Cage Cleaning Question

I'm taking Anwen, my American Sable doe, to a lovely rabbit breeder friend of mine in trade for him boarding Jade and kits for so long.

My travel cage, however, recently had a sickly resident, a small kitten of the cat variety. The kitten had gunky eyes, a clogged up nose, and sneezed often. She was also very skinny and lethargic. She went to a vet permanently and I don't know her diagnosis. I was presuming a respiratory infection, but I want to make sure I clean out the travel cage as well as I can before I put Anwen in it.

Suggestions of what to clean it with? It's a guinea pig cage, so plastic bottom and wire top. One of the housemates was like, "Let's use the natural parsley cleaner," and I had to say, "Yeeeah, no." I'm betting on bleach, Clorox, vinegar, or ammonia, but I'm unsure which to use. Anyone willing to lend a hand?

Welcome to the wonderful world of MSD's obsessive compulsive paranoia...

When I am "sanitizing" cages, I hit them with all kinds of things in succession. Vinegar is a great disinfectant, as is bleach and water, and plain old rubbing alcohol.

I usually scrub with dish soap and vinegar, rinse, do the same with a 1-10 bleach and water solution, rinse, and then mist the cages down with rubbing alcohol and let dry. My steam cleaner filled with vinegar is a favorite tactic- but if you don't have one, rinsing the components with boiling water should kill just about anything. :twisted:

Bleach dries to a salt, which will rust the wire, and vinegar is acidic and ruins the galvanization, so make sure to rinse both with plain water afterwards.

I have never used ammonia. If you do use it, make sure not to mix with bleach, as the vapors are deadly.

Yeah, feline URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) is nasty stuff. It's called "infection," but it's often viral in origin. There's also a herpes virus in cats that causes the symptoms you described.

Like MSD, I'm a user of bleach for cleaning (1 oz. bleach per quart of water--metric, 3% solution bleach/water). I let it air-dry briefly, then rinse rinse rinse with water, then let air dry completely.

However, this procedure is what I've applied to my grooming tools after working on (yes) ill or questionable animals at the humane society before working on a new animal, or after the day at the humane society before packing up (tools finished air-drying at home). I have *not* applied my procedure to cages or animal carriers.

I've also used rubbing alcohol to do a quick-clean of clipper blades at home (at a grooming shop, I used professional blade sanitizers). Great stuff! I admit, I haven't used vinegar on metal, but I use it on my floors as the basic cleaner--it's terrific for cutting through oil/grease mist and spots on the kitchen floor.

The "1 oz. bleach per quart of water" is a fairly standard recommendation. It's what the veterinarians at the Marin Humane Shelter required us to use after the Katrina animals ("animals" b/c they were both dogs and cats) landed. We were to spray the bathtub after each and every Katrina animal's bath with this solution, then allow the tub to air dry while returning our current freshly bathed "victim" and fetching the next animal. For animals with known contagious conditions, we were also required to wear protective gloves (of course) and aprons. Which is pretty funny, because when I bathe an animal, it's my SLEEVES that get wet, and an apron does nothing at all to help that! :lol:

Gotcha. Will do a bleach-and-water solution then. Thanks for the help!

bleach is a great standby. if poultry or other rabbits have been involved, ammonia is more effective than bleach for destroying coccidiosis. I like to put sanitized cages in my greenhouse for a few days to get extra UV radiation from good old sunlight. Most bacterial and protozoal pathogens need darkness and moisture to survive. And most viruses can not live very long outside their host.

Bleach will kill anything if done right, but for things not bleach safe, I use listerine. It smells better too.

Drying in the sun for a long period of time works wonders too.

I like to soak the tray in pure bleach for about 5 minutes, dump it, soak it in vinegar, then rinse it out with water (doesnt matter hot or cold). Also if the wire isn't galvanized, I would personally take a lighter, blow torch, or some other fire maker and burn the wire. Nothing lives through flames :twisted:

~SDR