Small Animal Cages

[just_lily]

Yesterday we acquired a new house bunny. A friend of mine was looking to rehome him due to her husband's allergies, so we took him in. He is so cute and gentle and we are all in love.

Anyway, it has been a long time since we have had a small animal (we are mainly dog people) so I am looking for advice about cleaning his cage. I changed out his litter pan tonight and just wiped it out with a Lysol wipe, but I wasn't sure if that was the thing to do. Are there any cleaners that shouldn't be used? Would vinegar and water be better? Or I have a mild bleach solution I use in my daycare (it is 2 tsps of bleach to 3 cups of water, so just enough to disinfect), should I use that?

I just want it to be clean and healthy for the little guy, and not stinky for us!

And for other bunny people, how often are you cleaning cages? So far it seems like changing the litter pan is going to be a nightly chore, but that the bedding may only need to be done a couple of times a week. Is this other people's experience?

[stardogs]

I'm not a bunny person, but a few things that might help since I noticed no one had responded yet.

- steer clear of any bedding made from pine or cedar as the aromatic oils can be problematic.
- checkout the House Rabbit Society - they have toooons of info on house bunnies

[momto3bboys]

After a while the box will get a build up of hard , scaley urine, Vinegar works great, straight vinegar soaking in a box for about 20 minutes and all you will have to do is wipe it away. Lysol wipes inbetween deep cleanings should be fine. A good litter to use is horse stall pellets, you can get them at a tractor supply store they are called Equine pine, or Equine fresh. You can get a 40lb bag for under 8.00, a great value, i use it in my rabbits boxes.

You could also look up something called C&C Cages, they are geared towards guinea pigs but rabbit people all over use them. I belong to a rabbit message board and most of the people there use C&C Cages, sometimes called NIC cages. Another thing to help with the poops is a mesh screen that you can put on top of the litter and just pick up and dump, the pee will go down and into the litter. I put the hay right ontop of the litter too.