Rat Laundry

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bruxxy

bruxxy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
668
Location
Toronto
I dread washing fleece because I usually just soak it in the basement sink, but the water gets soooo stinky that it never really gets the smell out unless I wash it 50 times. I know there is a better method that doesn't end with me ripping my hair out and having to get new fleece again.

What do you do to clean your fleece? I'm so frustrated with this :?
 
I don't know about the washing it without a washing machine but what we do is take the fleece to the laundromat, wash a load of whites with a little bleach and vinegar first then do the rat laundry with a laundry detergent we found at a sporting store (it removes all smells from fabrics, hunters use it) to make sure that all smells are gone and then we wash another load of white clothes in that washer again with a higher concentration of bleach. That way no one gets rat raisins or other ickies on their laundry. The laundry soap from the sporting store even cleans out the smell of ferrets! It's amazing!!!
 
When I wash fleece first thing I do is give it a good shaking out the back door. Then I usually pre-wash it by hand in the basement sink. You sure are right about that getting stinky! Nothing smells worse than hot water and dirty rat fleece! After that I just wash it in with a regular load of laundry - I figure one or two pieces of fleece mixed into a whole load won't hurt. :laugh2:
 
I wash all my ratlaundry by hand...in the bathtub :)
I use Arm and Hammer Essentials liquid detergent (not too much), and my rat laundry usually smells just fine after it dries. I also use my shopping cart in the tub as my drying rack...I lay 2 long lengths of dowel over the top to hang another 6 fleeces or hammies or ? Then once they have stopped dripping it gets tossed over stuff in my livingroom to finish drying.
Then the next batch gets hung :)
 
thats a really good idea...I never tried to wash stuff in the bath tub before...thx Shelagh :wink: ...I'm going to go do that right now :)
 
I had been washing all my rat laundry in extra-hot water, using a pre-wash cycle too, to get the smell out.

With my nice new fleece liners I didn't want to wear them out too fast with water that was too hot.

So I tried putting some vinegar in the pre-wash, and I used warm water.

Worked like a charm! Amazing how the vinegar cut the rat pee smell. I guess it makes sense chemically: vinegar would neutralize the ammonia.

So I bet that a splash of vinegar in the bathtub would work well to make hand-washing quicker.

I wonder whether the hunter's detergent is available in Canada?
 
I used Liquid Tide coldwater for the laundry tonight and it worked really well...I also used a bit of bleach before that too just to disinfect it and after I used the Tide I rinsed everything hot water and some vinigar. I'm still waiting for everything to dry but so far it smells pretty good....definately got that rat pee smell out :) Thx for all the advice!
 
All good advice: I just got some hammocks from Dearpie. I didn't know fleece was such a mother to wash. Good think I ordered flannel liners! Does flannel take an inordinate amount of effort to wash? Any tips for that?
 
First I shake mine out, outside and then I wash it in the washer with one cup of detergent. a cap full of vinegar and hot water. Works really well always comes out smelling good. I use cheap Dollar store Sun detergent. The good thing is by the time I use it in the cage the smell is gone so it is not hard on their noses.
 
I think it's called "Scent a-way" You can find it in the hunting department of sporting good stores. Just ask an associate for scent eliminating laundry detergent, or scent elimination products and they should be able to show you where they are! ;)
 
I just wash mine in my washer...I do the dog blankets and rat bedding all together in nice hot water....I never notice any smell on them after they are washed..........
 
Same here, Dahlas...I just throw mine in the washer, I use a cup of detergent and vinegar and it all comes out smelling clean as new :)
 
I shake out the stuff as much as I can and then just wash them in the washer. I make sure to clean out my lint filter in the washer (go figure one in the washer) after though.
 
Just like many others I shake it out and make sure there aren't any solids then toss it in the washing machine...no problems there! It tends to be mostly dry too when the cycle it finished, it's interesting.
 

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