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Whether you are a new rabbit owner or have pet rabbits for a while, it is vital to know when and how to clean a rabbit cage to save yourself from unnecessary hassles later.
A rabbits cage must be cleaned daily to ease your trouble when you try to give your rabbits cage or hutch a thorough cleaning.
In this article, I have demonstrated a step by step guide on how to clean a rabbit cage or hutch as well as I have suggested the best easy-cleaning rabbit cages as a bonus in the end.
How to clean a rabbit cage step by step?
Rabbits are beautiful small house pets. Being a small pet and so delicate pet rabbits require some extra care.
Pet bunnies may not be the right animal for you if you are a busy person. You may consider a dog or a cat reasoning how much less effort is required to keep your dogs and cats clean.
On the contrary, rabbits cage and running space must be cleaned often, to prevent pet rabbits from unwanted health issues.
However, rabbits can still be a better pet than cats and dogs.
Regardless of the pros and cons of pet rabbits, you must learn cleaning a rabbit cage and hutch using rabbit safe cleaning products.
How often to clean a rabbit cage and prevent bunnies from getting sick?
It is your preference how often do you desire to clean a rabbits cage, yet, it is a must to clean your rabbit’s cage once a week in-depth and carefully.
It is also suggested to clean up a rabbit’s hutch or cage twice a day simply. Every morning and at night make sure you change the water and clean the food dishes.
Daily rabbit hutch cleaning routine:
You have to clean the rabbit hutch daily in order to prevent yourself from the hassles when you try to clean the rabbit cage weekly.
Every 12 hours clean the hutch and remove all the unwanted greens. If you don’t remove the greens your rabbit will not eat that and they will rot there making it even dirtier.
Remove the water feeder, clean it and refill it.
Clean all the poop and if possible change the hay in the litter box, although changing the litter in the litter box is not necessary every day.
Wash the food dishes and provide your rabbits with some fresh food again. Find what to feed your pet rabbits?
How to clean a rabbit cage or hutch every week?
Cleaning a rabbit cage or hutch weekly is vital for the better health of your rabbit. Clean the rabbit cage thoroughly on your preferred day using disinfectants and vinegar.
Always choose a rabbit cage or hutch which has easy access for cleaning and not congested for your rabbits.
If you clean your rabbit cage daily, it will require lesser time and lesser effort for you to clean the rabbit cage completely.
First, gently bring all the rabbits out from the hutch and let them run free and relax in a safe place for the meantime in case you don’t have easy to clean rabbit cages.
Next, clean all the poops and litter inside the hutch. Clean the litter box, change the litter and replace old hay with new fresh rabbit hay.
Remove all the foods you have given them earlier similarly remove the water feeders.
Wash the water feeder and food dishes with warm water.
Next look for any urine stains within the hutch. To avoid urine spreading odor, clean the urine spots using disinfectants or vinegar.
Use warm water to wipe down the cage but do not use soap or any products with scents. Because rabbits are very sensitive to smell and anything that has a strong scent will irritate your rabbits.
How do you disinfect a rabbit cage?
For disinfecting a rabbit cage use rabbit safe products. Although using rabbit safe products use the disinfectants 1/10 of warm water.
Apple cider vinegar is a very good rabbit safe disinfectant.
Use the solution to wipe the inside and outside of your rabbit cage. This solution is not a good option for any wooden rabbit hutch.
Only steel cages are best to wipe with warm water.
On the other hand, a wooden hutch would absorb the solution and require some time to completely dry out.
I will explain how to keep an outdoor rabbit cage clean later in this article.
For any stainless rabbit cage wipe the bars and all sections of the cage using rabbit-safe cleaning products and leave it like that for thirty minutes.
After thirty minutes wash the cage with warm water again. That will help disinfect the rabbit cage and at the same time, it will not affect your rabbit’s health in any way.
How do I keep my rabbit cage from smelling?
Time needed: 1 hour
Let’s get into a little more details. It is necessary to have easy to clean rabbit cages for your rabbits in order to keep your rabbit cage and hutch from smelling. To keep your rabbit cage from smelling, you will need to follow these steps.
- First and foremost litter train your rabbits within the hutch.
- Clean your rabbit hutch twice daily, Extract all the unnecessary green leftovers.
Litter training the rabbits in a hutch is vital because without knowing where is their designated toilet spot they will use the cage or hutch as a large litter box.
Use Carefresh rabbit litter which is excellent for controlling ammonia odor. - Clean the toys once every week with warm water.
- Avoid giving your rabbits old paper toys. Because they secure the odd smell.
Some rabbit guardians give their rabbits to play with unused paper stuff such as tissue rolls and old books, etc. But this type of paper toys will make your rabbits cage even stinkier.
Instead, choose safe rabbit chew toys that will not spread odor. - While cleaning your rabbit cage every week, wash and wipe the cage floor and grills thoroughly.
If you don’t treat the urine stains very well, ammonia will build up and a permanent odor may remain.
Clean your rabbit cage with vinegar and water solution. If you do it the right way as I have explained above you can avoid your rabbit cage from stinking.
Using apple cider vinegar instead of using normal vinegar is also a better option to kill the odor.
Rabbit-safe cleaning products.
The most effective rabbit-safe cleaning product is a solution of vinegar in warm water. Any commercial product that has a strong smell can be harmful to your rabbits.
A solution that is 1/10 vinegar mixed with warm water is best for cleaning a rabbits habitat. This solution helps remove all the stains from the cage.
On the other hand, the warm water will help kill all the bacterias.
If the stains in your rabbit cage or inside the rabbit habitat are too stubborn you can mix baking soda with vinegar to make a paste which is very effective for cleaning.
Avoid using perfumed detergents. Rabbits are very sensitive to scents and in case you clean the rabbit cage with such detergents, the smell will remain there for a long time, as a result, your rabbits will feel irritated.
How to keep an outdoor rabbit cage clean?
The easiest way to keep an outdoor rabbit cage clean is by choosing easy to clean rabbit cages.
An outdoor rabbit cage or hutch is more likely to get dirty faster when they are out in the open and you have to find some time daily to clean the rabbit hutch.
Leaving your bunnies in an outdoor cage by themselves for a week without removing the leftover greens may build up bacterias in the cage.
Therefore you must check out the rabbit outdoor habitat daily twice to at least change the water and remove the leftover greens.
Once every week clean the rabbit hutch or cage thoroughly using the same methods as mentioned above.
As a result, you bunnies will not get sick.
But most outdoor rabbit hutch is made of wood which is prone to soak the solution of warm water and vinegar. If the hutch is not completely dry after you wipe the hutch, it can cause the rabbits to feel uncomfortable.
So while you are cleaning the wooden surface of the rabbit hutch don’t try to rinse them too much.
After you are done rinsing the hutch moderately and once you believe you are satisfied with the cleaning process let the hutch dry out in the sunlight for at least 30 minutes.
And wait another 30 minutes before you bring your rabbits inside the hutch so that the wooden surface cools down as well as the interior of the hutch.
Or else the heat inside the hutch can cause terrible consequences for your rabbits.
If you are curious about how to raise rabbits outdoors you can read here >>> Can pet rabbits live outdoors?
If you intend to clean an outdoor rabbit cage daily you must choose the outdoor hutches which I have explained here >>> Outdoor rabbit hutch.
Want your rabbit to be happy and healthy?
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