# How do you guys with huge cages keep them clean



## fluffy470 (Feb 24, 2012)

At the moment I have an average rat cage that's 2 ft high, 2 ft long and 1 and 2 inches wide. It's a fairly small cage yet I'm finding it impossible to clean! For the most mart my boys poop in their litter box but they pee wherever that want. All I have in their cage is a water and food bowls, their litter box and 1 hammock. That's it! But it's impossible to keep clean. I do a total cage cleaning once a week where it gets completely hosed down and everything gets soaked in a vinegar water mixture. And their hammock gets washed. I use care fresh litter FYI. But their cage always wreaks! I'm uber busy with homework so I don't have a ton of time to clean their cage. But it gets done. Still I wonder how you guys with 10 ft cages with 7 hammocks and 5 rats pottying in one cage keep it from wreaking??!!??!! I want to be able to put more fun stuff in their cage and eventually even get a bigger one but for now I need to figure out how to keep the stuff I have clean. Plz help because the smell is overwhelming my room and I want to give my boys a better house 


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

1 to 2 inches? I hope that's a typo because not even a baby rat could live in there, and rats need to be in a cage at lease 15 inches (you can probably get away with 14) inches deep/wide.

Anyways Carefresh tends to give off a Horrible smell. stuff like Aspen, Hemp, yesterday's news, tend to hold smell better. I clean my cage once to twice a week. We use two products mainly called Greasonator (it takes/destroys Urine, its Very important for me since I am allergic to rat urine, helps me from getting an ashma attack while cleaning their cage) and 1-18 (it kills all bad bacteria. its cool because it turns white where there is a lot of bacteria so I just spray and wipe their pan down till there's little to no white). Both are made by Envirox. They make enviornmentally safe cleaning products (my dad has used it for mouth wash before, the 1-1 8. Unfortuantly you can't get it off the website to my knowledge, we get ours from a janitorial warehouse since my dad, grandmother, and aunt are/used to be house cleaners. I think there are some stores that sell them, but not 100% sure. Works really well for their cage. I occasionally will get a spray bottle, fill it with warm water and baby shampoo (when they have mites I use tea tree oil) and it gives the cage a nice smell since Greasonator and 1-18 don't really have a smell to it. 

I've never had a smell problem, and when I do it means I need to clean their cage more often. We use Aspen, with Yesterday's news in the litter box, along with Kaytee clean and comfy and any other paper beddings we can find on sell (like Eco bedding I once found the really big bags on sell for $2 each).

If you can find 1-18 and Greasonator its worth it, they can be a little expensive, you need your own spray bottles and you need to mix the solution (not strong for normal stuff, strong for cleaning animal cages or counters). I think in total we spend around $40 or more, but they last a few months. I think its worth the investment at lease. (bleach works well, and so does mixing it with boiling water if you fill like boiling it since most sinks don't get hot enough to kill bacteria)


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## jadeelizabeth (Jul 26, 2012)

^^^^ I think they meant 1 ft and 2 inches XD


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## CherryDawn89 (Aug 25, 2012)

Where can you buy Greasonater?


Andromeda's Human


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## fluffy470 (Feb 24, 2012)

Lol ya sry for the confusion xD I meant 1 ft 2 inches lol 


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## fluffy470 (Feb 24, 2012)

Thx lightningwolf I'll have to see if I can find greaseanator (lol I spelled that wrong ) does anyone else have something or someway to clean their cage quickly? Thx


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Your cage should fit inside most tub-type showers easily. 

My cage is massive and for deep cleanings, it just goes right into the tub for a hot shower. It's a Martin's cage that is 30" x 18" x 48" and can be lifted very easily by myself and taken to the bathroom which is in an old house with tight fits! (This is just one of the many reasons why I love Martin's.)

I would start to experiment with different bedding to find something that holds odors better. I've always found aspen to be good for that, but I've since switching to cage liners that just get changed whenever I start to catch a whiff of anything stinky.

What do they eat? Diet can make a big impact on odor.


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## aripatsim (Jul 26, 2012)

I actually think the size of my cage helps with the smell. My cage is big enough for seven by I only keep 2 in there and it never really stinks. I think it would take them awhile to stink up a cage that big lol
I use fleece liners, and ExquisitCat paper pellets (it's basically a knock off of yesterday's news) in their litter box. They pee pretty much anywhere. I just spot clean their cage 1-2x daily. I pick up any poops that aren't in their litter and I wipe down all the shelves and bars with an unscented baby wipe. I also take a baby wipe and wipe down their liners, too and sop up any pee puddles I see. I found this cuts down on the smell for me. Sometimes when I wake up their cage might have a faint smell, but it's completely gone after I spot clean.
I wash their liners/beds/hammocks every 5-7 days.


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## fluffy470 (Feb 24, 2012)

Aripatsim what are your cage liners made from? I know I have seen people use fleece and puppy pads 


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## aripatsim (Jul 26, 2012)

I just buy fleece from my local fabric store or walmart. I cut the fabric to the size I need and clip it to the bottom of the cage


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## IOVERATS (Aug 25, 2012)

Fleece would be a better option seeing as CareFresh smells HORRIBLE my cousin used it, until I bought her some fleece material and she used that, and since then her cages have smelled brilliant  (well, it's better than the horrible smell the CareFresh used to make). If your rats wee anywhere they like then under the fleece in the cage, then put an old towel under the fleece because the towel will absorb the wee underneath the fleece and will stop the fleece getting so smelly. Anther thing you could do, if the smell is still unbearable, is to get a small bowl and put some baking powder in it and leave it outside the cage, it should stop the smell . Another thing my cousin does which improves the smell greatly, is to spot check the cage, it made the cage smell so much better as changing the bedding and the litter and picking up any stray poos will help make it smell a little better. My cousin spot checks the cage every 3 day and does the proper clean every Saturday. Every Wednesday day, she changes the bedding and puts any dirty hammocks in the wash which she replaces with a fresh one, if her rats are in there and it's not too bad she keeps them in there however sometimes they are in there and it smells too bad to ignore, so she gently takes them out and changes it. Also some of her babies she's taken in from people and rescues (all are rescues apart from 3 of them who are breeder rats that couldn't be sold and also 2 of them ae feeders because they had one day to be sold or they would be fed to the snakes, so she bought them they are really sweet despite what some people say about feeder rats however those are the only rats she's ever gotten from a pet shop because she doesn't like supporting rat mills, and all the rest are other peoples who they didn't want anymore), aren't litter trained so they are spot cleaned EVERDAY because otherwise it looks REALLY unclean. However on a Friday, she changes the bedding again and changes out the litter. And then if she does this she cleans the cage properly on a Sunday, however if she decides to leave it she cleans the cage out on a Saturday. When she does the main clean out, she takes out everything and hoses it down with a good quality shower gel and then dries it with a towel and then she washes the fleece in the washing machine or sometimes by hand, and also all the other stuff that needs washing and then sets up the cage etc and then puts the towels under the fleece etc. Try using fleece and you never know you might find yourself making you own hammock and hanging beds with left over fleece  good luck fleece is also better for rats respitary tracts as it hasn't got ANY dust in it, unlike CareFresh as it does contain a certain level of dust. Good luck


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## fluffy470 (Feb 24, 2012)

Lol ima need to try putting fleece down instead of bedding, I already have made a hammock set for their house (its perry the platypus Pattern 


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

I know for sure you can get Greasonator at a janitoral supply warehouse, I'm not sure of any stores that actually sell it. Its one of those things unless you know someone who cleans houses a lot of people don't know about, so I'm not sure where you can get it at minus a supply warehouse.

You might be able to ask them though, this is there website, http://www.enviroxclean.com/

If I can find any Stores that sell it I'll post it up. They also sell other stuff that works well, they're all enviornment and pet safe.


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