There's no getting around it - a pet that eats unlimited amounts of hay and grass and poops 200 to 300 droppings a day is bound to make a bit of a mess! So it should come as no surprise that cleaning your rabbit’s cage is an essential part of rabbit care.
Thorough rabbit cage hygiene not only makes for a more pleasant environment for you and your buns - it actually has a direct impact on their health. This is why we’ve gone to great lengths to make sure our Kavee cages are super quick and easy to maintain.
In this article, we’ll walk you through all the tips for cleaning a rabbit cage you need to know to keep their home spotless and your buns living like royalty!
Frequency of Cleaning
To save yourself from hours of scrubbing and save your buns from a dirty home, we'd recommend spot-cleaning your rabbit’s cage daily, and performing a more thorough clean at least once a week.
A dirty rabbit cage not only looks and smells unpleasant, it can quickly become a breeding ground for all sorts of nasties like mold, bacteria, and parasites. This can be harmful to you and your rabbits' health - a situation that no-bunny wants!
Depending on cage size, the number of bunnies you have, and how well litter-trained they are, you may need to increase the frequency to keep your rabbits feeling fresh - you’ll just need to see what works best for you.
Step-by-Step Cleaning Guide
Now that you know how important it is to prioritize your rabbits’ hygiene, you may be wondering how to do that in the most efficient way possible. Simply follow the below steps for squeaky-clean cages:
Daily Spot Clean
A daily spot clean should be performed once or twice a day. They shouldn’t take any longer than a few minutes to complete from start to finish.
Step 1: Remove any uneaten or spoiled food - you should dispose of any uneaten fresh food daily, as well as remove any soiled hay and pellets. This prevents any build-up of bacteria and poorly tummies!
Step 2: Refill the water bottle - get into the habit of refreshing your bunnies’ water every day to keep it sanitary.
Step 3: Scoop out the litter tray - to avoid unpleasant aromas and to keep parasites at bay, do a quick clean-up of poop and any particularly soiled areas of the litter tray.
Step 4: Spot-clean the fleece liner - sweep up any stray poops or pieces of hay. This can be made easier with the right dustpan and brush!
Weekly Deep Clean
Your weekly cleaning will require a bit more time - anywhere between 15-30 minutes - so you should set a reminder and factor this into your schedule.
Step 1: Open the cage lid - If your C&C cage has a lid, open it fully during the cleaning process so that you have easy access to all four corners (if your cage has no lid, feel free to hop directly onto the next step).
Step 2: Remove your bunnies - temporarily pop your bunnies in a play pen or bunny-proofed room so that they’re safely out of the way during the clean-up operation.
Step 3: Remove everything from the cage - including food bowls, water bottles, litter tray, hideys, and toys.
Step 4: Sweep coroplast base and fleece liner - you should aim to get the worst off by brushing or hoovering any stray poops, hay, and hairs into the trash.
Step 5: Wipe down the cage - spritz the coroplast base and cage grids with a pet-safe detergent, wipe clean, and allow time to dry (make sure to rinse thoroughly if using harsher chemicals).
Step 6: Wash the cage accessories - wash up food bowls and water bottles in hot soapy water and wipe down any accessories and toys with a pet-safe antibacterial cleaner.
Step 7: Replace the litter tray - clean out and replace the litter tray. Just make sure to leave behind a few of the poops and urine scent as it will help them know where to toilet.
Step 8: Replace with a fresh fleece liner - put the soiled fleece liner in the laundry and replace it with a clean one (this is where it helps to have a couple of sets of bedding!).
Step 9: Place everything back in the cage - finally, the fun bit - rearrange your bunnies’ cage just the way they like it, and let your buns bask in that clean-bedding feeling! Woohoo!
Cleaning Products
When cleaning your rabbits’ cage, please be aware that bunnies have very delicate respiratory and immune systems. We’d advise against toxic cleaning products that may contain bleach, ammonia, or chemical fragrances, as they aren’t safe for your buns to breathe in, lick, or accidentally ingest.
Always take care to properly dilute harsher chemical cleaners and add in an extra step to wash and dry the cage thoroughly. As a final extra precaution, you should use a dry cloth to remove any residue.
For a pet-safe and natural alternative, vinegar is an excellent cleaning solution for C&C cages. It works like magic on our coroplast bases, plus you can even add it to your laundry loads to keep your fleece liners coming out as good as new!
Keeping a Rabbit Cage Clean with Kavee
Here at Kavee, one of our top priorities when designing our C&C cages was ease of maintenance. We knew from personal experience what a pain it was to keep traditional hutches clean, but also how important it is for our rabbits’ health.
After much experimentation and testing, the end result is a cage with a lid that opens wide for full access to your bunnies’ enclosure, a removable coroplast base that can be wiped down in seconds, and fleece liners that just need throwing in the wash.
Cage cleaning really couldn’t be any quicker or efficient for busy yet perfectly attentive bunny parents! Leaving you with more quality time to spend playing and snuggling with your favorite fluffballs.
Conclusion
We hope that this article has given you a better understanding of the importance of regular rabbit cage cleans for the overall health of your bunnies, as well as a bit of much-needed motivation too!
To recap, a quick spot-clean daily and a more thorough clean every 1-2 weeks is going to keep your buns’ digs spick and span, so remember to do a little and often to make things easier on yourself. We promise you’ll be thanking yourself in the long run!
If you’re looking to simplify your rabbit care routine and ensure squeaky-clean hygiene, you should definitely check out Kavee’s range of easy-to-clean rabbit cages and accessories.
