# Shop vacs for cage cleaning



## Veileddreamer (Sep 21, 2015)

So I've been doing this basically ever since we got our DCN but I wanted to finally share my revelation with the world, lol, since I haven't seen this anywhere (maybe I just haven't been looking hard enough!). A shop vac makes cage cleaning SO SO SOOO much easier, especially if you're a bit squeamish like me and love your ratties but cannot handle the poop as well as you probably should be able to.

In case you didn't know (like I didn't before a friend pitched the idea) basically it's just a super high powered, lightweight hosed vacuum that just sucks up EVERYTHING. So you take out the bowls, toys, etc., grab the shop vac, and you can vacuum out bedding, hoarded food, chewed up pieces of whatever, etc. from both layers of a DCN in probably <7 minutes, which is much less time that it took me to painstakingly scoop/dump everything out into a trash bag by hand. It is literally life-changing and the $30 I spent on this guy right here is probably in one of my top 10 making-my-life-easier purchases of all time. Seriously, I cannot gush enough. I think everyone should have a shop vac for large cage cleaning.

Added bonus: really easy to use on floors (both carpet and not) to get rid of kick out, making kick out prevention less of an issue to begin with. Other added bonus: since a cheaper shop vac is super affordable, you don't have to feel icky about sharing your "normal" house vacuum cleaner with your rats' poop. 

_Note_: My rats FREAKED OUT the first time we used it, diarrhea everywhere in their playpen, even though it was in the next room over. But now they have adjusted.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

I used to have a handheld baccuum but it was annoying to have to empty it many times during cleaning... Now I use a shop vaccuum too and it made everything so much easier one if my best rat related investment, lol.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

My rats LOVE vacuums, lol. I need to be careful not to suck them in, or I do half a critter nation at a time and move them to the other half!


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## Grotesque (Mar 19, 2014)

Huh... I never thought of that. I use fleece so it probably wouldn't make as much sense for me but if you're a litter user, I can imagine this would be life-changing.


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## Rattielover965 (Apr 26, 2016)

What is the smallest sized shop vac?


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## jlhummel (Oct 23, 2014)

yep. this is the one I have...http://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-4-gal-Wet-Dry-Vacuum-WD4070/202077241 it's also very handy to have around the house. This one can reverse the air flow ans be used as a mini leaf blower of sorts too!


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## MarvellousMoxie (May 15, 2016)

Just to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for this brilliant idea. Saw this post and bought a wet/dry vacuum immediately to help with cleaning and it just made the whole thing so much easier. I mean, I have a giant Xtrail (UK version of critter nation, I guess?) and the thought of trying to scoop all the substrate out week after week after week was pretty daunting  For UK readers, I got the small 10litre capacity Draper wet/dry vacuum. It doesn't take bags which is exactly what I was after because it means there's no need to buy extra and I can just dump all the substrate straight into a bin bag once I'm done. Just a heads up that the vacuum manages about half the cage before it needs to be emptied, so I end up emptying it twice during cleaning.


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