# Cleaning cage after babies are born



## Lightning (May 24, 2013)

How long should you wait to clean the cage after the babies are born? To get all the bloody stuff out and keep things sanitary? I need to make it better because she has too much paper and bedding in there right now and keeps covering up her water bottle spout. I'm sure she would figure out how to move stuff away from it but I don't like it being covered. They are 2 days old..should I wait a few more days?


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## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

I cleaned my cage the day after Molly's babies were born. It depends on how trusting your rat is. 

However, I will say this though. A few years ago when my boyfriend and I had several litters of mice we used to let them keep some of the old bedding the babies were in. This way the cleaned cage would still have a familiar scent. With the mice, who were a little skittish, we usually waited a day after they were born to clean the cage. We never had the mothers eat any of the babies, mice or rats.


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## Lightning (May 24, 2013)

Phantom said:


> I cleaned my cage the day after Molly's babies were born. It depends on how trusting your rat is.
> 
> However, I will say this though. A few years ago when my boyfriend and I had several litters of mice we used to let them keep some of the old bedding the babies were in. This way the cleaned cage would still have a familiar scent. With the mice, who were a little skittish, we usually waited a day after they were born to clean the cage. We never had the mothers eat any of the babies, mice or rats.


So tomorrow will be 3 days and that should be fine? I've handled all the babies already and taken them all out twice for a look over since birth so I think it should be okay for me to clean. I'll probably keep a wee bit of the old bedding to be on the safe side.  And give her something better to nest with besides cut up paper.


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## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

If Mama rat trusts you around the babies it should be okay, three days is a good enough wait. A cleaner cage is healthier for the babies too! I used paper towels and a whole tissue box and allowed Molly to do with what she wanted when she had her litter. You should have seen how fast the tissue box was used up! Lol.


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