Options to bleach for disinfecting?

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tcraighenry

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 1, 2011
Messages
728
Location
Portland, OR
Hi there! I'm a new chinchilla owner! I adopted two little guys from a not great home (I don't think.) I think they have cedar bedding in the cage so I ordered some aspen and their bottle has a rubber ducky in it! Bad news!

I also don't think they've ever had timothy hay before. They went absolutely nuts when we introduced it to them.

One question though, I don't really want to use bleach to disinfect the water bottle or their cage. Especially since the bottles are so hard to clean. I know vinegar is a good alternative household disinfectant and less toxic to humans than bleach. Are there any known issues? What do you use to clean the bottle?

I know I sound totally neurotic, we've only had them for a few days so I want to make sure they get sorted. :)

This is my little mosaic, Vincent:

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The other, Christopher, is standard :). He's more skittish and older.
 
Warm water and white vinegar. You can use it regularly and it's nontoxic.

As far as the duck in the bottle, that's usually a Lixit, which is a bottle many people on here use.
 
Wow, cedar bedding and no hay? Thank goodness you rescued them! :) It's ok to be neurotic- I am the same way, and it helps you avoid mistakes!

I use a mix of half vinegar, half water. Definitely do not use bleach.

Vincent is a cutie! Do you have a larger picture of their cage?
 
The glass superpet bottles also have a duck in them, which are also fine to use. As for the bedding, if it's what's in the picture, it looks more like pine than cedar, though it could just be the picture. Pine is also a safe substrate as long as it's kiln dried.
 
I think the duck is actually Super Pet. Turtle is Lixit. Geez, Tunes. :D

If you can get the duck out of the bottle, and the bottle is glass, those are decent water bottles.
 
Yay good! I wasn't sure if it was ok or if it would collect bacteria. Thanks for confirming the vinegar.

We also got some bleach free cleaner from our local pet store that's supposed to be a good disinfectant for the cage.

This is the cage we bought for them:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001W8MDKO

The one they're in is way too small.

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Another of Vincent :)

And this is what we came home to last night (gives you an idea of how tiny the cage is:)

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They're hiding a lot tonight, very quiet. :( They're usually more active by now.

Wait.... they just woke up to take a bath.
 
I leave the duck in the bottle... It would take quite the chin to get to it. I actually moved the duck to the new bottle when I bought another one so I could see water levels from across the room.
 
Thanks! He's only about 6 months and living with his daddy. I'm not sure he is a mosaic but that's the closest color combo I could find. He has little pink ears, black eyes and a gray dot on his head. I guess his mom was an albino.

Christopher isn't up to being photographed so much yet. He has a chip out of his ear though :( Poor baby.

And these are moderated so you'll get a ton of replies!

I'm pretty excited, play time went really well tonight. They were running around, jumping in the bathtub and Vincent was on my shoulders looking for something to chew.

They're really coming out of their shells.

We swapped out the water bottle they had anyway for another rubber ducky model. No idea when the last one was cleaned!
 
I leave the duck in the bottle... It would take quite the chin to get to it. I actually moved the duck to the new bottle when I bought another one so I could see water levels from across the room.

I thought the issue wasn't that the chin could get to the duck, but more the chemicals from the plastic leaching out into the water.
 
When it comes to scrubbing bottles and cages i strictly use hot water and white vinegar.

The glass bottles I have are the older models so I don't have experience with the ducks or turtles though
 
When it comes to scrubbing bottles and cages i strictly use hot water and white vinegar.

The glass bottles I have are the older models so I don't have experience with the ducks or turtles though

I saw something on Instructables about using rice to scrape the insides instead of a toothbrush! It seemed like a good idea :)
 
Except for his eyes, he looks like a pink white to me.

A breeder friend of mine from the UK says he's a Wilson White and not a mosaic which we first thought. He has a little dark smudge on his head which fits the breed I guess. But he has pink ears. I keep looking up coloring but can't really find anything either way. He has pink feet, pink ears, black eyes and a smudge on his head but the rest of him is white. He's our little special guy.
 
You can also run the bottle thru a wash cycle if you have a dishwasher. Mine has a sanitizing cycle which is nice. To clean the cages I use a product called sun & earth. I hate the smell of vinegar & only use it in the wash with their fleece.
 
A breeder friend of mine from the UK says he's a Wilson White and not a mosaic which we first thought. He has a little dark smudge on his head which fits the breed I guess. But he has pink ears. I keep looking up coloring but can't really find anything either way. He has pink feet, pink ears, black eyes and a smudge on his head but the rest of him is white. He's our little special guy.

A Wilson white is a mosaic and they have dark ears. Yours has pink ears, which means there must be some beige in there somewhere. That is why I said a pink white. It is the closest color I can think of. The dark eyes have me a little stumped.
 
A Wilson white is a mosaic and they have dark ears. Yours has pink ears, which means there must be some beige in there somewhere. That is why I said a pink white. It is the closest color I can think of. The dark eyes have me a little stumped.

The girl we got him from said the mother was albino and the father was the standard gray we got him with. Do pink and whites usually have the dark patch on the head?

I kind of like that we can't match him up perfectly :). He's special!
 
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