How To Remove Urine Stains From Your Rabbit’s Cage?

Categorized as Bunny Care Tagged

Last Updated on March 11, 2023 by Marjon Ramos

The best way to remove urine stains from your rabbit’s cage is by spraying vinegar mixed with water on the area. Vinegar dissolves the calcium carbonate in your rabbit’s urine; you know, that white stuff that forms at the bottom of their cage.

If the stains won’t come off by using vinegar mixed with water, you can try to spray pure vinegar and leave it for 20 minutes. Then, wipe it with a brush.

You could also use stain removers like OxiClean or Clorox to remove those calcium carbonate stains.

Another option is to use dish soap and a scouring pad. While this method would take longer than the others because dish soap doesn’t have the same dissolving effects as vinegar and stain removers, it should still work.

Just put some dish soap on the affected area and leave it for 20 minutes, then scrub with a scouring pad.

Now that I’ve given you the gist of the article, read on as I explain in more detail how you can remove the urine stain from your rabbit’s cage:

What is the white stuff in my rabbit’s cage?

A black rabbit sitting on its litter box inside its cage.
“Coaly 1st Day Home 3” by coalybunny is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The white stuff that hardens at the bottom of your rabbit’s cage is called calcium carbonate. It’s what happens when your rabbit is ingesting large amounts of calcium.

Rabbits primarily excrete their excess calcium in their urine, which is the white stuff you see in their litter tray. Too much calcium in your rabbit’s diet could also lead to urinary stones.

You can prevent this by changing your rabbit’s diet. If your rabbit’s hay is alfalfa, try switching it to timothy hay. Timothy hay contains less calcium.

How to remove dried urine stains from your rabbit’s cage?

Removing the dried urine stain from your rabbit’s cage can be done with some simple household items you have right now.

But remember that it also depends on what kind of plastic your litter tray is made of.

Low-quality litter trays are mostly made of cheap plastic that bonds with the urine stain. This makes it hard or almost impossible to remove without scratching the plastic itself.

As for good quality plastic litter trays or metal cages, you can try using the following method to remove the stains:

Use vinegar and water.

A bottle of vinegar in a spray bottle to be used as a cleanser for rabbits cage.
“vinegar-spray” by .fairydust. [ blogofthreescom ] is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Possibly the best and most accessible cage cleaner for rabbits on this list. Not only is vinegar safe for rabbits, but it’s also in everyone’s home.

It also works great for urine buildup because vinegar dissolves the calcium carbonate in your rabbit’s urine.

Just mix the vinegar with water and spray it on the affected area. Leave it for 20 minutes and wash it off. You can leave the cage/litter tray in the sun for 20 minutes to disinfect and dry it.

Use stain remover (OxiClean, Clorox, etc.)

Oxiclean stain remover to remove urine stains in rabbits cage.
“Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent with Oxi Clean. 9/2014 by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube #Arm #Hammer #Oxiclean” by JeepersMedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0

If you have a stain remover lying around, like OxiClean or Clorox, you can use it to remove the urine stains from your rabbit’s cage.

Just remember to dry it completely before putting your rabbit inside the cage.

Make sure that your rabbit doesn’t have any contact with any cleaners in the house because some are toxic to rabbits.

Use dish soap and scouring pad.

A scouring pad to use to remove urine stains in rabbits cage.
“Kitchen clean failure: metal scouring pad into garbage disposal.” by Joe Crawford (artlung) is licensed under CC BY 2.0

If you are on a tight budget, you can use a simple dish soap and scrub it with a scouring pad. While it would take longer to remove the stains, it should work because the scouring pad would grind off the calcium carbonate build-up.

Unless your rabbit’s litter tray is made out of cheap plastic, then you would need a more specialized cleaner like a stain remover or vinegar.

Cite this article:

Bunny Horde (December 31, 2024) How To Remove Urine Stains From Your Rabbit’s Cage?. Retrieved from https://bunnyhorde.com/how-to-remove-rabbit-urine-stains-from-cage/.
"How To Remove Urine Stains From Your Rabbit’s Cage?." Bunny Horde - December 31, 2024, https://bunnyhorde.com/how-to-remove-rabbit-urine-stains-from-cage/

Sources and further reading

  • Buseth, Marit Emilie., and Richard A. Saunders. Rabbit Behaviour, Health, and Care. CABI, 2014.
  • Lebas, F. The Rabbit: Husbandry, Health, and Production. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1997.
  • Patry, Karen, et al. The Rabbit-Raising Problem Solver: Your Questions Answered about Housing, Feeding, Behavior, Health Care, Breeding, and Kindling. Storey Publishing, 2014.
  • Alfalfa Versus Timothy Hay for Rabbits
  • Bladder Stones and Bladder Sludge in Rabbits

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By Marjon Ramos

I’ve loved and cared for rabbits since I was 9 years old, and I’m here to share my passion for rabbits. My objective is to help rabbit owners give their rabbits the best life possible.