Have you ever noticed the inside of your guinea pig’s water bottle looking a bit sludgy? Does your guinea pig seem to have trouble getting the water to come out? Over time, green gunk (“hay sludge”, mmm!) can build up in the tube as well as the main container of your guinea pig’s water bottle. How do you clean your guinea pig’s water bottle to help make sure it’s nice and sludge-free? Find out below!

How to Clean a Guinea Pig Watter Bottle

First, unscrew the cap of the water bottle and put the dispenser under some warm running water and shake it around a bit. This will help give it a good rinse for starters.

Next, fill the basin of the water bottle about 2/3 full with warm water and either put the cap on or hold your thumb or palm over the opening and shake it vigorously over the sink. The friction of the water combined with water’s solvent properties can help ‘scrub’ off some of the buildup on the insides of the glass or plastic of the guinea pig water bottle. Give it a good rinse with clean water.

If you’re still seeing buildup, particularly in the dispenser area, you can take a cotton swab and poke it in from the opening where your piggie drinks to clean near where the little ball rolls around, and again from the other direction in the cap.

You may be able to find a small bottle brush to help scrub the inside of the bottle, but here’s a hack that can be very effective – use rice! If you fill the bottle up with some rice and a bit of water and give it a vigorous shake, this will help scrub the sides, and then rinse the rice and water out thoroughly.

While you can use a bit of soap, it’s super important to make sure that if you do that you rinse and rinse and rinse until you’re absolutely sure it’s completely soap-free, as you don’t want your piggie ingesting any soap!

I hope these guinea pig water bottle cleaning tips have been helpful for you!

For more tips and a complete illustrated guide to care of your guinea pig, check out The Guinea Pig Guide book here!