One week ago today, my guinea pig, Copper, died.  It's still hard to believe it was such a short time ago.

Today was a day of getting everything cleaned up and ready.  I used disinfectant wipes on the bin and bars of the cage as well as the carrier.  Then I scrubbed them down with hot water and soap.  I also soaked all the plastic and ceramic items and scrubbed them with soap.  You want to be sure to make everything clean and sanitized.  But if you use disinfectant wipes, be sure to wash everything really good to get the chemicals off!  You don't want your new pig to get sick!

Even if you get everything new, be sure to wash it.  Yes it's unused, but you want to be sure to get off anything that might have settled on it during processing, storing, and shipping.  I have yet to wash the new cage, but I've done enough for one night.  I'll try to get that washed out in a few days.

Also, if your pig had anything wood in their cage, throw it away!  Do NOT give anything made of wood to the next pig.  Wood can hold germs and other bad things really well.  There's not really a way to clean and sanitize wood, so it's best to just throw it away and get new wooden things for the next pig.  New wooden things are really the only things I don't wash before hand.  And, it's best to NOT wash the salt lick.  That seems a obvious thing, but I don't want someone coming back later and saying, "you didn't warn me!"