# Honestly- how often do you clean the cage?



## BlueSeahorse

Hi everyone- Just wondering how often you (honestly) clean your hedgehog's cage? Meaning all the bedding, wheel, etc. I take good care of both my girls, give them toys, taken them to the vet, spend time with them, but for a while I was only been cleaning their cages every three weeks (aside from obviously giving them food and water and making sure they were doing well). I've been reading that once a week is standard, so now I feel really bad! They generally use the bathroom in one spot, so it wasn't like there were feces and urine everywhere. I'm changing my habits now, but I feel like a bad hedgehog owner.  Any thoughts?


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## sweetergrrrl

I honestly clean everything completely - once a week. I wash the food and water bowls daily but poop feet arn't a huge issue for the boys luckily so the wheels and everything doesn't get super icky.


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## moxieberry

Once a week is still a long time to go, at least if you're on liners. I suggest doing a full clean, spraying down the walls etc, at least once a week, but liners/bedding should be changed more like twice a week, and the wheel needs cleaning just about every day. Our cages all get a full clean, including the whole thing wiped down, every 3 days.


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## Lilysmommy

You're not a bad owner - You're on here, looking for information, so that's a great thing.  I would definitely suggest cleaning a bit more often though. Even if they potty in just one spot, once a week tends to be pretty good, depending on the bedding. Like Moxie said, I usually changed Lily's liner anywhere from 1-3 times a week (depending on how messy she was), and I sprayed the cage down and wiped it down once a week.

Since they do potty in just one spot, have you tried a litter box? That might help make cleanings easier, too!


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## northmcqueen

I wash Rupert's fleece liners every 2-3 days, more if he makes a big mess (which isn't unheard of :twisted: ) I change the newspaper underneath the liners every day and clean his wheel every day. Once a week I have a major clean out and scrub the cage, change his blanket.


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## AnnabellasMomma

we clean Prestons cage on a daily basis, and we change his fleece every other day. The wheel is also done every day. Preston is a messy hedgie, i would be scared to see it if we only cleaned it once a week


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## JulieAnne

I have paper towels under Prim's wheel and food dishes that I replace every day. I wash her food and water dishes every day too. I usually change out her liners 1-2 times a week and clean out her wheel and wipe down her cage once a week. Sometimes if her wheel is extra poopy I will clean it more often.

I have 3 layers of paper towels under her wheel so nothing seems to leak through and I've definitely noticed it's not as smelly!


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## Prettywoman030981

I spot clean daily, which usually involves taking his fleece out and getting all poop and food off of it, clean the wheel daily, clean dishes daily, and change fleece every other day. The cage gets wiped down completely once a week. Barnabus is a MESSY hedgehog! And he poops EVERYWHERE!! Lol.


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## SpiritWolves1

every friday or saturday, but since olivers wheel is nasty as heck by then i will be doing his every Wednesday and saturday


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## LizardGirl

We do full cage cleanings twice a week here, spot cleaning daily or almost daily, and we try to do wheels an additional day between our two cleaning days each week as well. Wheels get awful every night, but the liners don't get too bad until about 4 days (for us at least). Spot cleaning helps a lot, and we could probably get away with only switching liners once a week, but we do twice a week anyway.


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## Erizo

One hedgie with two 2-grid X 4-grid C&C cages (~11 sq. ft. each) connected with a coroplast bridge.

Wheel wash and 'shake out' litter pad - daily, no exceptions.

Spot clean of cages - daily.

Food and water dishes - rinse daily, wash weekly.

Fresh fleece litter pad - every other day, no exceptions.

Replace cage liner in cage #1 - weekly. Very little pooping or peeing away from wheel and litter pan. This could probably be extended to 10 - 14 days. She simply does not make much mess at all. She has far more room than most hedgies get, so that is certainly a factor.

Wash tunnel, wash house, replace fleece pieces in cage #1 - weekly, at the same time as replacing the cage liner. This cage has a coroplast box which has gets cleaned weekly, but could easily be pushed to every two weeks if I wanted.

Bridge to cage #2 - Removed and cleaned weekly. 'Damp mop' the coroplast floor of bridge in place mid-week.

Replace cage liner to cage #2 - every three weeks. She sleeps in this cage a lot, and her food and water dishes are in this cage also, so she spends lots of time in it, but just doesn't track much poop or pee that far. Used to replace the liner every week, then every two weeks, and have settled on every three weeks.

There are two tunnels in cage #2. She sleeps in one of them pretty regularly. That tunnel gets washed weekly. The other gets washed every two weeks.

Replace fleece pieces in cage #2 - every two weeks.

Cage #2 does not have a coroplast box. It sits directly on top of an oversize cage liner. The table that it sits on gets cleaned when the cage linger gets replaced (whether is 'needs' it or not).

Hedgie laundry - weekly.
...........................................

She's just not a very dirty hedgie, gets three foot and belly baths a week, and has the benefit of a LOT of space. We have a set schedule for everything, but the wheel and litter pads are the only high priority items.


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## FiaSpice

To be completely honest, once a week-1.5 week (depending of wich hedgie, I couldn't do 2 in the same day, so exhausting for me). I think once I was quite bad (and on a huge sting of MS fatigue) and went 2 weeks without full cleaning. Part of me would love to own an hedgie again, but I know it's too much to handle for me alone (#@%$ MS...). I must say I was quite Lucky at least Litchi wasn't a mess like her "brother"


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## Nancy

I've always gone by the individual hedgehog. Some have needed a liner change daily, while my neat freak Peaches could have gone weeks and her liner would not have gotten anything on it, nor her wheel. Until old age and illness caught up with her, she pottied always in the litterbox, never on her wheel. She also never allowed a crumb to land on her liner. Her bedding got changed weekly only because it had been a week, not because it needed it. 

For the majority, their cage would be fully cleaned every 3-5 days with poops picked daily. Dishes are always rinsed and dried daily, but if obvious dirt on them, they are put in a bucket to go to the kitchen to be washed and a clean dishes given. Wheels cleaned as needed.


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## Quinn

Full clean every Sunday. But we wash the food and water dishes everyday. Sasha is quite messy and probably should be cleaned more frequently but it's easier to do it all at once.


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## momIImany

Daily cleaning for wheel, litter pan, food and water dishes. Spot clean fleece liner and vacuum. Usually change out 1-2 times a week. Change out or clean fleece bedding/blankets as needed - depends on how messy she has been. She tries to stick her butt out and poopy in a corner of the bedding but doesn't always works out that way. :lol:


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## eskye

My usual method is to clean all cages (this includes about 70 reptiles and amphibians, plus feeder rodents) once a week. Since I've been using aspen, I lapsed to 1.5 weeks for the hedgehogs the past two months.

I've just had an explosion of grain mites in kitty kibble in their enclosures, overwhelming their cages with mites. Had I checked the cages a day or two earlier, I probably would have noticed before it got too out of hand. Back to bi-weekly cleanings on fleece!


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## Britnee.sto

Daily spot clean up. (includes wheel when he fattens up)
Food, water and fleece every couple days.
Full cage once a week unless hes been extra dirty.


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## Sar-uh

Honestly, it depends. Zelda is super messy (she just walks right through her food dish :roll: ), and needs her cage cleaned a couple of times a week. On occasion, she will have a streak of good manners and only needs it cleaned once a week.

Petunia is so odd. For the most part, she is super clean and uses one corner of the cage to potty. I typically only clean her cage once a week (I can even go a couple more days if I'm super busy). However, she will have weird days where she has what I call a "poop party" and it is everywhere! It's so random, like once or twice a month, but I always have to do a complete cleaning that day.


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## SouthernSweet

replace liner & snuggle bag: twice per week
spot clean: daily
litter replaced: every other day
food & water bowls cleaned: daily
Wheel scrubbed: every other day or every few days, depending on the mess. I used to do this daily but I went through cleaning solution quicker than was reasonable.

poop boots get scrubbed off only when she has them (which isn't often, luckily!!)

it's interesting to see everyone's cleaning habits


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## Shell

Every morning wheel and litter tray get cleaned. Food and water dishes get washed.
Every second day fleece pouch get's changed.
Every Friday full clean. I use clorox wipes to clean the bottom of the cage, then vinegar and water mix to wash the clorox smell out. Then a new fleece liner goes in and all's well for another week. Wheel get's sterelized with peroxide. Percy is insanely clean.


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## ponylover317

With plastic bins i would wash them out with some soap and water (after taking everything out) about once a week or every week and a half. Honestly I clean her litter box only every 4 days or so  and while she was potty training i wiped her velux everyday and scooped the poop/litter back into the little box every morning....now that shes litter trained and in a diffrent cage i do something diffrent...
What i do is i use plastic spoon to "sweep" all the spilled litter from her box into a pile and put the pile back in the box, reminder that she IS litter box trained and NEVER has accidents...like seriously, never. I also wipe the plexiglass on the inside of her wire cage everyday....hope this helps!


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## brookeleigh

I spot clean every day, and I clean out Lily's dishes every day. She's not yet warmed up to her wheel, so there's not really any cleaning that needs to be done there. If I am able to take her out for extended playtime, she does all her bathroom business then, and her cage stays clean for about two weeks. When I get busier and our playtime is more limited, I clean her cage every 4-5 days, as it gets a lot messier.


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## smhufflepuff

I don't know what you people are talking about. Right after cuddle time, I put a small bucket with water and cleaning solution, a little mop, mini-dustbuster, and extra fleece in Bella's home each evening. Then Bella cleans her own home right after getting off her wheel in the mornings. Dirty fleece is always rolled up and pushed to the side each morning. Then all I have to do is pull out the fleece & cleaning supplies. Y'all must be doing something wrong...


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