The full clean: roughly weekly, adjusted to your cage
A full clean means the pigs come out into a secure pen, every scrap of bedding is removed, the base and bars are wiped or washed, and the cage is rebuilt with fresh bedding, hay and houses. Once a week suits most pairs in a generously sized cage. Clean sooner — every four or five days — if the cage is at the smaller end, you keep three or more pigs, or you house boars, who scent-mark enthusiastically and turn bedding sour well before the week is out. Fleece bedding changes the pattern: the fleece itself needs swapping and washing every few days, with absorbent layers beneath checked at the same time, because fleece wicks moisture down rather than holding it at the surface.
What the daily spot-clean actually covers
Spot-cleaning takes five minutes and targets the places pigs actually soil. Lift out the visibly wet bedding — usually the corners, under the water bottle and inside the favourite sleeping house — along with the heaped droppings pigs leave in one latrine corner. Shake loose hay and hair out of fleece, or sweep scattered bedding back from the food area. Top up hay with a fresh handful, because yesterday's hay has been slept on, and check the water bottle or bowl: refill with fresh water and confirm the bottle's ball tip still runs. That small daily pass is what prevents the sharp ammonia smell that otherwise greets you by midweek.
Why the wet patches matter most
Guinea pigs live at floor level with their noses close to the bedding, so the ammonia rising from urine-soaked patches builds up exactly where they breathe, irritating airways day after day. Damp bedding against the feet also softens the skin of the soles, which is how sore, swollen feet start in pigs kept on wet floors. This is why the daily spot-clean is not a cosmetic extra: removing the wettest handfuls of bedding each day does more for your pigs' lungs and feet than doubling the size of the weekly clean while leaving the cage untouched in between.
Running the full clean without stressing the pigs
Move the pigs to their pen first, with hay and a hide, so nobody is chased around a half-emptied cage. Empty everything out, then wipe the base with a pet-safe disinfectant or hot soapy water, rinse well and let it dry fully before fresh bedding goes in — disinfectant residue and damp bases both undermine the clean. Wash food bowls and check the bottle spout for green algae or blockages. Put houses and tunnels back in a slightly rearranged layout if your pigs enjoy exploring, but return the main sleeping house to its usual corner so the cage still smells and feels like home.
Sharing the two jobs fairly
Cleaning slips when it silently belongs to whoever notices the smell first. Split it deliberately instead: quick spot-cleans on a daily rotation, the full weekly clean owned by one person or tackled by two together. Listing both as recurring duties in KinsLe's Care Teams, each marked complete with a timestamp when done, means the person spot-cleaning on Thursday can see the full clean really happened on Sunday — and the pigs never depend on one memory.