What can I use to disinfect my second hand cage?

[ChinchandChilla]

I have a cage that I have to clean before I can put my chinchilla into it, and I need to make sure that all of the odors and whatever else is all neutralized. I've been working on it to make it chin proof and would like to have it proofed by tomorrow.

Can I use dish soap to scrub it down? Should I just use Vinegar and Water? But will that neutralize that smells of the animal that was in there before?

I really want to make sure that this cage is spotless and perfect, so any tips would be great!

 

[Chinmama]

I would scrub it down with a mix of water, vinegar and baking soda and rinse well. I use distilled white vinegar. Let it sit out in the sun to dry.

 

[liewwan]

The fn cage I got used to house ferrets and boy did it smell! I took the cage apart and used a bit of soap and water to scrub it down, rinse it, then warm almost hot water and vinegar and a major rinse out. I towel dry it and just in case I leave out to sun dry it for an hour.

 

[rem]

I have had larger cages for years, (previously I had a cat who would urinate over everything, and after 6 doctor visits (4 to the same doc and 2 to a diff doc) I determined (without the doc's help) that it *was* in fact behavioral. The poor kitty was mad that I had gotten a new kitty and he was unhappy with the lack of attention that he was now getting.

I got lots of advice on throwing him out, letting him be an outdoor kitty, even take him to a no-kill shelter.

I wasn't having it, so I reduced his area. I gave him his own space and this worked really well. Two years of having a cat in the cage gave me a lot of time to learn to clean it.

The best way that I have found is to spray it down liberally with a 50/50 mix of "Distilled water" and white vinegar.
Let that soak in about 4 to 5 minutes.
Spray it down with a hose, on the highest power you can. Make sure you spray in all the nooks and crannys you can get to.
Let it sun dry for a good hour (hopefully this is on a hot day)
Finally, spray it down again with a mix of 90% Distilled Water to 10% White vinegar. Follow this by wiping it down as best you can with a clean dry cloth.

The first Vinegar/Water mix is to remove the majority of the smell and gunk. The second is effective in performing an antibacterial cleansing. From here you can then continue to use the 90/10 mix to do daily cleaning of the pen. Always make sure to go back and wipe it as dry as you can and with a damp cloth wipe again (to kind of 'rinse' away the vinegar.

That's just what I do to clean my pens.