# How and how often do you clean your cages?



## texasreb

I completely remove all of the contents of my cage--including shelves--twice a week to be washed in hot, soapy water and then hand dried. The fabric beds/hammocks are washed in the washing machine on the sanitizing cycle with ordinary he detergent. I air dry the bedding. The cage walls are wiped down with hot tap water but no soap as I've noticed that odor clings to soap residue. Weather permitting, I take the cage outside and soap it down, rinse and spray with bleach and rinse again.

Good? or am I missing anything? I teach an animal care class and can't stand "pet shop" type odors so my cleaning is aimed at pet health and odor elimiation.


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## Jaguar

depends on how many rats you have, how big your cage is, what type of bedding you use, their gender, whether they're litter box trained or not... 

i have two litter trained boys in an r-680 and i do a full clean once a week. fleece and cotton liners and hammocks go in the wash, everything gets wiped down with disenfectant wipes, and then it gets reassembled. takes about 30 minutes.  i do little cleans every day, picking up stray poops/tossing out old veggies/picking up mess lol


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## texasreb

I have two elderly female rats in a Ferret Nation cage (60x20x32). They are not litter box trained, but they do tend to ppop in one spot. I tried putting a litter box there--but they slept in it and pooped elsewhere. I tossed the soiled litter and poops into and everything. I think they are set in their ways


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## killybutt

I have two young males in a converted bookcase case with a waterproof seal. I wipe the shelves down once a day with soapy water and a paper towel and shake out their hammocks, and I do a full cage clean once a week. They are litter-trained but sometimes they leave a raisin or two outside.


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## sonoma

I wipe down shelves, clean and refill food dishes, and replace paper nesting materials daily. My rats are semi-litter trained, I don’t use liners anymore but I keep litter boxes on the upper shelves, so those get emptied and wiped down every couple days. Hammocks get replaced and bedding gets changed weekly. About every other month I haul both cages outside and hose them down and scrub them with antibacterial soap.


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## smesyna

I have a double Critter Nation with six girls. I have bass pans I use litter with, and just use liners for the shelves. Every other day I do a quick wipe down of everything with baby wipes, and pull out the dirty litter and replace it (freshing it). Every 5-7 days I pull out of the shelf liners and hammocks to replace them, and dump the bass pans and wash them out. I also wipe everything in the cage down, and bring all the plastic cage accessories to the tub and wash them with dish soap. Then every couple of months I take the cage apart so it can be deep cleaned in the shower. 

My girls are litter trained, and the aspen bedding and wood stove pellets litter does a great job of odor control. So this works very well for me. When using my RUDD it is similar for me.


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## riotfox

i think your regime sounds fine, texasreb 

i pick up poop and wipe away urine off the tiles as soon as it happens (im hoping one day they catch on and use the litter boxes, but for now picking it up is so much cleaner than leaving it ). bedding i also replace whenever it is wet or smelly

once a day i change the boxes. i use newspaper in them and keep a piece of newspaper under the tiles to catch stray pee. so that way when i change it, i put a fresh piece under the tiles, and put the dirtier piece that was under the tiles in the box (so they can smell its a toilet lol)

once a week, i do a full clean, but i dont use soap or any chemicals, just hot water. i put all the small things in the sink to soak in the hot water, wipe it, then put it in the sun to dry. the cage bars themselves i just wipe with a wet cloth. this is also when i wash all the bedding, shelf liners and hammocks thatve been dirtied in the week

once a month i will throw some soap in the mix, although i really dont find it does any better of a job than just water, as long as you put effort in 

sorry for the super detailedness lol


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## Snippet

My girls get cleaned out once a week. I've got 4 living in a cage big enough for 6. I wipe down the slevles every day, and replace the litter in the litter tray when it needs it. Once a week I remove all the toys and throw them in the bath to soak. I replace the substrate as well.


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## texasreb

Thanks for all of the replies. My cleaning routine sounds on par with what y'all are doing. I hadn't thought about baby wipes for quick cleans. What a clever idea!

Also, if you don't mind...what are bass pans? Between the two levels I have a piece of plexiglass that covers about 60% of the floor. It gives my downstairs girl a bit more ceiling to keep the "rain" off. It also gives my upstairs girl a solid surface to walk on besides the shelf.

Apparently my two ladies are in a mansion! The cage calculators say I could have 11 rats in there


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## Snippet

Bass pans= deeper pans for cages like the CN and FN


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## smesyna

Yup, thanks snippet. I prefer bedding to liners so I ordered them.


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## Kiko

I love liners...just not in the pans. And the CN/FN was ruining my floor cause the stuff got EVERYWHERE.
I use liners in my 695 on all the levels except the floor of the base which has yesterdays news.


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## texasreb

When you say liners, what are you talking about? Fleece?


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## Kiko

Yep


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## Critter Aficionado

Not to get too off topic but killybutt, I would love to see a picture of that cage. With my animal cages (especially the guinea pig cages, they are appropriately sized at 13 square feet but these guys poop a lot) I spot clean once or up to three times depending on how messy the critters are that day, and in the rat cages we completely change out bedding once every week and a half for each cage (one My First Home for Exotics that houses one male until he's neutered next month, and one that holds two females).


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