Cleaning Condos

[ilr369]

How would you clean a condo (like the ones in cool habitats)?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

For me, I take everything out, empty clean refill litter trays/food/water. Then sweep and vaccum the floors. Then I pull the floors out and rinse them in the shower. I do that twice a week (total overhaul-where I disinfect all their food/water bowls); Every day I poke my head and ‘tidy up’ I use a dustbuster to zip up stray poos and hay, and tidy their toys up.

Originally my bf designed my condo so one cube opened for cleaning but holy that was a pain. Now an entire end opens up for me and it’s much easier to reach in!

[Bunnies4ever]

My rabbits live in a 2-story condo with an x-pen attached and they pretty much hang out in the pen area. On a weekly basis, I vaccuum up all stray hay and poops. Their condo gets a cleaning of 50/50 mixture of white vinegar& water and the “upstairs” gets vaccuumed. They are going through a molt and it’s been crazy with all the fur!

[ilr369]

So, do you have to move the condo?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I don’t move mine at all, but you can of course!

[Bunnies4ever]

I don’t move mine either, but it’s on wheels and if I need to clean behind it, I can. I forgot to mention that their litterboxes and food dishes are in the pen area and get cleaned every day.

[MarkBun]

I bought a cheap shop vac and that 5.0 hp with the large hose sucks everything up into it. My buns are good about not piddling anywhere else besides the litter pan so I don’t take out my rugs for washing.

I have a 2.5×2.5 foot square in the side of the condo that opens up so that I can get in there. Once I turn on the shop vac, the buns hide in their house so I can suck everything up without worrying about catching a stray bun in the filter.

[JK]

I just did a major cleaning yesterday and moved everything away from the wall! OMG!  Do you know what’s back there?!!!!!!!!!!!! Hay, poops, dust.  gross!! Edson is constantly in my way when I clean.  He thinks it’s great fun.  A real pain. I do a daily light cleaning though so it’s never that bad.

[Beka27]

i agree with the daily dust-busting. it helps to get the loose bits of fur out too, esp. if you or someone in the family has allergies. once the fur gets floating in the air, it can aggravate that. i posted in your other thread just now, but i didn’t realize you had started another. i think you will have fun making this.

[kimberleyanddarren]

i vac the stray poos up with a hand held vac as its easier to get in there, i take out the litter trays wash them and put them back along with food and water bowls. i wash the mats and stuff in there once every other week or so and clean the bars off about once a month to keep it smelling fresh, doesnt take long at all!

[Scarlet_Rose]

There are also some members here who use Roomba’s to help control fur and hay messes as well. I just diluted vinegar and water to wipe down the linoleum after I vacuum out the cage. Be sure to place plenty of convenient doors dedicated just for cleaning to make it easier on yourself. I have 3 panel by 2 panel 3-story NIC condo and have a total of 6 doors, 4 of which are just for cleaning. Be very careful about where they go because you need to maintain structural soundness of the entire unit, other wise things will bow out and perhaps collapse. Mine is on a cart with locking castors my brother built for me and I can just push it one way or the other to get a better angle for cleaning and also for cleaning under the cage as well. I also have a small one-step step stool to sit on so I do not have to bend over so much (I’m getting old LOL). Something I also recommend is a small shop-vac. I’ve also placed celar plexi glass panels, Home depot has 14″ x 11″ squares that are pre cut. I drilled some holes in them and affixed them on the inside of the cage with zip ties to keep hay, poo and litter on the inside of the cage. These panels will leave a bit of a gap at the top, but it’s good for air circulation.

[ilr369]

When you clean with vinegar, do you just soak it in the vinegar? or should you scrub?

[Scarlet_Rose]

For stubborn litterboxes, I soak it in 100% vinegar then scrub to remove the dried urine. On the flooring, I just spray and wipe and then be sure to follow up with wiping it down with water afterwards as it has a high PH and can cause your rabbit to get sore feet & hocks. (I forgot to mention that in my earlier post.)

[Gravehearted]

I didn’t build our condo, we won it at Bunnyfest. If I were to build one I’d make it a bit easier to get to the back, since it’s hard to reach the back corners. We do slide ours out at least once a month to get all the stuff that has fallen onto the carpet behind it. It’s not heavy and I can move it on my own. I also keep a office floormat below it to help protect the carpet as well.

I sweep it with a dustpan and lil broom and then use a spray bottle with 50% vinegar and 50% water mix on any stains. It generally comes up with no issue.  If it doesn’t come up right away, I will spray and wipe again.  I don’t use the vinegar mixture everywhere, just when there are stains.  The floors in ours are coroplast, so it may depend on what kind of flooring you use.

[babybunsmum]

i designed (haha) the girls condos to have the hay box & litter on the bottom level, so my daily cleaning is to sweep the other levels down to the litter level & wipe up any spills with one of my designated bunny towels.  i have a spray bottle with vinegar water & one with just water to spray & wipe any messy bits pretty much daily depending on the state of the condo.  the litter level has a small pan with yesterdays news pellets that i empty daily. 

once a week i empty the rest of the litter (poops & hay bits) and wash out the whole container with vinegar water & rinse.  i usually sweep up hay bits & hair balls daily-ish but once a week i do a good vacuum after the over-haul cleaning.  my condos aren’t on wheels or a base but they’re still relatively easy to slide away from the wall to get the bits that have fallen down behind (i have the condos on sheets of plastic).

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