cleaning. no bleach

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paintrider89

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I have been attempting to find something to go through and do some deep cleaning on some of the Hutches and cages. When I looked around on here about cleaning, everyone seems to agree. Bleach.

Well here is my predicament...I am highly allergic :oops:
Not to go in great detail, but it makes me do everything from pass out, vomit or gives me headaches. What do the doctors say. Stay away. So I do.
Well as much as hubby loves me, and tolerates the rabbits. Jack he even helps at times, I think I will get laughed out of the room if I asked him to go clean the rabbits cages with bleach.

So what do I use? I am pretty chemical sensitive. I use dawn antibacterial (green, smells wonderfully too) on all rabbit dishes about once a week, as well as the dogs. At times the horses bits ect...
Would that be acceptible? Mix like dish water, hot and clean them that way? I know dawn is pretty animal safe, I would remove and let dry. It shouldn't hurt them, but will it be strong enough.

Also considered ACV, as I knew an older lady who used to clean her house with it. But again I worry it will not be strong enough to kill everything?

Does anyone have any other type of cleaner they would reccomend?
 
Lysol?

I can't think of many cleaners other than those that I'd use...
 
Vinegar is not as effective as bleach, and there are some things that bleach kills that vinegar does not touch.

You can pair vinegar with hydrogen peroxide (not mixed, but sprayed one after the other) to be much more effective. I don't know how the results compare to bleach, but probably pretty well.

http://www.rootsimple.com/2012/02/heavy ... d-vinegar/
http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arch/9_28_96/food.htm

You can torch cages, but you have to be careful not to damage the galvanizing.

My mom is highly chemically sensitive, too. I am not sensitive to bleach, so I can use it outside on cages. She can tolerate Pine Sol. Other than that, I mix cleaners myself.

OwnedByTheBuns":3ma2i9wd said:
I would try vinager and salt and hot water. Then let it all sit for a few weeks if possible.
Click to expand...
When using bleach on galvanized metal (wire cages, for instance), you must let it sit for 10 minutes or so, and then rinse thoroughly, and then rinse some more. The bleach degrades into a salt that will rust cages. I would think that letting regular salt sit on the metal would do the same thing?
 
Have you looked at the cleaner Simple Green, it is organic, hypoallergenic and 100% natural.
 
Actually vinegar kills as many germs as bleach. We use vinegar when we don't want to wait for something to dry since it's non toxic except it's fumes in a small space.
 
Some places say it does, others say it doesn't, so I don't know what to think. I use vinegar in the house, myself, because it doesn't have toxic fumes, and because I'm not looking to have a germ-free house.
 
I mixed 1/4 cup bleach, 1/4 cup salt, 1 cup vinager, and 2 cups hot water. I sprayed on my cages and then rinsed and scrubbed and let sit out in the rain. Then, I let the cages dry and painted with rustoleum.
 
Vinegar does have toxic fumes as it cures but only in a small space. I was wiping out a bunch of big aquariums with it leaning down in to them and I burnt my throat. Couldn't talk for a week. Aquariums tend to be tall, narrow shapes though providing little ventilation. In large open top cages or the room of your house you aren't going to notice.

Vinegar does kill as many germs as bleach but not the same ones. Some nasty ones it doesn't effect which is where the debate comes from. Generally that is not an issue though.

Also if you can get concentrated hydrogen peroxide (not the stuff in the pharmacy) it will work as well. Hospitals use it but at the strength you need gloves and careful handling for. The stuff bought in stores is far too diluted so it doesn't burn your skin off.
 
OwnedByTheBuns":2qirox0n said:
I mixed 1/4 cup bleach, 1/4 cup salt, 1 cup vinager, and 2 cups hot water. I sprayed on my cages and then rinsed and scrubbed and let sit out in the rain. Then, I let the cages dry and painted with rustoleum.
Click to expand...

I don't have bleach at my house even. I'm allergic.
 
OwnedByTheBuns":2q8cu9qy said:
Oh, I know, I was saying it for Miss M. I was just telling her what I did.
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Oh, I see... you rinse, then set in the sun. Sorry about that! :oops:

__________ Sun Aug 04, 2013 5:55 pm __________

And you are right, rain and sun, sun, sun... sun is a great disinfectant for cleaned cages! Just turn the cages every few days.

You could probably just use Dawn and lots of sun if necessary, and be pretty well off.
 
I don't have any real dirty cages, I would simply like to disinfect on occasion as well. I think I will do dawn, then vinigar and let sun dry. Thanks all.
 
OwnedByTheBuns":23zxt5sa said:
Oh, it's alright Miss M! I don't even know what you are apoligizing for! LOL
Click to expand...
:) For thinking you were recommending coating a cage in salt and vinegar and then setting it in the sun for a few weeks without rinsing the salt off. :p
 
I use several different things, sometimes one after the other.

If I am really concerned about sanitizing the cages thoroughly, I use Betadine Surgical Scrub and a brush to scrub the cages, and rinse with water. Next, I fill my steam cleaner with straight vinegar- I figure hot vaporized vinegar has got to be pretty effective, as the heat itself will kill what the acid doesn't. Rinse thoroughly, as the acid will harm the galvanization. Once the wire is dry, as a final step I will spray the cages down with rubbing alcohol. As far as I know, it doesn't contain anything harmful to the wire, so I just let that evaporate.

For just general cleaning between occupants I add some bleach or vinegar to my scrub bucket and put a couple drops of dish soap on my nylon bristle brush and scrub the cages inside and out. I then rinse and allow to air dry.

A paint scraper is handy to remove any feces that may have adhered to the wire.
 

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