How Long To Clean A Cage

Merab

Merab

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Reading the P@H magazine they had a bit about how to clean a guinea pig hutch.
One of the first things it said was “ It will take about 10 minutes “
Can anyone clean a cage or hutch properly in 10 minutes?
I’ve just finished my 5x2 C&C cage which takes me about an hour.
Maybe I’m just slow but by the time I’ve removed the old bedding, sprayed the cage with disinfectant (proper small animal safe stuff) wiped it all down and refilled with bedding and food it does take a lot longer than 10 minutes.

OK - I do pause to talk to the girls from time to time but even so.
Here they are happily back in a nice clean cage.

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Yup, 40 - 70 mins for my 7x2 depending. When I was young and had pigs in a hutch it was super quick - I just lifted all the old bedding out by the paper layers underneith, dumped it and re-set everything.
 
Well, I have an outside hutch for my guinea pigs. However, as it's outside it can take me up to an 1 hour to get all the hay and rubbish out then it can take me around 5 to 10 minutes to add the hay all back in. As I tend to use, newspaper, shavings and hay. So I like to make sure it's warm for them in winter, but in summer it is a lot faster to clean and my guinea pigs will be on the grass a lot so the hutch won't get as dirty.
 
I have a 2x9 C&C, a 160cm ferplast and a 120cm ferplast. Takes me an hour to clean all mine out. All on fleece. I have a system worked out so that I can do it properly without taking ages.
 
I agree 10 minutes isn’t long enough to do it properly. I cleaned my boys hutch this afternoon, I thought I was only out there for 15 minutes.... it was nearly an hour. But I find myself sitting there watching them run around together getting covered in shavings when it’s all clean :))
 
If I didn't use a disinfectant spray on my ferplast 120 I could probably do it in 10 minutes, it wouldn't take long to lift out the bedding , brush out the loose debris and then replace it all. However that wouldn't be good hygiene I think. I wipe the cage out with a damp cloth, spray it with disinfectant, leave for 15 minutes then wipe around as per instructions, then I leave it to dry, which takes quite a while unless I put the cage by the radiator. So it usually takes about an hour, though I'm doing other things half the time while the spray is drying.
 
I have a double decker 6 x 2 hutch. It takes about and hour and a half to do it properly. 10 minutes! I have only just taken out the old stuff by then and dumped it! Whoever wrote that should come round and show me how to clean out my hutch thoroughly in 10 minutes. It takes a good half hour for the F10 spray to dry.
 
I have a large c and c cage and 7 guinea pigs. I take about anhour a day to shake out mats and cage liners, refresh water and clean one of the hay areas.

I dont disinfect every day. I do love to watch then expplore their clean cage. The little noises and the thorough inspections are priceless.
 
I find mine doesn't take long at all. I lift out all the fleeces, shake them into a bag, wipe the correx with white vinegar, and replace the fleeces. 15 minutes tops. It actually takes longer to sweep the poops and hay up every morning. I have got two cages though, so I'm usually over half an hour by the time I've filled up the water bottles etc.
 
I clean (or "fettle" as I call it) Freddie's cage on a daily basis, and then it gets a thorough scrub out/safe disinfect etc once a week - usually Saturday when my hubby's around to help me. The daily routine - ie removal/replacement of bedding, old hay, uneaten veggies, the washing out & refilling of water bottle, bowls & hay manger - takes me at least an hour. (This may be due to my condition, MS, but playing and socialising with Freddie also slows the process considerably! Teehee). The weekly clean takes us at least 2 hours, sometimes longer! However, perhaps I'm 'picky', but I just want our dear wee Freddie to live in comfort, cleanliness, health and safety. How long that takes to achieve is, for me, irrelevant. "Bedrock Mansions" is his home-sweet-home, and I will keep it A1 for him.
 
I can clean a 5 x 2 C&C in about 20 minutes, but that is with help from the kids (who are actually helpful) with things like washing put hay trays and scrubbing and refilling food dishes and water bottles.
DD1 on the other hand can take an hour to select all the fleecy items (making sure they are co-ordinated) and arranging everything to her liking.
So I am allowed to do the main part - remove everything, wipe down the correx, empty hay trays, and put a new liner in, and then she fusses over the rest.
Apparently I am far to random in the way I fling beds/tunnels and accessories into the cleaned cages :roll:
 
It takes me 1-1.3 hours to fully clean the 5x5 C and C cage

Every day I change puppy pads, poo clean, change hay etc and that's another half an hour

It used to take me half an hour to clean the hamster cage! Ten minutes for a Guinea hutch is...unbelievable
 
I do a thorough clean about every 5 days.
The in between cleans don’t take quite as long but still more than 10 minutes.
Came in this evening to discover that Keziah had rearranged the furniture.
‘Her’ snuggle tunnel was now placed so that she could sit in it with her head in the food bowl!
 
I've got 3 cages. Daily poop pick, wet newspaper/puppy pad change and hay tray change takes 1 hour. A complete wash down and fleece change takes 4 hours, that also includes piggy proofing the room and swapping piggy pairs over for floor time as each cage gets emptied. I seem to spend a lot of time finding the right bits of fleece for the right cages as I have so many different shapes and sizes! I really need to get more organised with seperate storage. Roll on summer, it's much easier when they are out in the garden runs.
 
i have 3 double 6 feet hutches,which take me 3 hours to clean,remove bedding and replace,ive four cages 6feet and 7 feet cages in the house.it takes me one and a half hours to clean these out.i use fleece liners in the easy accesable cages.I would like to know how it only takes ten minutes !
 
To be honest with my 5 cages at the moment it takes me just over an hour to do them all fully, so 10 minutes isnt too far off. But then I have F10 wipes which makes disinfecting everything soooo much easier, for me anyway.
 
Well the tiny cages they sell are so small they would only take 10 minutes. Our 3 setups, each 5x2 with a lift takes around two hours total. Then there’s all the washing, drying, poo picking... :))
 
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