Major Allergy to dust bath

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Ivy Hall

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
7
Good morning!

I joined the forum this week (I introduced myself earlier in the introduction forum). My husband offered me the most adorable little furry ball for my bday. His name is Henri.

After considering different location, I decided to put it in my home office with me but since I gave him his dust bath yesterday night, I'm having horrible allergies (I'm highly allergic to dust in general - my husband didn't think of this)... I have been ok with the hay but the dust is terrible. :frown2:

I am going to have a hard keeping him with him in the same room when I work (I spend 10 hours 5 days a week in there) for that reason.

I have a closed dust bath house. Is there a trick I could do (cover the cage while he is taking his bath to let the dust settle down?, vacuum the cage + room and dust after each bath?)....

The other option would be to put Henri in the living room. We have a great corner, no direct sunlight, cool side of the house and no vent. We have an open kitchen/dining room/living room area, I cook everyday and my husband uses the blender every day, my only big concern is that my husband plays the drums in the basement underneath the living room in the same area where I would put the cage.

It would really break my heart to have to re-home my little friend. I'm already very attached to him and he is settling in so good (sleeping with his eyes closed now)... but I cannot have allergies every day (medications are not doing anything)

Please advice :)
Thank you very much in advance.
Helene & Henri
 
You can take him out and let him have his dust bath in a different room. It would at least keep the majority out of your office.

Personally, i have a large air filter right in front of their cage. And i use dust masks when dealing with hay/sand, because I'm allergic too. So i give it to them at the end of the night before i go to bed. Then crank the filter on medium or high, so that way by the time i wake up the next day, most of it is out of the air.

Since i don't reuse sand, instead of just dumping it in a trash can where it can get in the air, I dump it in a plastic bag or something. Then tie it off and put the bag in the can. That way the dust cant escape.

If your have trays in the cage, you can wipe them up the day after with a damp rag and then dry it off. That would get some more of it up too.
 
I have heard there is hypoallergenic dust bath stuff you can buy that perhaps you wouldn't be allergic too. I however have no idea where you would find it. Hopefully some of the more knowledgable folk will chime in and be able to tell you where! :eek:)
 
I believe Whimsy's Menagerie sells the hypoallergenic dust. I second the dusting in another room idea. Some people put the dust bath in a dry bathtub and let the chin dust in there, then after take the chin and the bath out and rinse the excess down the drain.
 
My partner is allergic to chin dust as well. We get around it by having me dustbath the chins in the bathroom and then putting them back in their cage. We also make sure that the room they are in is well-ventilated and vacuum very frequently :)
 
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