RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:08 pm

I'm getting another rat tomorrow, and the new rat is living in my current rat's home,while my current rat is living in an old wire cage...........I was cleaning the cage my new rat is staying in, and I wanted to know how clean it should be? I know rats can go nuts and get stressed out if they smell another rat Rolling Eyes

.Any suggestions?
Anna

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To my loving rats Arwen and Parle'

RIP:
Suzy:November 20th,2003-January 1st,2005

Rest in peace Suzy Q.I will miss you so much.

Sat May 01, 2004 6:53 am

Under Pet Rat Care.. in the Rat Introductions section it has a part about thouroughly cleaning, check that out (on the left hand menu bar)

Mon May 03, 2004 10:49 pm

Check out this site. I do the complete cleaning and sanitizing once a week then light cleaning in between (changing litter boxes and bedding). http://www.afrma.org/howclean.htm

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The Girls; Thelma, Louise, Sara, Betsy, Vivien, Zsa-Zsa, Eva, Heidi, Myrtle, Dorothy
The Guys; Sam, Charlie, Jaq, Gus
Gone but not forgotten; Eugene, Inga, Gwendolyn, Bertha, Matilda, Roxie

Mon Nov 01, 2004 6:54 pm

I usually just put some ammonnia in the tray and use a sponge to clean out the corners. Anyone have a better solution?

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I never though I would love rats and now here I am.
Coach and Fluff 03/04
Zoie and Sofie 11/04

Mon Nov 01, 2004 9:31 pm

When it's warm enough outside I pull it out to the front yard and hose it down then scrub with a pet friendly cleaning solution. In the winter time when it's too cold for that I use a mixture of vinegar and peroxide - each in a squirt bottle. I'll spray down the cage with both, let it set, then scrub and dry. Cheap, natural and easy!

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Christy
RP Admin
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Frodo, Zorro, Erzulie, Maeve, Clara, Molly & Emily

Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:02 pm

Does the vinegar and peroxide get the smell of urine out of the cage?

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I never though I would love rats and now here I am.
Coach and Fluff 03/04
Zoie and Sofie 11/04

Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:37 pm

It does for me. I have Martin's powder coated cages though. I don't know if it would give the same effect on other cages or galvanized wire cages.

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Christy
RP Admin
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Frodo, Zorro, Erzulie, Maeve, Clara, Molly & Emily

Sat Nov 06, 2004 8:28 pm

I have a well-used powder coated Martin's cage for my girls...and like all rats, they love to pee in the top corners. It's not that difficult to clean the outside of the cage and the tops of the shelves, but there is a lot of calcified pee on the bottoms of the shelves. It doesn't smell or anything, I just don't like the look of it. Is there something that will dissolve it off without ruining the finish? I've tried scrubbing with a brush and a kitchen sponge made for nonstick finish, both to no avail.

Ang

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The voices aren't real, but they have some good ideas.

Sun Nov 07, 2004 4:10 am

Hmmm... *tries to think of common solvents that are not harmful* How about vinegar? peroxide? IPA? baking soda?

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Arvay and the Squirmin' Vermin

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'

--Erma Bombeck

Sun Nov 07, 2004 4:17 am

How about a pressure washer? Take the cage on a trip to the local car wash. wink

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Christy
RP Admin
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Frodo, Zorro, Erzulie, Maeve, Clara, Molly & Emily

Sun Nov 07, 2004 4:21 am

If you use a pressure washer stand back aways because if there are the slightest chips in the coating it will peel and flake right off. Just be careful you dont want to ruin a good cage.

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Eddie

The Rat Patrol

http://www.freewebs.com/bighog/

Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:38 pm

Christy

We actually have a pressure washer - I don't know why I didn't think of it.

Eddie: Ruining the coating is one of the things I worry about - how to get it clean without messing it up. Not that the girls haven't done a fine job chewing the coating themselves Rolling Eyes

Ang

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The voices aren't real, but they have some good ideas.

Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:51 pm

Oooh pressure washers work great! I used one on mine over the summer.

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Christy
RP Admin
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Frodo, Zorro, Erzulie, Maeve, Clara, Molly & Emily

Mon Nov 15, 2004 1:32 am

As our cages have gotten bigger, it's become more and more difficult to get them downstairs/into the shower for cleaning. If I go the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide route, is it ok to spay the cages right in the rat room? Does the lingering vinegar smell bother the rats?

Thanks!

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~Abita and the Rat in a Box rats

In loving memory of Krycek, Rizzo, Curly, Bob, Witter, Kono, Rat, Pinky, Olie, Metro, Calle, Cinnamon Schwartz, Mr. Ratburn, Arwen, Leather, Ohana, Zoe, and Mr. Mistoffelees

Mon Nov 15, 2004 1:37 am

Abita, I spray mine in the rat room and it's always been fine. I spray the peroxide directly on top of the vinegar to neutralize the smell. You still smell it but it's not near as strong as it would be with just the vinegar by itself. And it usually only lingers for about 10 minutes or so.

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Christy
RP Admin
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Frodo, Zorro, Erzulie, Maeve, Clara, Molly & Emily

Tue Jan 04, 2005 3:10 am

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.

Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:47 pm

Vinegar is a good cleaner for everything animal-related. But I've found that vinegar and hydrogen peroxide together are really great. You want to keep them in seperate spray bottles and then spray them on together. I failed chemistry but I don't think it creates any harmful byproducts. You can add olive oil for a delicious salad dressing afterwards. Er, maybe not.
I also like oxyclean. It claims to be aquarium safe (usually means a cleaner is very safe in general) but wash it off very carefully just in case.

Erin B.

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Sat Feb 19, 2005 7:53 am

Carolyn-
I usually wipe mine down in the winter, and from time to time use a Scunci steam cleaner on it, but being as I live in an apartment, in the summer, I wipe it down twice a week, then once a month or so I take it to the self-serve carwash and use the pressure washer on it. It works like a champ. I've found that even if I could fit mine in the bathtub, it scratches the enamel.

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Sarah
Gus, Electra and Lillie (cats)
Artemisia Serendipity Timoune Paikea Eowyn (RIP) Nimue Chrysanthemum Mozart, Elizabeth
Ruby Sunrise, Angelina, Madeleine, Claudia, and the Angels

Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:32 am

What kind of vinegar? Does it matter?

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In memory of Riley, the bestest, most squishiest ratty anyone could ever hope for

Wed Mar 30, 2005 2:44 am

Is generic washing up liquid ok to use? I am so paranoid about these things called 'phenols', which apparently lurk in disinfectants and are the root of all ratty evil Confused

That is to say, it makes them sneeze a lot...

Last edited by littlenushka on Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:08 am; edited 1 time in total

Wed Mar 30, 2005 2:46 am

I think in general, if you stay away from products with perfumes in them, and you VERY thoroughly rinse the cage/toys before putting your ratties back with them, you should be okay.

I personally wouldn't use a cleaner that wasn't supposed to be rinsed, because the ratties could ingest it or breath in the fumes and become ill or die.

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Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:41 pm

my cage grows as i wire on old bird cages, rat cages, and hamster cages. at last cleaning there were six cages all wired together making it have 3 levels. there is no way you can that down stairs by yourself! so i put a large towel down of the floor and let all the rats loose to play in my room. took me a good 2 hours to clean it though.

i used a cheap old sponge and a bucket of hot water and president's chioce antibacterail hand soap (highly diluted and it has no smell-great having a dad that's allerigic to most soaps!) there's a picture of the monsrity that i had to clean in this section somewhere...

in there you can see the different types of cages i had to clean. the powder coated ones were a breeze!! i absolutly love them!!! but the stainless steel and galvonised ones sucked! i got most of it clean but there were parts that i just couldn't get to. and the underside of the floors took a lot of elbow grease and ended up destroying the sponge. (of course after i had everything cleaned i added another two leveled cage...)

because of the size i'm really only able to give it a good thorough cleaning about once a month. for the most part i just wipe it out with a warm damp rag at night before i go to bed. it's not the best but it seems to keep the smells down and i haven't had any problems with the rats feet or breathing so i think i'm doing ok. though i think next time i'm going to go out and buy a proper scrub brush for it and i will be trying the vingear in the water too if it helps to dissolve things.

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mommy to:

1 human son: Corvis
1 feline son: Sesshoumaru
1 lost feline daughter: Snowball

Fri Apr 08, 2005 5:22 pm

Hey all.
My girls live in the Rat Skyscraper cage that is one step down from the Ruud cage.
I keep the shelves covered by either solid plastic placemats or that plastic grate stuff that is used as a backing for hooked rugs, but pee seeps through both and collects on the shelving itself. The cage is too big to fit through the doors in my house, so getting it outside and going at it with the hose is out. It is difficult to get the dried pee clinging to those bars off. I've been putting the girls in a cat carrier and going at the shelving bars with a sponge, a floor scrub brush, and water mixed with Dettol clenser, but it takes a long time and aggravates my back problems.

Have any of you found a good way to get dried rat pee off the bars of the shelving? Any genius ideas out there?

The girls are pretty good about using the litter box for poops, but absolutely not potty trained for pee.

S.

Sat Apr 09, 2005 6:42 pm

Vingar ...usualy the white. I have used that but even after rinsing I can still smell rat...and vinegar. I saw something on how clean is your house though....lemonjuice and baking soda diluted with water....I tried it and not only did it come very clean, after just rinsing in a little hot water, there was no smell of anything including the lemon juice. Shaz

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Sat Apr 09, 2005 6:49 pm

ooo! that's sounds much better then the vinegar and better then what i did. does it help disolve the gunk too? i would assume the lemonjuice would do that but just to be sure.

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mommy to:

1 human son: Corvis
1 feline son: Sesshoumaru
1 lost feline daughter: Snowball