Cage Cleaning

[piggieluver54]

Whats the easiest way to clean a c&c cage?

[Justin]

The easiest way of cleaning would be not cleaning. We can discuss the next easiest way with knowing what kind of bedding you have.

[Harrys Dad]

Originally Posted by Justin

The easiest way of cleaning would be not cleaning. We can discuss the next easiest way with knowing what kind of bedding you have.

cute very cute! Wish I would have said it!

[Haley0489]

Hmm...I was wondering this the other day as well.
I'm used to taking my store cage outside, dumping Carefresh, washing and refilling. The new C&C is much to large to take down my hallway for a good wash every weekend. I'm considering just a dustpan and water/vinegar solution.

[Justin]

I wasn't kidding for that "not cleaning"

I cover the coroplast with newspaper before pine and hay bedding. When I replace the bedding and newspaper, the coroplast looks reasonably clean to me.

I used to wash it in the bathtub before using the newspaper though.

For area where I use fleece, I don't know. It's been over two weeks but I didn't even change the fleece yet. It's still completely dry and clean even though I didn't put anything underneath.

I have a small litter box with carefresh in the fleece area. I wash that regularly, every week. But never used vinegar yet. It didn't smell bad to me.

[Slave to the Wheek]

There are so many options, it just depends on your bedding choice. If you've chosen fleece, I'm assuming you've researched all the fleece threads and chosen your method of suckin' poo.

Using a loose medium such as shavings/carefresh all you need to do is pick up a dedicated dustpan. Scoop it up and dump it. Easy Peezy. I was it down with a little vinegar once in a blue moon, but the real key is to never let it get wet to the floor. In fact, I have a one gallon shop vac that I've been using to do 'touch up' to pick up areas where the poos or pees have congregated and do a spot fill if neccessary.

My boys never soil it down to the bottom because I always leave a layer of the semi-clean and dry older stuff on the bottom and pound down the new stuff on top. The carefresh is great if you give it a good squishing it will compact down so that spot cleaining areas is a wiz. With my shopvac it will just suck the loose poos and only the carefresh bits that are loose. (I am huge advocate of the white carefresh because I can see any bleeding as well as target the poo. Plus the other kind smells of rat pee and makes my hands itch. ..and don't ask me how I know what rat pee smells like!)

The other thing I really advocate, is to use at least 4-5 inches of bedding. This is a big investment the first time, but by leaving some of the cleaner old stuff each time you clean, it costs the same as using a less amount.

I like super thick layer of bedding so that the piggers never have an area that is soaked under their feet, and so that the bedding doesn't fly around. If I am too poor to use the Carefresh for the full amount-- I will put shavings UNDER the carefresh. Since the CF can be compacted on top of the shavings I still get the nice benefits of the CF but it's cheaper. I absolutely hate shavings. I hated it for my horses too.

With CF compacted down (I take something flat and pound it down before I put the pigs back) the boys can have a somewhat solid surface they can get a groove on, I don't have any bedding flying around, and I don't have to worry about picking them up and having shavings falling everywhere.

Hope that helps.