# Am I The Only One Who Hates My DCN?



## Csszal (Aug 26, 2012)

Let me start out by saying that the cage is nice. I love that it's got the 4 doors that open completely and the size and bar spacing, but the love runs out there. It's difficult to hang things in without using like 5 links and I don't like that the shelves can only be hung in a total of 6 different positions on each level. 

My biggest problem with the cage is that it's impossible to clean. I spent hours yesterday trying to scrub the pee off the bars and from between the shelf connections. When I moved into my first house I had to hastily spray paint inside the tubes because after owning it for two years, it's rusting. One pole in particular. No one online tells you that forcing the cage together with a mallet doesn't create a good seal and my girls were peeing in a corner that just so happened to have a gap and pee was going into the tube, eating it from the inside. It was a huge mess! 

After two hours of scrubbing with a toothbrush and a bar brush with hydrogen peroxide and vinegar and baby wipes I still feel like the cage stinks. My girls pee on the bars and it drips down the entire side of the cage and even after a day, the cage feels gross and grimey and wiping it down with a baby wipe every day doesn't help. 

I love the ease of disassembling my Kaytee cage and dropping it in the tube to soak, bars and all, with out worrying about it rusting. It's not big enough though for my 6 rats. I have an all metal cage, that isn't suitable for a rat, let alone multiple that I've used as a temporary cage, but I hate how the metal base stinks after about an hour. 

Does anyone have any secrets to cleaning this cage? I use Fleece with uhaul pads on the back and usually when the cage starts stinking I know there's pee somewhere on the metal that I've missed. I've got corner litter boxes and pee guards and the girls now pee down the sides that aren't protected. Any advice?


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

First do NOT use vinegar to clean your cage! Vinegar is a metal oxidizing product, it will rust your cage! As long as vinegar stays on the coating of your cage you might be fine, but if vinegar gets anywhere where there is no coating like inside the bars though for instance the holes where you attach the half shelves, then rusting will start very quickly.

I would start by getting a Home Depot cement mixing tube. It will save you lots of time cleaning as no more pee/poop/gunk with get into the lowest bars and between shelve connections. I get the litter out of it, spray some 3% hydrogen peroxide, wipe it (it is still wet), let it sit for 5 mins, and wipe it again. Done. 

Also if you are using fleece as liners (even with Uhaul pads underneath)I'm not surprised it smells bad- I couldn't stand it. I now use an outdoor/indoor mat I get from Costco and cut it to fit the shelves. I have done it for over 18 months with my girls and 10 mo the with my neutered boys. No more bad smelling cage.


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## Csszal (Aug 26, 2012)

I hate how cement mixing tubs look and I don't want to use any litter bedding, except in the litter box. I got the critter nation so I wouldn't have to use litter. It's a mess and expensive and I have a hairless and have had troubles in the past with litter and her eyes and I'm not chancing it again. The Fleece never smells. The cage almost never smells. It can go for two weeks without a Fleece change before smelling but I clean it every weekend. 

The metal on the cage stinks. There was nothing in the cage yesterday and it stunk once I started wiping it down. I love using Fleece and so do my rats. 

Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

I use Eco Bedding, no dust at all. But yes it gets expensive. On the plus side no more sneezing at all or porphyrin when they wake up. I love that I don't get any poop or litter or pellets...on my floor any longer because if the mixing tubes. It seems that you might have ruined your cage by using vinegar where it isns't power coated if pee sinks into the bare metal, it will stink


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

I've been using peroxide for years to clean up pet messes. In my experience, if the rusting is as bad as you say it is, with pee getting down into the tubes, it will take a lot longer than 5 minutes to get the odor out. 
I learned from my Nani, the master of cleaning everything! I might be able to help you. I have lots of secrets. I even know how to safely clean ink out of a shirt! That's how good my Nani was! 

Can you take a picture of where exactly the pee is getting inside the tubes? 

I'm also pretty good at fixing weird problems. To give you an idea...........I'm also a 'junk' artist. I've sold people own trash back to them. ;D


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## Csszal (Aug 26, 2012)

Gribouilli said:


> I use Eco Bedding, no dust at all. But yes it gets expensive. On the plus side no more sneezing at all or porphyrin when they wake up. I love that I don't get any poop or litter or pellets...on my floor any longer because if the mixing tubes. It seems that you might have ruined your cage by using vinegar where it isns't power coated if pee sinks into the bare metal, it will stink


The vinegar has only ever been used on the powdercoated surfaces. Then wipe with hydrogen peroxide and then a baby wipe. My rats have no problems with porphyrin or sneezing. 


catty-ratty said:


> I've been using peroxide for years to clean up pet messes. In my experience, if the rusting is as bad as you say it is, with pee getting down into the tubes, it will take a lot longer than 5 minutes to get the odor out.
> I learned from my Nani, the master of cleaning everything! I might be able to help you. I have lots of secrets. I even know how to safely clean ink out of a shirt! That's how good my Nani was!
> 
> Can you take a picture of where exactly the pee is getting inside the tubes?
> ...


I sprayed the inside of every tube with rustoliam to cover up the rust after sanding the insides out. The smell comes from the fact that pee gets between the bars and drips down the cage. I spent over an hour scrubbing it down and it still stinks. There's areas I can't get to without disassembling the cage, which isn't necessarily safe when the rats are free roaming in that room when I'm cleaning the cage.


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## Bowie (Feb 28, 2016)

If you feel up to it, disassemble it, lay it out, and hose. Make it very pressuerized and after its wet scrub with peroxide. After its been scrubbed and rinsed you can use a wwaterproff seal (nontoxic only!) and paint it with that. Its not power coating, but it helps! I did it to mine, and solved most of my issues. It did take a full day though.


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## Csszal (Aug 26, 2012)

Bowie said:


> If you feel up to it, disassemble it, lay it out, and hose. Make it very pressuerized and after its wet scrub with peroxide. After its been scrubbed and rinsed you can use a wwaterproff seal (nontoxic only!) and paint it with that. Its not power coating, but it helps! I did it to mine, and solved most of my issues. It did take a full day though.


Getting water inside the tubes would make the rust inside worse. I don't have two cages to store my two groups in while it's disassembled either.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Csszal said:


> Getting water inside the tubes would make the rust inside worse. I don't have two cages to store my two groups in while it's disassembled either.


True it would make the rust worst, unless.. If you ever want to wash it anyway and minimize rust. Take it apart, wash, shake each panel to get most of the water out, let it dry outside when it is 90F+ so the water inside the tubes evaporate really fast.


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## Bowie (Feb 28, 2016)

Plussss the waterproof coating could prevent injuries to the rats if the rust was to get into other places.


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## Csszal (Aug 26, 2012)

Gribouilli said:


> True it would make the rust worst, unless.. If you ever want to wash it anyway and minimize rust. Take it apart, wash, shake each panel to get most of the water out, let it dry outside when it is 90F+ so the water inside the tubes evaporate really fast.


The two times I've done that have been on extremely hot days and the cages were left in the sun to dry and there's still minor rusting inside the tubes. All of the tubes were spray pained with rustoliam to prevent future rust, but as you can imagine it was difficult and the inside may not be fully coated. 


Bowie said:


> Plussss the waterproof coating could prevent injuries to the rats if the rust was to get into other places.


What waterproof coating would you be talking about?


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Yep, I wish they would waterproof coat inside the tubes, they could charge a little more I wouldn't care.


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## Bowie (Feb 28, 2016)

I would use this as the first coat https://www.awarehousefull.com/plas...rbMi9PG-c0F-Dcvxb_yMTscaC6ym9-osQMaAvzI8P8HAQ

Its a rubber sealent that is waterproof.

then use this stuff http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Ole...104DA23BF2C25CAA77670836757A4392#.UcnvPj5ARXA



worked for me!


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

I am also not 100% in love with my two DCNs, for the issues you mentioned. I use a 50/50 water white vinegar solution and a rag to clean it... I do not wipe down the bars often,(maybe once a month) because I think they mark more if I clean it more often. From what others have told me, the easiest way to clean it is to roll it outside and pressure wash it. I haven't tried that yet (not even sure if will fit through the door assembled), but for me, vinegar / water seems to work pretty well. I let it sit on the bars for a while and then wipe with a damp rag (just water). I also use baby wipes.


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## Csszal (Aug 26, 2012)

artgecko said:


> I am also not 100% in love with my two DCNs, for the issues you mentioned. I use a 50/50 water white vinegar solution and a rag to clean it... I do not wipe down the bars often,(maybe once a month) because I think they mark more if I clean it more often. From what others have told me, the easiest way to clean it is to roll it outside and pressure wash it. I haven't tried that yet (not even sure if will fit through the door assembled), but for me, vinegar / water seems to work pretty well. I let it sit on the bars for a while and then wipe with a damp rag (just water). I also use baby wipes.


Yesterday I took everything out of the cage and scrubbed it with a hard brush and rag to reduce spray from the brush with a 1:10 vinegar water mix and spayed everything in the cage in the tub with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide and then scrubbed it and rinsed it and wanted all the Fleece, wiped the walls with lysol though I have Fleece on the back and side of my cage to prevent pee from getting on the walls and mopped the floor with a stream mop and just destroyed the office to clean it. Got rid of the smell though. I have a sensitive nose and I can handle their smell, just not immediately after a cage cleaning. Makes me feel like everything is still dirty. I've wanted it outside before on really hot days and let the cage bake in the sun to dry it and have very minor rusting in some of the posts from it. 

Cage cleaning yesterday took 4 hours and 5 tub fulls of plastic. The boys actually used their litter box last night too. They destroy Fleece though which is infuriating because my girls haven't in a long time and now the boys are.


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