Bunny Laundry

[LittlePuffyTail]

I just ran a wash of my bunny related laundry (blankets, towels and Olivia’s teddys) and wondering if anyone else does anything special when washing their bunny stuff.

I run a regular wash with regular laundry soap and then do a rinse cycle with cold water to make sure all the soap is 100% off and then dry it with no dryer sheets (which I hate to do because everything gets so staticky). Bindi’s fleece blankets take up a large part of his cage and he often eats hay off them so I like to make sure they have no scent or residue on them.

Ricky says I pamper them way too much (which I totally do…I’ll admit it).

[Sarita]

I wash my rabbit stuff separately but I don’t do anything special – I figure if it’s safe enough for me then why would it be different for them. I have some friends who use vinegar to wash their rabbits laundry stuff though.

[Elrohwen]

I was mine with towels usually since they both require hot water. Though Otto doesn’t pee on his blankets. If there was pee, I would wash them separately. As it is, he really just leaves hay and hair behind.

[MimzMum]

I get those 40 winks mattresses for Pip & Fiver (all the way from Britain-so I want them to last) and I usually wash them in as little soap as I can get away with on a delicate setting and sometimes add a little vinegar to make sure they rinse clean, plus an extra rinse. Since Fiver’s hocks can get sore from any leftover soap in the bedding, I just want to be sure I don’t leave any.
I was thinking about this too. I usually wash bedding once a day or once every two days, depending on how many replacements I’ve had to make. Once I get up to four dirty beds, I need to do a load.

I’ve also just decided to save myself a little work and only scoop out their litter boxes in the evening, instead of doing a second full pen clean. Except for Mimzy, if he has a lot of fur or dust in his pen, I sweep the whole thing out. His nose needs that. So I was wondering how often everyone here cleans litter boxes/habitat per day?

[bunnytowne]

Hmm I just throw the stuffies in with the regular laundry.   I don’t have fleece things for them to lie on since they just pee on them.

[kralspace]

I have a lot of bunny laundry because of Hershey, but since I go to the laundermat anyway, I throw theirs into a separate washer, usually the big one so they have plenty of room to slosh around and get clean.

[Kiley Rose]

I really clean my buns cages every two days. Laundry usually is once a week…although I have to replace a lot of Nixie’s blankets. She hasn’t quite gotten the whole ‘don’t pee on your blanket’ thing. So I pile hers up in the garage until I have enough to throw in with both hers and Marlee’s beds and blankets. Just wash normal with an extra rinse cycle.

[lashkay]

I clean Buddie’s litterbox every evening, when he’s not in it and gives me ‘an opening.’ I’m afraid that if I let it go less often than that, he’ll get disgusted with it and turn elsewhere as he seems to have done a while back when I let it lag. My schedule seems to suit him. Every evening there’s a lot of urine and a pile of his bunny cannonballs they look like to me LOL I just swab everything out, then wipe down the urine crust with a wet paper towel and he’s good to go. And do mean, to go! LOL I’ve been meaning to buy vinegar for that but I keep forgetting. Bunny laundry I haven’t had to do so far cause he keeps his fleece bed so clean with a few dry bunnyballs here and there. I just have been shaking it out and putting it back in. Actually, I’m hesitant to launder it for another reason, I don’t want to rock the boat. Just want to leave sleeping bunnies lie! I’m afraid he’d have a reaction to the detergent scent. Also that the stuffing in the bolsters will wad up funny and it won’t be the same, as I’ve heard have happened with some stuffed fleece beds.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I wash our clothes on cold and the bunny stuff on HOT. Less soap. And sepearte wash. And wipe poos out of the washer before doing my stuff. I don’t use dryer sheets at all-they are sooo poisonous if eaten and I know Mikey would eat them that we just don’t buy them.

[MimzMum]

Dryer sheets are poisonous? 0_o Good grief, K&K, I’m just learning all sorts of cheery stuff from you today! lolz…. (like not washing bunny water bottles in dishsoap either) *shakes head*
I keep dryer sheets tucked in around my clothing in my drawers/stored plush animals because the cabinets in our house get so musty smelling…so there’s another possible cause of Mimzy’s nose problems. Oy. >.<

Aha! So I’m not the only one who finds the stray poopy floating around in the laundry machine! lmao! I couldn’t get all of Fiver’s dried cecals out the other day, and when I pulled the ‘clean’ beds from the washer, there it was, one little piece, all nicely re-hydrated…..EEEEWWWWW!
I also get a lot of leftover fur and hay stuck in the machine too…I just know I’ll get trouble from the hubby for that…it doesn’t go through the septic well.

[KatnipCrzy]

I shake all the fleece blankets outside first to try to get as much hay off as possible and then toss it down the stairs until there is enough for a bunny load of laundry.  Sometimes my husband says he washes it twice- as he is quite displeased with the text (wee and poo) messages that Schroeder and Griffen are sending to each other.  But I will work on bonding more as my back heals.

Griffin will lay at the divider asking Schroeder to groom his head- sometimes for hours.  Schroeder will spend those hours ignoring Griffin in a complete relaxed flop- mostly facing the other direction.

[MimzMum]

Text messages?? rofl…. xD
Holy cow, Kat, what happened to your back? Did I miss something or did you tell us already? 0_0 Forgive me if so, my memory isn’t worth squat lately.

[Monkeybun]

We’re just a bunch of messed up bunny people, aren’t we? Ahh bunnies.. the wonderous therapy animals

[James's wife.]

We just love our bunnies as if they where one of us.

[NickiM]

DRYER SHEETS ARE POISONIOUS? AND YOUR NOT SUPPOSE TO USE DISH SOAP?

[RabbitPam]

Definitely don’t use dryer sheets. The simpler, plainer, chemical and fragrance free on anything the better.

Dish soap- K&K can you explain about that? I use fragrance free soaps for myself and tend to buy Seventh Generation from the Health food store, so I thnk the dish and liquid soaps that are ok for babies or people with allergies should be ok for the buns.

[Sarita]

I don’t see where anyone mentions using dish soap but why would you use dish soap anyway for laundry? That just doesn’t make sense anyway.

[jerseygirl]

lol ! This is turning into a game of chinese whispers. The dish soap was in reference to a thread about water bottles. I don’t think K&K was saying it was bad, she just made a reference to how particular things have to be in a science lab setting. i.e. no soap residue.
 

Kokaneeandkahlua Forum Leader Edmonton, Alberta; Canada Posts: 8628

01/13/2010 08:41 PM Quote Reply Alert hmmm the wet veggies sounds reasonable to me? No idea on the water bottle cleaners-here’s what I always do/did (dont use em too much) I put a squirt of dish soap in it. Then I put it directly under the tap and turn the tap on hot-at between ‘on’ and a dribble-and let it sit for about fifteen minutes-then do much rinsing. So it basically cleans itself-if that makes sense-it’s kind of a waste of water-I’m more lazy then ‘green’ But it totally works I needed water bottle scrubbers for my guinea pigs-because you have to put vit c in the water and they get scuzzy-we bought them in a petstore but I bet the cleanest source is lab bottle scrubbies-they cannot have any residue on them as that would compromise the studies-http://www.justmanbrush.com/ Source: https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tab…fault.aspx

 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

bahahah :p

Dryer sheets are poisonous? 0_o Good grief, K&K, I’m just learning all sorts of cheery stuff from you today! lolz…. (like not washing bunny water bottles in dishsoap either) *shakes head*

Dryer sheets are poisonous when EATEN and trust me my friends-my dog would eat them Another bit of info you can rub your dog or cat with them to repel mosquitos lol

In the interest of mindless trivia-fabric softner (The liquid kind) makes clothes more flammable too

And I totally use dish soap -I think it’s totally fine Jers you got it I was just saying that if the pet store doesn’t carry bottle brushes you could order a lab one

[kralspace]

More dishing on dryer sheets….lol

I don’t use them on my towels anymore. After a while the threads become kinda coated and don’t absorb water well. My daughter used them religiously on everything and when I’d babysit over there and bathe the kids I couldn’t get them dry no matter how long I towelled them….lol I wound up air drying the kids…lol

[Deleted User]

Laundry detergents and softeners leave a residue in fabric as do the dryer sheets. A pet or person does not actually have to eat any of the products to be affected. They can cause skin reactions, especially on very short-coated animals. During grooming a rabbit would also ingest some of this residue. You can get felted wool dryer balls to remove pet hair. To wash pet bedding I use scent-free soap flakes, but if your water is hard you may have to add other things (soda) to get everything clean. This is also better if you are on a septic tank, and if your rabbit’s bedding is made of natural fiber.
I am surrounded by organic or sensitive people so I adjusted… I even had to give up wearing perfume.

[Sarita]

I’ve also heard those dryer sheets leave some kind of residue on the laundry lint screen and can cause fires…I guess what you need to do if you use those is to manually clean that screen with a brush to remove that residue.

[kralspace]

They sure do. My daughter was going to ditch her dryer until I showed her how to take the screen out and scrub it with soap and a brush. It was so coated you could fill it up with water. It wasn’t allowing the air to cycle through the dryer and the clothes wouldn’t dry.

[Deleted User]

Posted By Sarita on 01/17/2010 04:12 PM
I don’t see where anyone mentions using dish soap but why would you use dish soap anyway for laundry? That just doesn’t make sense anyway.

 

yes, you can use dishsoap for laundry too. I knew someone with allergies and she resorted to washing her clothes with dishsoap. I googled it and there are people recommending it. I suppose the scent will be off…

[LittlePuffyTail]

To wash pet bedding I use scent-free soap flakes,

Petzy, where can that be purchased?

[Deleted User]

I have bought the flakes in Organic Foods Stores, or rather, my mother buys them and sends them to me… she thinks I will surely die if I use the commercially available stuff… but that’s a different story.  — If you have The Bulk Barn you can get a powder that is really nice too. It is made by The Soap Works.

puresoapworks.com/laundrypowder.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Dri-Pak-Pure-Soap-Fl…B001UYCLC0

 

[Sarita]

Just don’t try dishsoap in the dishwasher! I’ve tried that before and it was a big sudsy disaster.

[Deleted User]

Oh, I forget, you can also get the soapnuts. They are a type of nut and have cleaning properties. Only your water has to be so hot to make it work. They are definitely a health food store thing only.

http://www.soapnuts.in/

[mrmac]

Haha Sarita! My husband decided while I was travelling once to run the dishwasher and had the idea to add in a squirt of dish soap, you know to get it extra clean?! The suds went through a wall and came out the other side, and filled the kitchen…thankfully I was not home for this event!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Just don’t try dishsoap in the dishwasher! I’ve tried that before and it was a big sudsy disaster.

hahahah I could have told you that from my bachelor days

[BinkyBunny]

We switched about 4 years ago to organic and environmentally friendly cleaners, (laundry,dish ,house cleaners, personal soaps, shampoos & conditioners, lotions etc) and though some have a very light scent, when I am around regular products, I find them much too strong now. So much so I can’t believe I lived with them. My husband’s allergies have been so much better since we have switched too, so I can imagine this would be also better for the bunnies too.

[Patti]

Even tho’ this is a five-year-old thread, bunny parents may still look!

I wash my bunny things in hot water, a little soap and an extra rinse.   I have enough so that, for the next change, I can rotate to clean right away.

On the other hand, if I have to wash to use that day, I use vinegar for the softener.  It doesn’t smell and it doesn’t produce static.

[LBJ10]

Hi Patti! Welcome to BB! We ask that members avoid dragging up old threads. The reason is because it may cause confusion, leading to other members responding to what might be an urgent issue only to find out that the thread is years old. I’m going to lock this one now.

[Author]

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