Guinea Pig Is Afraid Of His Pigloo

Question
Hi, any help you could give me on this would be very much appreciated.

this afternoon I cleaned out my guinea pigs Pigloo house with soap and water, rinsed and dried well. After putting it back in the pig's cage, He started throwing himself at the sides of the cage, as if he was afraid of it. His balance was fine, and seemed to calm down when he was taken out of the cage. We took the house out of the cage, and he has since stopped trying to flee from it. But, he's still not acting himself. He was acting perfectly normal until we cleaned his house. Normally he loves his house and always runs inside it if anything surprises him. He treats it as it were a turtle shell, now he seems to be terrified of it. I don't know if it's his scent gone off his Pigloo, or maybe the scent of the soap I used to clean it, but I washed it throughly, and toweled it dry. I don't know of any other thing we did differently. He used to love his Pigloo and I hate to see him afraid of it for seemingly no reason, but I am not an expert on these things. So, I appreciate any and all input you may have on this bizarre situation. Thank you again for your time. It is appreciated.

Answer
Hi Bill

It is a weird situation. However, it seems certain to me that the soap is annoying him. Piggies have a very strong sense of smell so could be far more affected by the change than we ever could.

I would try rubbing some of his bedding on the pigloo to transfer his scent back. Please keep me posted on this as it isnt something that had ever affected me.

Andy