Rabbit urine smell "sticks" to hands...???

[ImaBunnyKissr]

hey everybody,

I have 16 buns (breeder).

Every morning I go downstairs and clean out all of their drop pans/cages and every morning afterwards I wash and scrub my hands but I still end up with the urine smell stuck on my hands. I'm wondering if my soap is too mild or what else I should use to get the smell off..? It does eventually wear off I guess by the end of the day but still I'd rather know my hands are genuinely clean, y'know?

 

[pamnock]

Washing your hands with vinegar can help.

I userubber gloves when cleaning cages.

Pam

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

How are you cleaning the trays?

We use two layers of newspaper in our trays. If you change them daily or every other day, you can just roll it right up and throw it away. Nothing gets on our hands except the black ink and that washes right off.

 

[ImaBunnyKissr]

yeah most of our cages we double layer with newspaper also and they do usually roll up neatly, kinda like a big diaper lol, but for some reason i always end up covered (might have something to do with wrestling each rabbit out of their drop pan. they think its fun to roll around in there)

I'm going to try the vinegar, I have some white vinegar around the house. in the past I used rubber gloves too, I just don't like the way they make my hands sweat and caused my nails to get thinner.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

Oh, so your rabbits aren't on wire? You could try using pine or aspen shavings or woodstove pellets then. All you have to do is dump them and that way the rabbits aren't sitting in their waste.

 

[ImaBunnyKissr]

no no, they are all in wire cages with drop pans underneath and I layer plain ol' newspaper in the pans but when I pull their pans out to clean them most of the rabbits like jumping down from their cage to the pan to play around, nasty habit but they seem to enjoy themselves so I allow it.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

OH! lol! Well just close the cage door when you pull the pan out? lol

 

[ImaBunnyKissr]

Hey, I answered my own question, sorry! This morning I decided to try this orange citric acid soap stuff my husband uses when he works on our cars, works like a charm X10 ! I guess my other hand soap is waay too mild.

and ps @oak - but they really, really enjoy rolling around in their pans. It makes it harder for me to keep their fur clean but I'd much rather have a happy bunny besides sometimes they get in there and find lost cecotropes, so it's not all bad!

 

[Angel0607]

OakRidgeRabbits wrote:

Oh, so your rabbits aren't on wire? You could try using pine or aspen shavings or woodstove pellets then. All you have to do is dump them and that way the rabbits aren't sitting in their waste.

Pine is toxic to small animals so that wouldnt be a good idea. It'll make them really sick.

 

[DeniseJP]

I like the Carefresh bedding in my drop pans - even on the hot day we had last week, there was NO urine smell. The stuff is AMAZING.

Denise