RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Sat Apr 09, 2005 6:58 pm

Dried wee calcifies so any acid is going to help remove it. That's why the lemon juice and vinegar work. Baking soda will just make it fizz which might help agitate it and get it into all the nooks and crannies... and I guess lemon juice is much nicer to smell than vinegar. wink

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:57 pm

I was realy amazed at how well that stuff works...I just sprayed it on let it sit a moment, wiped the crud with a paper towel and it wiped right off. Then I rinsed in a little bit of hot water and dried it. It didnt smell like anything...not even lemon Juice..I guess it pays to watch odd tv shows late at night! I will post the recipie for it. Shaz

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Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:04 pm

	Tabby wrote:
	Vinegar works great at disolving calcified guinea pig urine so I would think it would work for rat urine also. Just spray on full strength (I use a 50/50 vinegar water solution for general cleaning) and let sit for a few minutes. Should take it off and it won't ruin the powder coating.

What if one has a galvinized cage? would it do the same?? <ready to go fill my little spray bottle righ tnow and spray the cage down!>

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Thu Apr 14, 2005 8:09 am

The lemon juice and the baking soda/water mix works on galvanised!! It is 2tbs lemonjuice concentrated is fine...2 tbs, baking soda..and 2c. luke warm water...add the lemon juice fist then the soda then the water in your spray bottle...shake for 30 seconds and go to town!! Since rodents are sensitive to citrus rinse in warm water. The towel or air dry....I paper towel since its quicker. Shaz

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Fri Apr 15, 2005 6:20 pm

OK.. sounds good... i will do that when Im ready to clean it again! I was very surprised how easily the vinegar took the guinea pig urine out of the bottom of the spare cage.

What about the same for an aquarium?? How do you effectivly clean an aquarium?? I know not to use any cleaners, but would vineagar work on that too?? Katy was useing it until I got her cage, but im getting new additions I'm going to have 4 new babies to quarentien in 1 cage, and 1 aquarium.

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Sat Apr 16, 2005 1:45 pm

i was thinking about making one of those cages out of an old shelf and was wondering... how the heck would u clean it? with the carpet and all..

Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:40 pm

You wouldn't

. I'd read through all the "building/remodeling your own cages" stickied threads up top. If you make an unsealed wooden cage, or a cage from galvanized wire, it will stink to high heaven really fast. As for carpet, Littlewillow uses it, I believe. You'd have to ask her how she cleans it, though I'm guessing it's removeable and that she washes it somehow.

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Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:43 pm

I have a galvanized cage, and I use carpet in mine for Ivy. I plan on spraying it down with vinegar... cage and carpet seperate of course, then rinsing them out totally! I'm sure it will work just fine. I have found the vinegar kills odors very well, (in your laundry as well!) so it should come out very fresh smelling!Thats my opinion anyways!

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Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:35 am

I used vinegar once...and only once Shocked

WOW what a bitter odor, even after I had rinsed with warm water. As bitter as it was to my poor sense of smell, I can't imagine what those little rattie noses would have had to endure. I have been using lemon juice ever since and both I and my rattie kids have been very happy.

Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:41 pm

I did it last night. Not a Problem!!! I did it outside. Sprayed it down, let it sit, then took a carpet brush to it! cam out very clean, then did the same thing to the ladders and carpet. then rinsed them completely! My husband wet vaced the carpet dry. Then they all got bathes! LOL!!!

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Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:59 am

The lemon juice baking soda was acctually made for carpet...then they cleaned everything that a pet would touch with it...Fish tanks..vinegar for whatever reason can and will eat silicon....but I used the lemon and baking soda and it was great...as far as tough lime and calcium stains I used the lemon juice soda combo and had to only gently scrap the glass with a razor blade...vinegar I had to almost scratch the glass...its something in the oils that lemons have that vinegar doesnt...Shaz

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Sun May 01, 2005 4:01 am

2tbs lemon juice 2 tbs baking soda 2 c. water in a spray bottle...shake it for 30 seconds and spray away..let it sit on harder stains for 1 minute rinse in hot water once...done..Shaz

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Sun May 08, 2005 12:46 am

Hi Everyone, I'm new. I've kept ratties for about five years now, and my co-workers and husband are sick of hearing me talk about them...Where I live, there don't appear to be many rat-people so this site is wonderful! woot

On the cleaning issue, I'm in the same boat, the ratties used to stay in my office, and eau-de-rat doesn't bother me, but I've got a bigger cage and wanted to integrate the ratties into the family more and am keeping them in the livingroom - where we also eat. My husband is under protest. I'm wiping down the shelves constantly but he still says it smells--has anyone tried Febreze? They make a kind that's supposed to be an allergen reducer, and it says it's safe for animals - what if I sprayed down the shelves, let it sit and wiped it up with baby wipes? Anyone tried that?

Nice meeting everyone!

Sun May 08, 2005 1:36 am

What are the shelves made out of? And welcome. Wave

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Sun May 08, 2005 2:05 am

Hi Little Willow, thank you.

They're actually plastic, which I guess can be absorbant.

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"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f------g khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." ~ Tyler Durden

Sun May 08, 2005 2:20 am

I've found personally that solid shelves get stinky really fast even with a daily wipe down. I think the lemon juice or something like that would help, or the hot water and peroxide trick... perhaps though, covering them with some cloth that you could change every day would help? I'm not sure about the Febreeze - if it had time to air off, then it might be ok, but I'm always concerned about chemicals and smells around them, considering how sensitive their noses are.

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Sun May 08, 2005 10:50 pm

I had a friend of mine use frebreeze on one of her dog beds...she let it air out...she put it back in the house which is next to one of her large parrots cages...the parrot got sick with a respritory infection, vet ruled it caused from the frebreeze...so this stuff is not animal safe. She isnt the only one that has had problems with it. I will see if I can find the claims against the company for animal related deaths to the stuff...I would stick to the lemon juice and baking soda it really does take the odor away!! in fact it smell like nothing.. Shaz

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Mon May 09, 2005 12:23 am

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/febreze.htm

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/swiffer.asp

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/scrub.htm

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/clorox.htm

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Kate & the M.O.U.S.
If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event ... what kind of film would you use?
~ Anonymous

Mon May 09, 2005 12:29 am

Thanks Kate the first one is the one I was looking for stateing it is harmful to birds...ok so if its safe for dogs and cats is it safe for rats? There are no mentions on rodents with their tiny little lungs anywhere! What do you think? Would you chance it knowing that its harmful to pet birds, around your rodents? Shaz

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Mon May 09, 2005 12:33 am

Read the article: "The National Animal Poison Control Center, an organization under the aegis of the ASPCA, tells us that they have no evidence that Febreze, when used according to label instructions, is harmful to pets. In fact, they say it's "now approved by the ASPCA for safe use around cats and dogs." Given the choice between believing an anonymous e-mail message and the ASPCA, we'll side with the ASPCA. Two of the specific concerns about Febreze — that it contains zinc chloride (which is supposedly harmful to pets) and that it uses aerosol propellants (which pose a danger to many types of birds) are not viable: the improved Febreze formula (produced since December 1998) does not contain zinc chloride, and Febreze is a pump spray rather than an aerosol."

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Kate & the M.O.U.S.
If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event ... what kind of film would you use?
~ Anonymous

Mon May 09, 2005 12:54 am

Aye, I've seen the thing about Febreeze being lethal to pets before now. I would take common sense precautions to make sure the stuff doesn't come directly in contact with them (such as covering fish tanks, or - in this case - not putting rats onto surfaces still damp with it) - but I sure as heck don't believe the story that it's particularly lethal either. Febreeze, from what I can judge, is no more harmful than any other aerosolised product to birds or any other critter.

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Sat May 21, 2005 12:38 am

I just got a aquarium topper from martins cages and the silicon in the fish tank absorbed the urin odors. Does anyone know how I can safely remove the odor? I want my girls to have a safe and clean home. Daisy pees so much its hard to keep up with.

thank you

-Antea

Sat May 21, 2005 4:06 am

Hi Antea, I've been experimenting with that allergen-reducing Febreeze on the plastic shelves in my boys cage for about three weeks now. It's not really perfumy, and doesn't appear to have any effect on my boys. Just spray the inside of the aquarium, let it sit, then rinse it out or wipe it out with baby-wipes. If the ratties are in the same room with you, I wouldn't use the spray - don't want it airbourne - just pour in a little and swirl it around.

Hope this helps! wink

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"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f------g khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." ~ Tyler Durden

Sun May 29, 2005 9:55 pm

You guys I've tried everything you've suggested but my cage wont last till the end of the week without being cleaned. My cage is a Super Pet Ferret cage with four levels and it was originally powder coated but then we had a little escapee problem so we had to put mesh around the cage. The sad thing is I only have two rats. You could see my cage here at www.petsmart.com it's the one that has purple shelves and the cage is taller than the girl! lol. Does any one know if I could use Cascade or somethin' like that? My room also gets kinda stinky cause the amoneia smell is still in my room I tried useing this room deoderizer for my fabric and stuff for those of you who live in america know it as Frebreeze but it just made my babies sneeze. I have hardwood floor so know pet vacuum stuff. Oh as some advice one time since I couldn't find lemeonjuice I decided to use lime juice and it worked well on the cage but there was some left in the bottle and I decided to keep it next time I cleaned the cage I went loooking for it and it smelled like rotton eggs! Ewwwww! Sorry for the LONG post!

Sun May 29, 2005 10:45 pm

I'd suggest cleaning your cage more often. I clean mine every other day. Once you get a routine, it doesn't take *that* long. You can save the big clean outs for the once-a-week job.

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