mayo.

getting my thoughts down about some of the problems and frustrations i have with the up keep of the guinea pigs and their enclosure…. 

a lot of the process is really a two person job (which is another aspect that i would like to consider in the design). today we cleaned the guinea pigs’ enclosure, gave them a bath and everything. the whole process was very time consuming, kind of gross, and really itchy.

we started with the baths

bw was notably dirty (especially because of his long fluffy hair + he’s kind of a <3dummy and doesn’t have the best hygiene skills).

it took [at least] two buckets of water to wash each of the guinea pigs. an hour and half-ish. 4 towels. 2 [plastic] buckets & and cup. shampoo. craisins (treats for being good boys). a hair dryer. nail clippers. and a laundry basket. im not sure if i want to go into the bath stuff for this project but it is something i have to deal with and it is a lot of time and supplies (and waste), just for the bath >.<

while the guineas got settled in their laundry basket to nap and air dry what the hair dryer didn’t get, we moved on to their stinky enclosure (which had gotten pretty damn bad after a week and a half)…

 we had laid down newspaper with the intention that it would make for an easier cleanup; however the guineas apparently thought that it would be fun to rip it up and poop under it. they also stay in their houses most of the time, where they also do most of their bathroom stuff, so the houses were also pretty dirty along the bottom edges + dustyness.

after removing all of the newspaper and cardboard (and sneezing a lot), we used a broom and plastic lid to get the rest of the bedding and poop. next we used water and vinegar to clean the base. and then we took the base outside to rinse it off.

while the base was drying, i washed the houses and food bowls in the the kitchen sink (one of the houses was a bit too big…so water was splashing a lot)

while i dried the plastics, stanley put the base back into the enclosure. then i laid down newspaper. cardboard on top of that. and aspen shavings on top of the cardboard. put houses and food bowls back in place, attached the water bottle and filled bowls with food.  2 hours from start and we’re [finally] finished. 

and we have to do this every week. it sucks when one of us has to do it by ourselves. i’m excited about sketching up some new ideas about how to improve this whole process. i think that it would be great if i could develop a new system/product that incorporated all of the completely separate parts (such as the housing structure/food dish/bedding/etc…) into a [for the most part] self contained unit. something that’s simple, quick and easy to set up + use + dispose of. idk? we’ll see… now back to sketching!