Cleaning wooden items

[nowiegirl]

Does anyone have any advice on cleaning wooden items such as a wooden hide box? It doesn't have a finish (one of those wooden hide-aways), so I'm afraid it will soak up any detergents I use on it. Should I soak it, then stick it in the oven?

[SnuggleHam]

I had a wooden box for one of my Syrians I had in the past and she always would get feces caked on the side in one corner. I found a sponge with a rough scrubbing surface on one side and just ran the wooden box under warm water and scrubbed until it came off. The sponge didn’t have any kind of detergent in it so I felt it was alright to use :)



If your trying to clean any wood items off that were once in the cage of an ill hamster I would toss it.

[Emma]

I use detergents on my wooden guinea-pig hutches with no problems. I either use just dilute washing-up liquid or something like Ark-Klens, designed for cleaning animal cages, for regular cleans. I do leave them to dry out before putting back in woodshavings and beddings etc.



The wooden bits in my hamster cages (they have some log tunnels and flexible log rolls etc) don't get cleaned normally, they don't need it. If they did need it, like Candace said you could just scrub the dirt off with plain water if you were worried. Personally I'd be happy using something like Ark-Klens to clean wooden items but I would dry them out before putting them back - I'd do that just leaving them on the side, I'd feel a bit wary putting wooden items in the oven, but I guess that'd be a way.

[babyboos]

It depends what you are trying to get off - if a surface stain try rubbing it with fine grade glass/sand paper. Any surface dirt should be removed by vigorous brushing rather than wetting the wooden item, especially when it does not have a finish. This prevents the item from possible warping or mould development. No wooden items really should be transferred to new "owners" as they can never be completely sterilised.