How to Clean a Sugar Glider Cage

Sugar gliders can be very messy animals not only from dropping food to the bottom of their cages, but from regular body waste and marking their scents on the cage. These smells can build up over time and will require some attention from you to clean the sugar gliders cage. If you own a sugar glider, it is your responsibility to make sure the cage is clean. Not only will this keep your house smelling better, it will help maintain the health of your little sugar glider.

Things You'll Need

  • Vinegar
  • Water
  • Spray Bottle
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Instructions

    • 1

      To clean a sugar glider's cage, you should first determine how often you will need to clean the cage. Sugar gliders mark the cage with their scents as a way of showing territorial areas for the animals. If you were to go in and clean the complete cage, the natural instinct for the sugar glider would be to mark the cage full of their scent and claim the new unclaimed territory. With that in mind, clean the cage in sections. Divide the cage into four equal parts and clean one part every week with a good deep down clean and clean the rest with a spot clean. You may be able to divide this up a little more if you only have female sugar gliders, which tend to mark less than males that are neutered; however, if you have an un-neutered male, you will find that cleaning the cage more often is the best bet. Also, if you have several sugar gliders sharing the same area, you will find that is needs cleaned more often than just having two sugar gliders.

    • 2

      After you have determined when you will clean your sugar glider's cage, you will need to make a cleaning solution. Use equal parts of vinegar and water in a spray bottle. This solution is non-toxic and works to deodorize and clean the mess left behind by your sugar gliders. This is also the best cleaning solution if you are trusting a child or someone that gets a little careless to clean the cage. Water and vinegar are also safe for the sugar glider to eat, so if there is residue left on the cage you don't have to worry about it harming your sugar glider. For times when you need to deep clean the sugar glider cage, you can use water and bleach solution, but you must use extreme caution because this could be deadly to your sugar gliders if not cleaned off completely. Just take a water bottle and fill it most of the way full with water. Add a small amount of bleach to the water. Go over the cage with your bleach solution and make sure the cage is thoroughly cleaned. Next you will need to rinse the cage, making sure all the bleach solution is completely removed from the cage. Once the cage is rinsed, you will need to place the cage in direct sunlight for several hours to allow any remaining bleach to decompose.

    • 3

      No matter how you clean your sugar glider cage, you will need to make sure to clean the drip pan each and every time you clean the cage. Some require cleaning more often if your sugar glider is extremely messy or if you have several in the cage, but usually once a week for a couple of sugar gliders if fine so long as the smell does not get to bad. A drip pan should be a little larger than the outside dimensions of the cage to work best since the gliders can manage to get food and droppings out the sides of the cage, as well as the bottom. Many people like to fill the drip pan with wood shavings to help absorb the smell and make cleaning the drip pan much easier. If you decide to use wood chips, you should avoid cedar, pine and aspen wood shavings as these have been known to be harmful to sugar gliders.