A Hack for Small Animal Cages that Use Bedding

Are you tired of the white spots in the bottom of the cage when you change the bedding?

Not only are they unsightly, but they smell bad too. The white spots are from a calcium buildup in the bedding that stains the cage. I am sure that most, if not all of my readers have heard of kidney stones. But do you know what kidney stones are made of? Kidney stones are made up of an over accumulation of calcium.

Homemade Stain Remover for Armpit Stains

Calcium is one of the chemicals in all urine. When there is any unbalance of calcium, it accumulates. The over accumulation in the bedding in the cage makes white spots in the bottom of the cage. It also leaves an unpleasant odor behind as well.

As I don’t know how other people may feel about this situation, I can only speak for myself, and I don’t like the spots or the odor at all. I have tried strong soaps, various stain removers, and even bleach, to remove the white spots from the cage. Nothing that I tried worked.

That is up until I tried CLR stain remover. CLR stands for Calcium, Lime, and Rust stain remover. When I found out what the C stood for, I was very optimistic about using it. I already knew that it worked well on sinks, tubs, toilets, etc, when removing lime build up, so I thought that just maybe it would work for calcium.

What I didn’t know was whether or not it would work on plastic. All the other substances, where I know for a fact that it worked, were either enamel or metal.

I bought a small bottle and took it home to try it out. There is a very characteristic odor from the CLR. Try not to breathe it in any more than you absolutely have to. It is best if you can open a window for just a few minutes, until you have rinsed it out of the cage.

I sprayed the whole bottom of the cage, and really concentrated on the white (calcium) spots. After the cage was sprayed with the CLR, I let it soak for five to ten minutes to give it time to really work in on the stain. You can clearly see the CLR at work. The white bubbled areas are the CLR on the calcium, and the brown area is where the CLR got the bedding dust wet and it turned brown.

Well, you can look for yourself at the results. IT WORKED!! It not only worked on the stain, it also worked on the odor that accompanied the stain. The whitish spot in the bottom left corner is a reflection of the bathroom light overhead.

To maintain a spotless cage like the one above, I change the bedding every week, and use the CLR very faithfully. I have told some friends about the CLR, and they now use it as well. Unfortunately, since their cages were already stained pretty badly, before they started using the CLR, all of the stains did not come out. But to their surprise, the lingering odor did come out.

I have a picture below showing the results of starting to use the CLR after the cage has already been stained. I think that you can see the difference fairly clearly.

For Your Windshield

Notice the whitish area in the upper right portion of the cage. The stain will not come out, but the cage is clear of any urine odor that may have been lingering. Even though my friends could not get all of the stains out, they are appreciative that I told them about CLR.