# Using vinegar to clean



## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

I'm getting sick of that boy rat smell on the soft bedding in my boys cage, I can remove the wee smells but it always smells pretty musty and stale in their hammocks. I bought some white vinegar because I'd read on here that it's good with smells, but I'd like to know how people on here use it? Do you use it neat and then rinse and wash afterwards? Or do you spray it watered down and rinse it like that. I use laundry sanitiser so it's not a germ thing, just trying to tackle that boy stink  any help would be appreciated


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Do not use vinegar, even diluted, anywhere near your rats and RINSE it very well before putting whatever you sprayed vinegar on near your rats again. The musty smell is typical of male rats; only neutered male rats don't have it. Do not put vinegar during the washing cycle because it makes the laundry less efficient. You can put some in your first rinse, but you will definitely need to do a second rinse. Personnaly I don't think vinegar is working well. Let me explain. If you use it during the first rinse, the laundry will smell better but ONLY for a week. It seems that vinegar masks the smell only for a while, BUT don't get rid of the ammonia since it is still there 1 week later on the UNUSED hammocks. Since I wash the hammocks on sanatize, I have smell-free hammocks. You need to replace the hammocks every 2-3 days and wash them right away. If you wait to wash them, the ammonia really set itself in the fibers- the urine forms crystals that stick to the fibers of fleece very very strongly. I actually use enzimes to pretreat hammocks from time to time to dissolved the left over urine as that is the only way to get rid of it after a while.


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

If your boys are having an odor issue it is probably because of their bedding, or not being cleaned enough. Not all beddings control odor or ammonia the same. What type of bedding are you using?

You can mix alittle vinegar with water in a spray bottle, spray it all down. Then use a water bottle of water to rinse it and wipe dry. You want to make sure it is well rinsed and that the cage doesnt have a vinegar smell. 

For hammocks and such I put them in the washer with detergent and vinegar, run it once, run it again with just water, then dry. I have a much different experience then Gribouilli. I dont wash my stuff until I have a load of it. It can sit for a bit. And when it is all clean it can sit in the basket for a week or two and still smell just washed fresh. It may have to do with the detergent. Vinegar is amazing at breaking down urine. I LOVE it. 

For all the cage accessories I throw it in my bathtub with vinegar in the water, soak and rinse well.

I don't use vinegar anymore on my large cages. It is too much work. I only use it on the smaller cages that i can throw in the tub. I just bought a small cage cleaner, a nice brand but i cant remember what it is off the top of my head. Its a bit expensive but worth it imo. You can see it working and it is safe. Has no odor either. 

Do you have shelves in the cage? They are usually a big cause of odor. If rats just pee all over the plastic shelves. I always remove the shelves and use other hanging beds and hammocks in their place.
Don't use wood hides and such, they hold on to smells bad.

Also make sure you are getting in all the little nooks when you clean.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Maybe it would have worked better for me if I used it during a prewash, that way it would have beak down a bit the strong hold of the urine to the fleece fibers...and the detergent could have worked better. But yea Moonkissed has a good point in bringing up the detergent as I have since switch to a better one. I love the tide pods, it is the only detergent I tried that didn't foam like crazy...before using those pods, either I had too much foam or I didn't use enough detergent... if any detergent is left, it will only make the smells worse when the rats pee on it again. I think you need to play around a bit with different methods as it will depends some on what washing machine you have and what detergent you are using. If you switch to Aspen it should help a lot with smells.


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## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

Thanks guys, I actually don't use fleece because I use aspen mixed with recycled paper pellets and the fleece was basically like aspen velcro! My hammocks are a wool type fibre and two soft middle canopy type hammocks. Their bedding in their sputnik is kitchen roll that I let them shred but remove and replace regularly. I have no plastic levels and their bottom tray is as I said, a mix of aspen and recycled paper pellets. 
As spare hammocks I use cotton pillow cases (while I'm washing their usual hammocks) that I've ripped to make ties at the edge and I always manage to make them smell neutral and fresh, it's just the other hammocks that stink of... boy smell so that's why I thought vinegar prewash would be a good idea.
I'll try what moonkissed suggested and wash them hot with vinegar before doing a sanitiser wash  I use a small animal safe antibacterial spray for their cage from pets at home (uk) which is magical and rids the cage of any grossness so it's only 
I know not to put vinegar near my fur babies and tbh I'm not sure the smell of vinegar is any better than wee wee so I'll make sure to rinse them super well  
Thanks for the advice guys. Gunna try it out and see if works for me


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