Mrs. P:
Everyone, we’re now back inside with Prince, and I’ve gotten a few requests to show a little bit more of this beautiful CustomCages.com enclosure for Prince. Specifically, I got questions about how I clean it, so I wanted to show really the worst case scenario with this enclosure, what it looks like after several days of not cleaning. This will be a challenge for me tonight because it’s just me and Prince, doing this together, and you guys. I’m going to do my best to show you little snippets as I go along here tonight. I don’t want to make this into a lengthier project. It doesn’t really take that long, but I want to show you some snippets, and of course, feature Prince here as he plays.
I’m going to show you again my dirty laundry. This is just a few days. I usually change the paper every one or two days depending upon how busy my work schedule is, to be honest. That’s what it looks like after a couple days. Then, steam clean the cage using my trusty steamer here, which I’ll get powered up in a moment, once a week. That’s what I do to maintain this enclosure. Of course, the food bowls get disinfected at least once a day. I want to show some of the great features of this enclosure is the plexiglass. The plexiglass doors- I have two that are plexiglass, both on the ends, that are close to the theaters, and then, the stainless steel grid doors in the middle.
I don’t know if you can see. This is after a week. The plexiglass is doing its job. All of this, this is really fruits platter, for the most part, ended up on the plexiglass here and on the bottom half of over there to this beautiful enclosure. The plexiglass in the bottom, you can see there, did its job again. There’s virtually no mess on this floor or the wall after week. That makes this whole system worth the investment. This is doing its job. I’ve been very happy.
Now, I’m going to do a cleaning or steaming session/ I’ll show you the other side. He doesn’t spend as much time over here because the food is not over here, so this is virtually clean too. Tonight will be a true milestone for me and the little guy, Prince, because this will be the longest time essentially unattended, although I’m in the same room with him, where he’s going to hang out while I do some cleaning without a babysitter. [laughs] We’ll see how this whole thing works. Right, Prince?
This is the steamer that I use. It’s funny, back many years ago, I used steamers that kept breaking on me, and I gave up on them. Then, recently, I decided, “Let me try it again,” to see how they work. They’ve made many advancements.
This is also a little bit more of an investment, but I’ve been thrilled with the decision. Steamer comes with this handy cup. You fill it to the maximum fill line and heat up enough to have some steam. When this little indicator is well in the green, is when it’s ready to go. Now, I’ll wait and I’ll start cleaning some other parts of the cage. The things that I always use to clean our enclosures, besides this steamer, I use white vinegar and water in a handy little spray bottle. I also love to use AviClean, and microfiber cloths, and of course, paper towels.
Of course, Prince decides he wants to go back in and have some water and have a little snack, but of course, he can’t hang out here while I’m cleaning. With this enclosure, it comes with handy grid on the bottom that is actually a two-piece– Prince keeps jumping on me- a 2-piece, so it’s good because it’s easier to clean. I can split it in half. I need to take this tray out a little bit more to be able to step in there to do some cleaning in order to really clean the plexiglass panels. By removing half of the grid trays, I’m able to do that much more easily. I’ll be able to demonstrate a visual a little bit on that. I forgot to mention earlier I do use these gloves to clean all the enclosures as well, protects my hands from the vinegar, from AviClean, all this stuff.
Just for the record, I took a couple minute break, five minutes, to snuggle with this guy. He was allowing me to snuggle, and he’s being very sweet. I’m definitely noticing a correlation between the music or TV station we have on versus his temperament. When I have this very soothing, it’s called soundscape, on, he does seem to be much calmer and he wants to snuggle. When I have the cartoons or that pop music or sports, he definitely has much more energy about him, a little more difficult to keep tame and train.
I’m learning something as we go along here. With training sessions, definitely going to have the relaxed– I’ll do my best to show you the steamer. Open the for a couple of seconds because there’s a lot of water that comes out of the steamer. If you don’t want a lot of water all over the place, use a little bucket. The hotness of the steam melts away all of the stuck on fruit and poop.
After I steam, I use the microfiber cloth to wipe. The steam works fantastic, it just really melts everything away. The last step of my cleaning routine of this enclosure is I use AviClean on the bottom tray to clean this up, and then, I’ll be able to put the paper on. a lot of easier. Every day, every other day, I could just take the top layer off and it just makes it easier, and then, there’s clean paper underneath. I’m going to slide the tray back in. Now, this is definitely worth a mention, I really love the tray material. It’s like a glossy laminate, very easy to clean. Again, definitely worth a mention on this enclosure. This special guy right here now has a clean, sanitized, beautiful enclosure.
