Do you want to have a cleaner, more organized home for your guinea pigs? If so, try your hand at litter training!
Here are the 8 steps to litter train guinea pigs:
- Find the best place to put your litter tray/box
- Get a suitable litter box
- Cover the litter area
- Use a different kind of bedding for the litter tray
- Put the food and water supply in/near the litter box
- Reward your piggy for going in the litter area
- Keep all of the droppings in the litter tray
- Keep the litter area clean
Now, before we talk about these steps, here are 9 things you should know before you start litter training guinea pigs:
1–Your Piggy may not have a Potty Corner
Guinea pigs can be grouped into two different types; the ones that like to do their business in certain areas of the cage, and the ones that just go wherever.
If you have a guinea pig that fits the first type, it is often a bit easier to litter train them because you can just put the litter tray wherever they prefer to use the bathroom. But if your piggy fits the second type, training will probably be a little harder, but it won’t be impossible.
If your piggy doesn’t have a potty corner, you may want to start litter training it with multiple litter areas, then slowly take some away until you are training it to use only one tray.
2–You may have to Train Your Piggy to Jump into the Tray
Your piggy may not be interested in the litter box, if this is the case, you may need to teach your guinea pig to jump into the litter tray.
To train your piggy to jump into the box, lure; which means guiding your piggy with a treat it likes, into the litter tray, and then reward it with the treat. Practice this as often as needed.
Also, make sure to put food in a tray to teach your piggy that if they go into the litter tray, they will get food.
3–Guinea Pigs Poop while they Eat
Although this information may seem useless, it actually is a good thing to know before litter training guinea pigs because this means that wherever you put their food, that is where their waste tends to be.
This means that you should put the piggies’ supply of food in a place where they will have to be standing in the tray to eat and not to put it in other parts of the cage (I will talk more about this later on).
4–Your Piggies will have Accidents
Guinea pigs cannot be trained to only poop in the litter tray, they will still have accidents even after they have been trained. You can teach them to mostly eliminate in the tray and this still makes cage cleaning easier than if you didn’t litter train them at all.
Just make sure that when you are training them, you are not expecting them to only poop in the tray.
5–Never Use Cat Litter for Guinea Pigs
Clumping cat litter contains chemicals which are harmful for guinea pigs. Also, if your guinea pigs eat clumping cat litter they can choke on it.
Regular cat litter is just as bad (if not worse) than clumping cat litter. When your guinea pig walks on the cat litter, it will hurt their feet. Also, if your guinea pig happens to eat the cat litter, it could kill them.
So, STAY AWAY FROM CAT LITTER!
6–Don’t Scold Your Piggy
Scolding your piggy for not using the litter box will not help at all with the training process, in fact, it is more likely that it will make training worse.
Hitting, poking or even just shouting at your guinea pig will only cause stress; it will not teach him (or her) to use their litter box. Also, over time, punishing your guinea pig will lead to it being afraid of you.
So, instead of scolding your piggy for pooping outside of the litter tray, continually put stray droppings in the tray and your guinea pig should eventually figure out that the tray is where the poop goes.
7–Your Piggy will Pee Wherever
Although you can teach your guinea pig to poop in a litter box, you most likely will not be able to teach it to pee in a litter box because guinea pigs urinate to mark their territory.
So, you may want to just focus on teaching your piggy to poop in the litter tray, and not necessarily try to teach your piggy to pee in the tray.
8–Be Patient
Being patient with your guinea pigs when they are being litter trained is very important. Remember that your piggy will not learn to poop in the litter box overnight, it will take some time. Also, being impatient with your piggy during training can lead to you scolding it and scolding it will most likely lead to stress.
9–Using more than One Litter Area
If your guinea pig has more than one area where they tend to eliminate or if they are the kind of guinea pig that poops all over the cage, using more than one litter area is a good idea.Put the litter areas where your piggies tend to eliminate and over time slowly take away all the litter trays except one.
Now let’s learn about the 8 steps to litter train guinea pigs!
Finding the Best Place for the Litter Tray
Where you put the litter tray can effect how soon your guinea pig is litter trained. The best place for the litter tray to be is in a place that you notice your guinea pigs like to eliminate.
As I mentioned earlier, some guinea pigs have corners that they prefer to eliminate in, while others go wherever they are standing at that moment. If your piggy has specific areas where it likes to do its business, it is relatively easy to know where you should put the litter tray (where it likes to go potty), but if your guinea pig poops all over the cage, it is a lot harder to know where the tray should go.
If your guinea pig is the kind that eliminates wherever it wants, try using multiple litter areas for it during training then taking some away slowly. This doesn’t mean that you have to buy a lot of different litter trays to use, you can also just put some newspaper on the ground to use as another litter area until your piggy learns to use just one litter tray.
Getting a Suitable Litter Box
Your guinea pigs litter box should be:
- Big enough for all of your piggies to be in it at once
- Short enough for your pets to get into
- Heavy–so it won’t tip over very much
How Big Should the Tray be?
Your litter tray should be big enough for all of your guinea pigs to be in it at the same time. Also, guinea pigs do not like to be all crowded together and because of this, the tray should be big enough for all of your guinea pigs to be in it together without touching each other.
In addition to this, each of your guinea pigs should be able to turn around easily in the tray.
Here is a good amount of space for the litter box: (Square centimeters are approximate).
| Number of Guinea pigs | Minimum Length | Minimum Width | Minimum Square Inches | Minimum Square Centimeters |
| 1 | 12 in (30 cm) | 12 in (30 cm) | 144 | 929 |
| 2 | 12 in (30 cm) | 12 in (30 cm) | 144 | 929 |
| 3 | 15 in (38 cm) | 12 in (30 cm) | 180 | 1161 |
| 4 | 15 in (38 cm) | 12 in (30 cm) | 180 | 1161 |
As you can probably tell, most litter boxes which are made for guinea pigs are too small. Because of this, it is a much better idea to use rabbit, ferret or even cat litter boxes for your piggies.
How Tall Should the Tray Be?
Your litter tray shouldn’t be taller than 2.5 inches (about 6 cm) if you want your piggy to be able to jump in and out of the tray easily.
If you do decide to get (or already have) a litter box which is taller then 2.5 inches (about 6 cm), you can use a something such as a flexible willow bridge to use a ramp for your guinea pigs to easily access the litter tray.
Even if you do use a ramp don’t use a litter tray that really tall because it can be dangerous if your piggy falls from a height of more than 6 inches (about 15 cm).
Another option is to cut one wall so that it is about 2.5 in (approximately 6 cm) tall and there is a place where your guinea pig can easily access the litter tray. If you do this, it doesn’t matter how tall the tray is. Just make sure that you sand down any rough areas before using it for your piggies.
Litter Training without a Litter Box
You can also litter train guinea pigs without using a litter box if you prefer and it works just as well.
To do this you will train them the same way you would if you were using a litter box. You would train them to go potty on newspaper that you put on the floor of the cage. If you do this you will have to change the newspaper a lot or you can also use a divider panel to separate the cage.
Covering the Litter Area
Most guinea pigs prefer a dark, quiet place to ‘do their business’. Because of this, covering the litter area makes the training go a bit faster.
You can easily cover the area by draping a clean fleece liner or even an old towel over it. You can also buy a covered litter box, although this can be a bit more expensive.
Another good thing about covering the litter area is that the litter tray becomes a hideout, so that you don’t have to have as many hideouts in the rest of the cage.
Using a Different Type of Bedding for the Litter Tray
Although this step may not seem too important, using another kind of bedding for the litter area than you use for the rest of the cage is actually very important because it helps the piggies tell the difference between the litter place and the rest of the cage.
I use aspen shavings for the litter area and fleece for the rest of the cage.
Almost any combination a safe bedding would work well, although I wouldn’t recommend using fleece for the litter box because you will have to spot-clean and wash it a lot.
If you want to use two kinds of bedding that are very similar to each other (E.g. Two different kinds of paper bedding), make sure they each have different textures and colors so your guinea pigs can tell them apart.
Putting Food and Water in or near the Litter Box
This is another very important step for litter training guinea pigs, because, like I mentioned earlier, guinea pigs poop while they eat.
Your guinea pigs’ hay-rack should be in a place where your guinea pigs will have to be in the box to access it; hay shouldn’t be supplied anywhere else in the cage.
If your litter box has high walls, you can also put the hay in the box, as long as you take out the soiled hay often. Put the water bottle in the litter box, too. Also, it’s a good idea to put the pellet bowl very close to the entrance to the litter box.
Rewarding Your Piggy for Going in the Litter Area
To teach your guinea pig to go into the litter area a lot, in the beginning of the training process you should give your piggy a treat whenever it gets into the litter tray.
Depending on the guinea pig, you may have to keep rewarding it for getting in the area for a long while or your guinea pig may be just fine with the reward of ‘when I get in the tray I will get hay’ so you won’t have to keep rewarding it for getting in the box.
Great Treats for Rewarding Your Piggy when it Gets in the Litter Tray
Most guinea pig treats that are available at pet stores contain added sugar or added colors (or both), fruit has too much sugar to be fed every day, and snacks made for people are not safe for guinea pigs to eat. So, what kinds of treats are suitable for rewarding your guinea pigs?
Here is a list of a few different kinds of treats that are good for rewarding your piggy:
- Fresh Veggies and Greens
- Dried Veggies
- Your piggies’ favorite part of the hay
Here are a few fresh, healthy vegetables that make good everyday treats in small amounts:
- Bell pepper (no other kind of peppers, though)–with seeds removed; any color
- Lettuce (Romaine, red leaf or green leaf)
Dried vegetables such as pea flakes also make amazing treats, just make sure to only feed 3 dime sized pea flakes a day at most. Other dried veggies are great treats as long as you feed them in moderation. Parts of your guinea pigs hay that they like the best can also make good treats.
Keeping the Droppings in the Litter Tray
To litter train guinea pigs, you will have to teach them that the litter tray is where they are supposed to go potty. This means that you should put the droppings that are outside of the litter tray in it.
Once a day, put any droppings that were not in the litter box in it. This is probably the easiest to do if you use fleece for the cage (except for the litter area, that is) because with fleece you can just sweep up all of the droppings and throw them into the litter area.
At first, this means you will have to do more cage cleaning, but as time goes on the guinea pigs will use their tray more and you will have less cage cleaning to do.
Keeping the Litter Area Clean
You should keep the litter area clean so that your guinea pigs will not start avoiding it because it’s really dirty.
Usually it’s good to take out any soiled bedding from the litter tray once a day. However, if your piggies like to sleep in the box or sit in it for long periods of time, you may want to change it more often–maybe twice a day instead of once.
Also, it depends what kind of bedding you use for the tray; if you use fleece for the litter area–which I would not recommend–you probably should sweep off any droppings 2-3 times a day and wash it a few times a week.
If you use newspaper for the litter box, you should change the newspaper 1-2 times a day.
On the other hand, if you use wood shavings or paper bedding you should probably spot-clean it every day and thoroughly clean it once a week.
I hope that this has been helpful for litter training your piggies!
