy two of them and cut off one side of each and fix them together somehow to make one large pan. It wouldn't necessarily be water proof that way, but it could help to catch the pee so it doesn't stain the tiles. If pee is being sprayed on the walls then hanging a sheet up behind the cage is a good option so long as its out of their reach, or even hanging a big piece of card board would work. Another option might be to buy a metal corner litter pan and stick that in the corner where they tend to pee and you may be able to potty train them. Look for a litter pan with at least two sides which are higher so as to block the pee from flying everywhere.
 
could you stand the cage on a large piece of linoleum? That would be easy to wipe clean.
 
These are all great ideas, thank you! Mostly, its just on the bars and runs onto the floor. Thank goodness its not on the walls! I'll probably look into getting a pan AND something for the floor like linoleum for double protection! I rent so I don't want the chinnies leaving any permanent damage. So far I've always been able to scrub it up, but its still a pain in the butt to do all the time.
 
If they have a favorite corner, you could put a high sided corner pan with shavings/Carefresh in it and the high corner would help contain their pee. You could also put a piece of fleece over both sides of the corner as a shield, and something under the cage to catch the runoff.
 
I keep a big mat under my cage. I got it at Home Depot - its sort of like an indoor outdoor rug on one side and rubber on the bottom.....I just flipped it over so the rubber side is up and the rug part is down.
 
Aha. Maybe this is what is happening with my little girl. She does not spray, but I have noticed that when I get up in the morning, the floor around her cage is wet. Perhaps she is just peeing weirdly too. Does anyone have a link or suggestion of a non-plastic high-backed litter pan? All the ones I have found are plastic.
 
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