can I sterilize water bottle caps and plastic bowls?

[AmysMacdog]

Just wondering I no longer have any of the rabbits that were exposed to the virus last year because I have the two litters of the Americans and one doe rebred. So I was sanitizing the cages the way we covered in an earlier thread but was wondering about the plastic bowls and the water bottle valve caps. The caps are for soda bottles so I can replace the bottles.
All of the bowls are hard plastic dog bowls. Is there a way to thoroughly and reliably sanitize these items and make them safe for other rabbits that have not had that virus or buy new?

 

[dayna]

boiled water? Bleach?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

:yeahthat:

Our dishwasher has a "Sanitize" setting which blasts everything with high heat. I would probably soak the caps and bowls in a strong bleach/water solution and then run them through my dishwasher. 10 parts water to 1 part bleach is pretty standard, but I would maybe do an 8 to 1 solution to be certain.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Ok thanks MSD and Dayna! I've got a couple of metal J feeders in the sink I'm working on, I thought about putting them in the oven and sterilize them the way you do a jar for canning. LOL
I hope this works, I'm so worried these new American bunnies will start dropping like flies!
They've been on ACV but thought about switching them to Grapeseed extract for a couple of weeks as a precaution. The last ones to have it didn't get it until they were 12 weeks old. So with the older kits I won't relax until they are about 16 weeks old, 8 weeks from now.