What's safe to soak a very dirty cage in?

[Sica]

I'm seperating my boys for a couple of days and I found my old cage and it's DIRTY.  It was sitting in a shed outside for a couple years...
I have a couple just ordinary cleaners such as comet, and vinager, maybe bleach, would you think it a bad idea to use any of them to soak the cage in for a while? Even if I rinse it off really well....

[crazydaisy]

You can try vinegar. I've had my share of nasty cages from people not caring for their rats properly and Dawn Power Dissolver works great for that too.

[ScoutGotBig]

What I've done is soak the cage is hot water with lots of dish soap, then scrub, then soak in vinegar, scrub, then the vinegar h202 spray normal clean.  It's usually spic and span then

The dish soap works to break up any greasy grime stuff, that's why I use that then.

[Lise]

You can use bleach.... just rinse it very well, and then to be really safe let the cage sit for a couple of days before putting animals into it.

[scout]

My favorite is a hot shower followed by dish soap and a scrub brush. You can try vinegar if it has oxidizing stuff on it (like white powdery reside). You may need to let the vinegar soak for 15-30 minutes. Bleach is only necessary if you suspect lots of germs. But a good scrub usually is plenty to get rid of germs.