# Cleaning Routine and Tips? - I Adopted More Rats



## TheNameIsWater (May 8, 2018)

Hello friends!

I recently adopted 3 rats, and so now have 4 rats. I’m used to just having 2, and it’s become rapidly clear that my old cleaning routine does NOT cut it. So I’m asking for you all to share your cleaning routine! Daily/weekly/monthly if you’d like to!


Info about my cage:

Single Critter Nation
4 Male Rats
Bedding: Incontinence Pads below Fleece liners
Litter Box: Corner with a scatter guard, using Yesterday’s News litter
Hides: one simple wooden, 1 bend-a-bridge, 1 plastic stepped barn thing, 1 Space Pod, occasionally swap in a cardboard box
Accessories: lava ledges below water bottles, 2 wooden ledges for steps to shelf, 1 plastic dollar tree basket, 2 pencil holder basket things, t-shirts for nesting, fleece scraps, some packaging paper


Previously I really only NEEDED to clean the cage once a week. Sometimes it got a little smelly midway and I’d replace nesting material and it’d be fine. Now it can become smelly within a couple of days. I’m planning to do a big deep clean at the end of this week but otherwise I’m just kind of winging it.

I ordered replacements for the wooden hides too bc those in particular have become utterly soaked with urine and did not improve with cleaning the last time.


My old routine was:

Daily: pick up stray poops if it crowds the cage
Weekly: empty litter box, wash pads and fleece, spray and wipe down pans and accessories with equal parts water and vinegar solution, wash water bottles
Monthly: spray down whole cage with vinegar and water solution and wipe clean. Rearrange cage setup. Soak heavily soiled accessories in hot water and vinegar


I’d seriously LOVE any advice you all have to share! I know I haven’t tried EVERYTHING yet but I’m not sure what to be trying or aiming for.

Thank you all!


----------



## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

I've definitely noticed that for each additional rat, the cage gets smelly noticeably quicker. Cage size and bedding choices also make a huge difference. I currently have 6 boys in a 16 cubic foot cage. I use aspen on the floor of the cage, fleece/UHaul padding "mats" on the platforms, 3 litter boxes with fragrance free Exquisicat or SoPhresh paper pellets, a couple huts/baskets, several lava ledges and bendy rope perches, a few PVC perches, and many fleece/flannel/cotton hammocks. It doesn't take long at all for smell to accumulate. Like you, I'm doing at least a little bit of maintenance every day. 

*Every Day:* Spot cleaning stray poops.
*Every 2 to 3 days:* Change litter boxes. Throw out dirty nesting materials (_usually paper scraps, paper napkins, paper towel pieces, etc_). Rinse and refill water bottles.
*Every 2 to 4 days:* Swap out all fabric items (_platform liners and hammocks_) with clean ones.
*Every 7 days:* Full cage cleaning including changing litter, swapping out all fabric items (_liners/hammocks_), shaking them out outside and doing "rat laundry" with a fragrance free detergent and vinegar, washing all hard items (_huts/baskets, litter boxes, water bottles, pee rocks, removable perches, etc._) with soap and water, and wiping bars of cage with baby wipes. I don't remove attached items like lava ledges and bendy rope perches for my weekly cleaning (_because I'm lazy_). They get thoroughly cleaned during the monthly/bimonthly cleaning. 
*Every 2 to 3 weeks:* Replace aspen shavings.
*Every 1 to 2 months:* Disassemble cage and fully hose-down outside or in shower.

Fabric liners do almost nothing to control odors/ammonia so changing them often is pretty necessary, especially if you have more rats. When I used a CN, I started making the fleece mats with an inner absorbent layer of UHaul padding and I loved them. I would just set them on the plastic pans without clipping them down or anything. Because they weren't clipped down, they were really quick and easy to swap out every few days. 

My weekly full cage cleaning takes an hour or two but most of the other general maintenance stuff doesn't take much time at all. For example, I can easily change the litter and swap out all of the hammocks/liners in under 10 minutes. A lot of the way I designed my cage and accessories is based on quick cleaning just because it needs to be done so often.


----------



## shibezone (Feb 5, 2018)

Congrats on your new additions! I hope they're settling in well!

I have 3 adult boys with a very similar set up: Incontinence pads below fleece liners, mix of wooden and plastic toys/hides with lava ledges. I use a similar litter as well.

Honestly the thing that smells The Worst in their cage and the most quickly is the litter box. If you keep air circulating in the room the urine smell dissipates very well but fresh to semi-fresh rat poop STINKS and now you have 4 little butts worth of poop! I'd empty the litter box twice a week minimum, and thoroughly clean it each time because the smell does stay in it even with fresh litter.
Paper absorbs smell but not in the way that eliminates it, so I'd check their packing paper for smell, too and cycle it more often. Any time I give the boys paper towels to shred and play with it smells pretty heinous after a few days, so I tend not to.
In my experience fleece scraps don't hold smell quite as much as t-shirts do for nesting, I think fleece wicks the moisture away versus getting soaked in to t-shirts. Wash all the nesting stuff weekly, if you aren't already!

You can also keep some litter box smell absorbing sheets around the cage, I did for a while and I liked them! Don't put them right on top of the cage, though, my rats love to pull them through the bars and sleep on them.

Here's my cleaning routine:

Daily: Check for stray poops, food debris, etc. Honestly I'm not the best about this, but my boys don't tend to make much mess I need to clean by hand and they love putting garbage in their litter box for me.
Weekly: Full cage clean. Fleece liners, padding and nesting fabrics washed and dried with scent free detergent and scent free dryer sheets. Bowls and bottles cleaned. Wash all tiles, wipe out all plastic hides, toys and baskets if they look gross, if not I just put them back in as is so they don't feel the need to mark it up again. Empty litter box once or twice.
Bi-weekly: Wash hammocks (mine don't tend to smell bad at all and I honestly don't enjoy hanging them back up).
Monthly: Wipe down cage bars (if I don't forget). Spray down lava ledges, wooden ledges with water/vinegar mix, take down hamster ball used as hammock, wash and soak it in sink.


----------



## TheNameIsWater (May 8, 2018)

Thank you both! This is such useful information!

Shibezone, by litter box sheets, do you mean like the filter sheets? And I’ve seen the tiles around before but don’t know where to find them. Could you tell me more about what they are and where to find them? My new apartment is hotter than my last one and I’d like for them to have a cool place to sleep.

I’m also gonna cut some fleece scraps and maybe sew them into little pockets for them to curl up in and under if they like. I think you’re right, the t-shirts definitely stink!


----------



## shibezone (Feb 5, 2018)

Yep, the filter sheets! You can also use those little bags of charcoal if you like, they're great for that if you don't have an air purifier!

As for tiles: You can buy single tiles at basically any large hardware store, often for around $1 each. I really like Lowe's selection of tiles, personally! A piece of marble stone will be the coolest but tend to run more expensive, I go for whatever ceramic tile I think is cutest. If it's really hot you can put the tiles in the fridge for a little bit, too!


----------

