[beautifulbellablue]

I just realized this past week, I am very obsessive about cleaning my rats cage!! I spot clean it almost every time I visit them or take them out, I wipe it down with a cage wipes once maybe twice a day! Is this obsessive or normal? I hear you should spot clean it everyday but I've heard a lot of people only give a through-time consuming clean like once a week.

I'm just curious

 

[spysquid]

I just spot clean by sweeping up stray litter/poops like, every other day but I don't really wipe anything down. (I have fleece so the only place to wipe would be the bars and the one cooling tile). I try to clean the cage weekly but I also have a really big cage for four rats, so it doesn't get dirty quick and the fleece will start to smell maybe a day or so before I deep clean it with vinegar water mix and all that.

You can never keep a cage too clean though! If you enjoy tidying the cage, keep it up as often as you like! Your ratties (and their respiratory systems) are very happy about it I'm sure ^_^

 

[Isamurat]

interestingly if you over clean rats often smell more. You can poverty clean a bit like you can overt clean for children and increase the chances of asthma etc by not allowing them to build an immune system.

i would probably recommend only using disinfectant once or maybe twice a week. You can pick up and chuck rubbish daily but don't be obsessively wiping shelves. If they are smelly just remove and replace with cat litter trays with some litter in them. a major cage clean shouldn't happen more than once a week as well

 

[Kitterpuss]

I was obsessively cleaning my cage too on account of my allergies - full cage clean every other day! Was very time consuming! Now that I have the bigger cage I've got it down to twice a week, with spot cleanings and litter tray changes as needed in between. I like to pick up any stray poops as the boys have a habit of peeing on poops and then treading them all over the cage, so that's still a daily thing - but its a two minute job.

Gives me more time to play with the ratties - which I think they appreciate!

 

[spysquid]

Huh, I never heard that about over cleaning! I suppose that makes sense.
Also I'm sure the wipes are fragrance-free and pet-friendly and all that good stuff, but I'm always afraid they'll leave something behind? That's why I prefer vinegar-water on a microfiber cloth or sponge. *shrug*

It totally does give you a great chance to spend time with them without having to take them out and prep the play area or watch them closely. I always love when I'm putting in hammocks or moving stuff and they're like "WADDAYA DOIN? CAN I HELP?"

 

[Kitterpuss]

I have mine out free ranging when I clean and they cause no end of chaos - running away with the old fleece, stealing dirty babywipes that they then hoard under the sofa, and rustling around inside the bin bag of dirty poopy litter!
When they are not doing that they are on the other side of the room climbing up stuff they shouldn't be Monsters!

 

[Jessiferatu]

I used to! I learned really quickly though that too clean = extra pee EVERYWHERE. I once washed all of the boys' hammocks at the same time and the next day it stunk like crazy because they were marking everything, lol. So now I rotate which things I clean and leave some in for next time, etc. I change out bedding and wipe down the cages once a week, and clean out the litter pans as needed. Some cages I need to spot clean daily because they refuse to use the litter pans at all (cough*girls*cough) and others are pretty neat and don't require as much cleaning up.