Cleaning cage time

[Picksgirl]

This may seem like a silly question but oh well!  LOL  I know bunnies will be messy with their hay.  How exactly do you clean this mess up?  Comet has a cage built from wire grid cubes.  Do I just leave the hay laying around forever or do I pick up the whole cage and everything in it and just give it a good vaccuum or sweeping?  What do you all do?

For his litterbox, I have just been twice daily scooping out his poop then weekly I will change the entire box and give it a washing with vinegar.  Is this enough?  He doesn’t pee anywhere in his cage but the litterbox and it doesn’t have any odour whatsoever.  (i’m thrilled about that!!!)

[osprey]

About once a month I move the whole condo off of its foundation, sweep and mop the floor underneath, and then put everything back.  This way I can get the dropped hay, errant poops, pee stains, etc. that I can’t get to when the condo is in place.  Our floors are wood, so the best cleaning implement is still a broom and a dustpan.  The thing is heavy and pretty rickety, I try to move it very gently.

 

[Scarlet_Rose]

I sweep up what I can with a hand broom inside the cage, I use a non-electirc floor sweeper (like they have at restaurants) to get the ones on the floor outside the cage during the week. Then, for the big weekly cleaning I do the previous steps plus I vaccuum up the floor outside and the whole of their cage inside & out to get the dusty stuff and any loose pieces. You may want to invest in a real good vacuum or a small shop-vac (Binky Bunny used to have one mounted to the wall) to suck up the mess. I also have mine on a cart with castors so I can wheel it around without having to pick up the heavy monster. Not to mention it gives them a good hidey hole underneath. Their litter gets cleaned every other day. Depending on the mess, you may want to hang plexi glass or another slick surface on the inside of the cage around the hay to keep it to the interior of the condo.

[skunklionshow]

The hubby & I vacuum very often (we also have 4 cats).  Mostly we do the outside of the cage.  Lately Leo has been molting really bad, so I frequently have to vacuum the grids themselves.  I have one level that is their food level and we only vacuum it when its pooped up.  I try to keep that shelf pretty tidy.  I also clean up any super cecals immediately.  I keep my hose vac next to the bunny cage.

[Gravehearted]

what kind of floor is on your bunny’s house? ours is coroplast. i use a hand mini-broom and dustpan to clean up their floors at least once a week. i use vinegar/ water only as needed. i also try to collect up all the fur that seems to stick to the corners. about once a month we move the cage and get anything under or behind the cage.

[wendyzski]

I am allergic to hay, so I take serious steps to contain it.

Pepper has a hay rack set up over her litterbox, so most of the leftover hay just falls in the box.  Her floor is vnyl tile, and I Roomba the kitchen at least twice a week.

 

[Scarlet_Rose]

That’s a great set up!

[Gravehearted]

aww, Pepper looks so cute in that picture – what a great way to keep the hay from making your allergies affright and avoid a big ol mess too.

[Spacehopper]

Our hoover broke last night! Oh joy for me with the dustpan and brush!!

[Deleted User]

I have been using the vaccume on the floor of the rabbit apartment, and all it does is get clogged. I use the hose attachment and I have to unclog it several times during one vaccume. Coney has been dumping out his hay rack almost daily lately and I have no idea why. He is also pooping so much outside of the litterbox, I think it is when he is eating, so it needs to get vaccumed twice a week. Both buns are shedding so there is tons of hair flying around right now.

[kralspace]

My buns freak out when I run the vaccumm anywhere in the house. I just got a large dustpan at Home Depot that I love. It’s the kind you see people walk around with, like a box that tilts open when you put it on the floor and even has small rollers that let me push it around, or just leave it standing by itself while I shoot poops toward it. It holds a lot and even the lovely Pringles has managed to squeeze into it once.

[kralspace]

awww, that is a great setup and a beautiful bunny!

[Tichelibun]

You guys sound like you all have great places for your bunnies to live! Frank has a big dog cage with a try under it. However, he sometimes pees over the edge, and poops roll out, hay and fur go EVERYWHERE! My solution is to cut the bottoms off of cardboard boxes, leaving a lip around the edge. There is only carpet in my apartment, so I put down a plastic sheet, then the cardboard, then Frank’s cage.

The cardboard keeps hay, fur, and poops from leaving the area of his cage. It also soaks up over-shot pee, and the plastic under it keeps it from soaking through to the carpet. I keep large sheets of cardboard stored behind my desser, so when it comes time for a new one, I just take the old on out, and slide the new one in!

[BinkyBunny]

picksgirl – your cleaning routine is better than mine. I do a full vinegar cleaning of the litterbox every other week. I scoop out urine soaked litter every day to every other day. I have a screen over their litter which keeps their poops on top and that is shopvacced once or twice a day – easy to shopvac it right off the screen.

As far as the hay goes, Scarlet is right – I have a wall mounted shopvac and it cleans up the hay no problems. On the handle, it has a little suction adjustment so if I grab the edge of a rug or blanket, I can adjust it down to let go. I do a thorough shopvac cleaning before noon, and then sometimes I’ll doing an evening quick pickup with the shopvac.

I also have a shark sweeper that helps tidy up around the house. They rarely poop in the rest of the house, but the shark is good about picking up hair.

Tichelibun – If you don’t like the look of cardboard around the cage, you can try and get plastic placemats – something that is solid color, or something that matches your decor.

[MsBinky]

I bought a lil  handheld broom and dustpan at the dollar store and it’s absolutely great. I only use the commercial carpet type (the very very err short? kind) on the levels, and tile on the ground floor. Dahlia’s cage had vinyl, whereas my couple have ceramic. Anyway the broom works wonderfully on all surfaces. I also use a hay rack. You can use a left over grid, tied at an angle to the cage. Put a piece of plastic canvas on the grid so the hay won’t pass through the grid and voila!, one large hay rack.

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

My bunny actually kind of enjoys it when I vacuum. In no means is he afraid of it, but sometimes he tries to play with it or "challenge" it to a fight.

[Deleted User]

Coney doesn’t seem to mind when I vaccume too much. He doesn’t grunt or hide he actually walks over top of the hose. He has also nose butted it before.

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