Cage cleaners?

[Peter's Mummy :)]

When I got Peter, his cage was clearly not cleaned before he was brought over to me. She must’ve dumped the poops out, but there was pee stuck on it. I’ve scrubbed and scrubbed. I read you can use baking soda, it helped a little…I lay newspaper shavings and hay down on the bottom( He has one of those cages where you just slide the tray out to clean it), but this mess is still on it. It doesn’t smell, I have washed it with vinegar but I just want to know if there is anything I can use without having to go out to the pet store and buy it. Are there any house products safe for him? I know that pretty much all house cleaning products are very harmful to bunnies, but there’s gotta be something out there?
If not, then what do you recommend using?…If this stuff is even able to come off?

…And by the way, I’m a very thorough cleaner and I scrubbed it for 25 minutes last night and 3 other times and let it soak in the tub for about an hour. It helped a little, but I feel like more could come off. Should I just keep doing what I did last night? I even scrapped some off with a knife, but noticed I was chipping it…

[mocha200]

i would use vinegar and just let it soak for awhile. then scrub it. but wire flooring is bad for bunny’s feet i wouldn’t use a cage that has wire flooring, or you could cover the floor with a rug or something. do you have a picture of how bad the stuff is stuck on?

[Monkeybun]

Hot water and vinegar soak. I leave mine for a couple hours when its real bad, then give it a good scrub and comes away nice and clean.

Definitely cover the floor with something, wire bottoms aren’t very good for little bunnies.

[Balefulregards]

I have only ever soaked with vinegar and baking soda – Set with some very hot water, and set it outside to sit in the sun.
A good percent of the urine scale came Off – and with their Smaller litter pans, I wipe down with vinegar when I do the litter change every two days, and let them have to Super soak once a week (this was the cage she was in for 2 years before we adopted her, and it was rarely cleaned). My litter pans ( going on a year) Have Zero urine build up, and no lingering smell. The wipe down with undiluted vinegar seems to really do the trick. It is also what I wash the floors with in the room.

Best and cheapest cleaner out there.

[Peter's Mummy :)]

I put a towel on the top level and i put hay and shavings from the pet store on the bottom level. The lady I got him from didn’t have anything to put on the wiring. And when she dropped him off to me I asked her “you don’t put anything on the floor? He walks and sleeps on the wire?” And she told me that he did and it didn’t bother him and I said that I was going to put a towel and some hay down because that must not be too comfortable. I felt bad for him. Honestly, the comfort factor is number one along with the safety factor. I asked her if he ever got stuck in it or if his nails ever got caught? If his nails did get caught and they ripped too short, it’d be just like getting your finger nail caught in something and it coming off too short. It would bleed and hurt like a beach! And she didn’t respond to me when I said that, she quickly changed the subject…
But thanks, I just got home from work so I’ll go scrub it again with vinegar. Do you use vinegar, baking soda and hot water? Baking soda and vinegar makes it all foamy and stuff, right?

[Minty]

Don’t mix the vinegar and baking soda… you’d have an explosion! lol
Just let it soak in the vinegar… It has worked for me every time.

[Peter's Mummy :)]

Lol yeah that’s what I thought..

[Beka27]

I prob wouldn’t worry too much about the state of the current cage. Sounds like he’s going to need a new one anyways. Wire is so hard to clean and a pain to deal with, definitely not worth your time, or the risk it poses to Peter.

[RabbitPam]

Actually, Minty, I was about to recommend you do mix the vinegar and baking soda. It only fizzes. It’s rather active at first, not harmful at all, and settles down pretty quickly. It’s twice as good as either alone for soaking. I would use the two together, let it soak, then try scrubbing with hot water again.

You’re doing your best to get it clean. Clearly the germs are killed. You could try a layer of coroplast over it if you want a new plastic bottom but don’t want to replace it.

[Minty]

Oh, sorry RabbitPam, I thought I remembered doing a science experiment with that in middle school and having a bottle explode! lol I guess I will have to try that then. Maybe it was the pepsi and mentos I was thinking about?? Ahh, my brain is jumbled, it’s been a long day. Don’t listen to me then OP!!

[Balefulregards]

I use the Vinegar and Baking soda nearly every week – Like Rabbit Pam said – It only fizzes a bit. I generally sprinkle the baking soda on the bottom of the pan, pour the vinegar on top, and wait for few minutes – Today I carried the pans out and let them sit in the sun while I mopped the floor down with vinegar. Then, rinsed out with hot water – wiped dry with towel and ready for new litter.

I also use Vinegar and Baking soda for our tub and other “hard surfaces”. About once a month, I run a cycle of Hot water with Vinegar and baking Soda through our washer as well to kill any smells and “delint” the inside drum.

Since I figured out that Vinegar and Baking soda ( at 50 cents a box for the baking Soda and like 1.50 for a big jug of vinegar) was not only the most cost effective cleaner – but Also the most eco-friendly materials AND do the best job, I have been sold.

I was actually just looking at the pan bottoms today and , honestly there are NO urine stains – and we have used these pans for a year.

[Peter's Mummy :)]

Wow. Lol this is kind of dumb, but if you Google “Vinegar uses” a link with 74 uses of vinegar pops up. I’m wicked french, so I love vinegar on beans and french fries and poutine and what not. I love vinegar even more now! Haha.

Where can you buy just the pan for the bottom of a cage? I went to Petsmart and the lady didn’t understand what I was looking for and showed me to where the cat litter pans were..Lol.

Oh and also, how can you make those pens to bring your bun to play outside? Peter has been out 4 times with his leash so far and he loves being outside! I want to make him a pen-gate type of thing so I can sit and relax in the sun too without holding him and being so worried he’ll escape.

[mocha200]

Are you looking for a x pen like this?

 

[Peter's Mummy :)]

Yep. It seems like all the ones I have looked at don’t seem big enough and are wicked overpriced. If they’re not easy to make, well easy enough for my boyfriend to make, then I’ll just spend the money. But I kind of want a big one, just so he has more room to run around, you know

[mocha200]

there is a way you can make one but i don’t know hard it would be. do you guys have a fleet farm were you live? or something that sells a lot of wire? cuz i know at our fleet farm they have wire that is just like a x pen ( i can’t remember if they were cut or if you had to cut them your self.) then by the rabbit stuff they have the little clips that hold the x pens together. then all you would have to do is buy the wire, cut sheets of wire 2 feet wide and connect together with the clips. let me see if i can find a picture of the clips..

here are what the clips look like, and you bend the little thngs around the wire.

 

[Peter's Mummy :)]

We have a tractor supply and things like that?
I wanted to know about this so I could bring him outside, but I just read this http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/2010/3/tall-xpen-checkered-rabbit-1.htm and now I don’t want him anywhere near the outdoors! Is all of that information true?

[Beka27]

There are many dangers involved with taking rabbits outside, and some (fleas, mites, and parasites) are not preventable. Predators can be stopped (slowed down?) thru use of a covered pen, but also keep in mind, a rabbit can die from fright without coming into contact with a predator. It’s a decision you need to make for yourself. This board is pretty much 50/50 on the percentage of people who do and do not allow their rabbits outdoors.

[mocha200]

but if you are sitting right there no bird or animals is going to attack your bunny, but if you were not sitting right there then Yes there is a chance your bunny could be hurt/killed.

[Peter's Mummy :)]

I wouldn’t leave him outside on his own because some neighbors have cats.

The only carpeting in my house is the basement, the bedrooms and the living room. The kitchen and hallways are all linoleum and he really can’t play and run around on that without slipping and if he slips, I don’t want him to get hurt.
My basement isn’t one of those nice basements with heat and bedrooms and all of that. We kind of use it as a game room, it has pool table, dart board, fooze ball table, and another table used for other kinds of games. In the winter, it’s not the warmest part of my house, but it’s livable. My boyfriend and I sleep down there if we have a ton of friends crashing for the night. So I don’t know if I would want him down there. I’d feel bad if we just put him in the basement, but he would have plenty of room to run around. But also, there is not a lot of sunlight down there.
My bedroom isn’t that big either. We have the dresser, my bed and Peter’s cage. And like a million pictures of the walls, but my room is pretty small, so he doesn’t have all that much room to run around.
My living room is where he could run around, but we have so many cords and plugs it’s nuts. My brother has his phone charger, my friend has hers, my boyfriend has his, my mom has one, and I have on down there too. Not to mention the computer cords, keyboard, mouse, printer/scanner, TV, cable, XBOX(lol :p) fan, air conditioner, etc. Wow, it doesn’t even sound fire safe when I put it that way! Lol. But he usually sits on the couch and just chills there with us.
My point is, I would like him to be able to run around and have as much fun as possible, without getting hurt, and staying healthy.
I donno if anyone really sees what I’m saying here? I want him to be outside, but I also don’t want to be told I’m being inhumane and putting my bunny, self and family in danger of parasites, and being called a bad bunny mum?

[mocha200]

my bunnys go outside and they have never gotten hurt, but your basement sounds a lot better place for him to run around in, even if there isn’t as much sunlight. Petzy’s bunnys live in the basement and they are fine. but if it is really crowded then maybe not.

[Peter's Mummy :)]

Oh, I see. Do you live in a grassy area?

It’s not too too crowded down there. We have room to sleep and we make a little bed out of sleeping bags if we’re not too tired… Last summer we had bees down there so the maintenance guy came and sprayed the room. Since then I have vacuumed the carpet very thorougly numerous times, but I don’t know if any of the chemicals are still in the carpet after very thorough cleaning?

[mocha200]

i wouldn’t think so but i am not sure… have you washed the carpet? if you are nervous about it you could lay down a sheet were he would be playing.

[Deleted User]

Basement Petzy here.

You could bunny-proof your basement by using NIC grids to block off any cables and tech things. Have you read the bunny-proofing section under “info” in the green bar above?

My rabbits go outside under supervision but only because where I live there is no myxomatosis (yet). A single mosquito or flea can infect your rabbit with this deadly disease.

[Beka27]

I would try to bunny-proof your rabbit’s immediate area first, rather than transporting him down to the basement or outside everyday for exercise. If his cage is in your room, is it possible for your room and the attached hallway to be his exercise space? That would end up providing more room than going outside, since outside he’d be confined to an xpen anyways.

[Peter's Mummy :)]

My room is on the second floor, so I’m scared he would go down the stairs or get hurt on the stairs. I could get a gate for him to block off the stairs so he can run around…

[Sarita]

Are your stairs carpeted? My stairs are carpeted and my rabbit Pepe runs up and down them just fine.

[Peter's Mummy :)]

Carpet.

[mocha200]

were does he exercise right now?

[Peter's Mummy :)]

The couch, he doesn’t like to be on the floor. We put him there and he jumps back on the couch. I think I will probably just go in the basement tonight and lock up anything that he could escape from or get hurt on and see if he likes it down there.

[mocha200]

he might be a little scared right away, but he should get used to it and start hopping and binkying.

[Beka27]

Oh yeah, a tall baby gate can work to block off the steps. Or like Sarita said, her bun navigates the stairs fine… So maybe to start you could put the baby gate 3 steps down, so he can go up and down a little bit, safely.

The GOOD thing about having his run space adjacent to his cage is… this way, he can learn to go in and out of his cage by himself to use the litterbox and recognize that the cage is his space. Also, you can do things in your room and not worry about having to take him somewhere else for exercise every day.

[Peter's Mummy :)]

True true. Maybe I’ll just do that. For now, I could just put the gate at the door of my bedroom so he knows that it is his room and it is where he typically should be, but can run around more if he wants. Or would it be better for him to just put the gate at the stairs so he has more room to run around?

[Beka27]

Depending on how his litter habits are, it’s best to start with less space and slooowly expand. How is he in that regard? Does he return to the litterbox to do his business?

[Peter's Mummy :)]

He just holds it in I guess? He doesn’t pee on the couch and we keep him out for a few hours at night, and there is no litter box down there, so I guess he just holds it

[Beka27]

You have to have a litterbox in any space that he’s in. He should always have access to a litterbox, hay, and water. This is why it’s a good idea to exercise him in the same space as his “home base”, so he can return when he wants to do his business. But if you have to take him elsewhere, you really do need to set up additional litterboxes.

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