Recommendation For a Good Anti-Allergy Rattie Shampoo?

[Krystal]

I'm bad. baaaaaad.  New Martins means big open-air cage making the apartment full of dander!

some co-workers suggested giving up the cage. PFT!  Others suggested giving up the RATS!  PFFFFFFFFT!

my allergy drug cocktail isn't making a dent...so I'm curious..

anyone try any shampoos for rattie bath time that made the human allergies a little better?
I'm willing to risk my skin and bathe my babies, I just want to make sure I use something safe, and if anyone's had a good experience with a product, it will make my lost skin even more worth it.

(and I promise to take wet rat pictures )

[brandy]

Are you sure it's the dander? A lot of people who have rat allergies aren't allergic to the dander, but to the urine. It's very common for lab workers who work with rats and mice to develop allergies to their urine even if they didn't have allergies before.  If you think that might be it, cleaning their cage more often might help, and maybe use gloves and/or a face mask when you clean it.

[scout]

Yep, I'd bet it's the urine and the dust from the rats' bedding that gets into the air. A couple of suggestions for you:

Try a HEPA filter in the rats' area to help filter out the bedding dust.

Try a non- dusty litter, something that won't crumble when it gets wet. There aren't many out there, unfortunately. I use Harlan/Teklad Sani-chips which are only available directly from Harlan/Teklad (for the most part). You might call around to some small, non-chain pet stores in your area (especially herp stores) to see if they carry it.

Try using cloth for bedding/litter instead of the stuff you buy at the petstores. You'll need to replace it every couple of days and launder it. Try using some sort of enzyme cleaning additive to really get all the urine proteins out of the cloth.

Good luck and let us know how you're doing. There are a bunch of us in the same boat!

[Krystal]

urine? hmm...so DIAPERS would be a solution!   

I had allergies to my other girls, but not this bad.  I'm actually allergic to cats & dogs as well. 
Arsenic is a little stinky tonight (how I dont know, I cleaned the cage just last night) so I should probably get a shampoo for them anyway. 

usually I use cell-sorb...that's what I used with my other girls too.  yesterday's news was on sale though, so I thought I'd try it out.  I live in an apartment without a nearby washer/dryer, or I'd try out the towel  bedding.  Unfortunately, I can barely keep myself in clean towels      For cage cleaning I used something called 'nature's miracle - for cats'.  It says for cats, but it also says it's non-toxic to pets and kids.  Supposed to be especially for urine.....though I'm willing to change if it doesn't do the trick.  I'll call around for the teklad bedding.  Never know, I couldn't get cell-sorb around here then suddenly, it *appeared*.
I think a HEPA filter might help me..I should start looking around and pricing them..

thanks!!!
a HEPA filter is *exact