|
|
Back Home
SiteMap
|
Cleaning Your Degus Cage
If you are going to own Degus, you must be prepared to clean their cage each week, with a major cage cleaning occurring at least once a month. If you aren't willing to do this, don't get any Degus, as an unclean cage makes an unhealthy environment for them and for you.
When you clean the Degus cage, you need a safe place to move the Degus to. This could be another cage, or a playpen. You cannot clean ‘around' the Degus while they are still in the cage. Once you have removed the Degus, the next step is to remove all of the items from the cage. This includes food and water dishes, hayracks, toys, nest boxes, shelves, the exercise wheel, and anything else that may be in the cage.
Toss out the bedding and wash the cage well. You might want to take it outside and hose it down. Avoid using soap, as it may not be rinsed away well. If you do use soap, try to find organic, non-toxic soap. Use a scrub brush to remove anything that is ‘stuck' on the cage. Either dry the cage with a towel, or allow it to dry in the sun. Just make sure that it is thoroughly dry before you start reassembling everything.
Next, let's take a look at everything that you removed from the cage. Some of this will need to be washed or hosed down, and other items will need to be thrown out and replaced. Inspect and clean each item, and get replacements for those that need to be thrown out.
Now, you are ready to reassemble the cage. Start with fresh lining materials, such as newspaper, and cover this with your bedding materials. Put fresh sand in the sand box, fresh dust in the dust bath, and reattach shelves. Put fresh hay in the hayrack, fresh food in the food dish, and fresh water in the water bottle. Put everything back inside of the cage.
You will most likely need to replace wooden objects at some point, such as branches, wood blocks, wooden nesting boxes, and things of this nature. If you use wooden shelves, you may need to replace these as well. Degus will chew wood – often.
Once you've cleaned and replaced everything, you can simply put your Degus back in their nice, clean cage, and allow them to ‘rediscover' everything. Make sure that you provide a dust bath upon reentry to the cage. You may want to remove the dust bath, and only provide it every two or three days, for a certain period of time. This keeps you from having to replace the dust with clean dust as often.
That's pretty much all that there is to cleaning your Degus cage – and to grooming your Degu. A clean cage is essential to their good health, and weekly cleaning is advised. The more Degus you have, the more often you will need to clean the cage.
Degu information,Degu tips, Degu advice,pets,Degu pet
Next Article: Communicating with Other Degu Owners
-
|
|
