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Through years of bunny experience, we have both personally experienced and heard plenty of horror stories about rabbit urine and urine stains in carpets.
If you do not remove a rabbit pee stain fast enough you can expect some truly catastrophic results. Rabbit urine can destroy your carpet with both odor and stains. To make it even worse, sometimes your rabbit will start chewing on the carpet if it smells like pee.
DIY Bunny Pee Carpet Stain Remover Recipe
To clean bunny pee from the carpet by yourself follow this Pee Cleanup Recipe: 1 cup warm water, 1/2 cup vinegar, and 1 tablespoon liquid dish soap. Then soak a rag in the mixture and scrub the stain to remove the stain and odor. After cleaning, rinse the area with warm water and air dry.
Now let’s dig into the details and include some tips and tricks to make it easier to clean rabbit pee out of the carpet.
How to Remove Bunny Carpet Stains Yourself
I’ve tried plenty of different DIY mixtures that can remove rabbit pee from carpet, but the one below is by far the best and one of the simplest that I’ve tried.
If you’re looking for a DIY Cleaner for Bunny Pee on the carpet, start here. There are also some good commercial urine cleaners, and we’ll discuss those later.
DIY Rabbit Pee Carpet Cleaner Recipe
- 1 Cup Warm/Hot Water
- 1/2 Cup White Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Liquid Dish Soap
Now Let’s look at why each of these ingredients are included in your DIY Bunny Stain Remover.
Warm Water
Healthy and normal rabbit urine is not clear. Instead, it’s kind of murky, because bunnies pass extra calcium in their pee. When that urine begins to evaporate, that calcium remains behind almost like tiny crystals.
Warm water is important to help moisten up and break down those calcium crystals.
Cold water will not work as well as warm water and hotter water will work better than warm water.
White Vinegar
Rabbit urine is normally alkaline and white vinegar is normally acidic.
When they meet, this creates a more neutral mixture each which greatly helps with the strong ammonia odor of bunny urine stain.
Liquid Dish Soap
The liquid dish soap helps to break down the calcium crystals while also helping to clean up any dirt that was muddied up with the liquid of the accident, and finally, it helps capture any oil from your rabbit’s glands that might be part of the mess on your carpet.
Steps To Remove Rabbit Urine From Carpet
1. Make The DIY Rabbit Pee Cleaner
- 1 Cup Warm Water
- 1/2 Cup White Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Liquid Dish Soap
2. Soak A Clean Rag In The Cleaner
3. Lay The Rag On The Spot Until Carpet Is Soaked
4. Vigorously Scrub The Stain With The Rag
5. Rinse The Rag In The Sink With Warm Water And Wring Dry.
6. Soak The Rag In The Cleaner Again
7. Scrub The Spot With Cleaner A Second Time
8. Use A Dry Clean Rag to Scrub The Spot Until Dry
9. Inspect The Spot For Staining & Odor
10. If The Rabbit Stain Remains, Scrub And Dry Again
11. If The Odor Remains, Use Baking Soda As Described Below
Removing Bunny Pee Smell From Carpet
Our cleanup method above will take care of most of the pee smell, but it will leave some amount of ammonia smell.
Rabbit urine odor in carpet can be neutralized by spreading a generous layer of baking soda over the urine spot and leaving it there for 2 to 3 hours before cleaning up the baking soda with a paper towel and then a careful vacuuming of the area.
Baking soda has long been used to eliminate odors in our refrigerators, and it works just as well on our carpet.
Rabbit urine is very acidic which is why it has such a strong odor and baking soda has chemical properties that make it a pH neutralizer. As the pH is neutralized, the odor fades.
Steps To Remove Rabbit Urine Odor From Carpet
1. Cover Area With Baking Soda 1/4 Inch Deep
2. Leave Baking Soda For 2 To 3 Hours
3. Use A Damp Paper Towel To Pick Up Most Baking Soda
4. Lay Dry Paper Towels On The Area To Wick Up Moisture For 1 Hour
5. Use A Vacuum To Remove Remaining Baking Soda
6. Allow Area To Air Dry Or Put A Fan On It To Speed Drying
7. Scrub Dry Area Vigorously To Release Dried Baking Soda
8. Vacuum Area Again To Remove Baking Soda
9. Smell Area For Order & Repeat As Needed
Best Cleaning Products to Remove Rabbit Urine
If you do not want to make your own product to remove rabbit pee stains there are plenty of commercial products that you can buy to remove pee stains.
Though professional stain removers can be pricey if you have a particularly tough stain it may save you time and stress if you buy one online.
This 32 oz cleaner bottle from Rocco & Roxie will clean many stains and eliminate the stress of removing the stain yourself.
Because the formula is specialized you can expect stronger cleaning power. The major trade-off here is the strength for a higher price. { Click here to see this stain remover on Amazon. >>> }
To apply this cleaner on carpet bunny pee stain simply:
- Spray the solution onto the pee liberally.
- Let it sit for 30-60 minutes.
- Wipe up with a dry rag and air dry.
How to Prevent Serious Rabbit Pet Carpet Damage
Cleaning up your bunny’s pee when there is an accident is a very good solution for when your bunny is running around the house, but a consistent problem area cannot be cleaned, it must be prevented.
For instance, if you have a corner of the house that your bunny loves to potty in even if you try to clean up every time you are likely to end up with mold eventually.
If you want to prevent dangerous mold you can:
- Try to keep your bunny away from the carpet. If you have just a few rooms in your house with carpet try to keep your bunny in areas without it.
- If you cannot keep your bunny away from the carpet make sure you watch them as they are running around the house. Ideally, stay in one or two rooms or stay close by.
- If neither of these options is possible you can potty train your bunny, though it can be difficult, with most rabbit breeds it is definitely possible to potty train especially with younger bunnies that do not have as strong of habits yet.
Conclusions
In conclusion, if you have a particularly tough stain it may be worth it to buy a cleaner, but for day-to-day stains, a DIY cleaner like vinegar and dish soap or vinegar and water may be sufficient.
If you have dish soap we recommend using it mixed with vinegar. This reaction is better to both deal with tough stains and removes some of the smell of ammonia created by your bunny’s pee.
Even with the best cleaners though you can expect some smells to linger to remove unpleasant smells we recommend using baking soda in conjunction with a little soaking time.
The best method of getting rid of pee stains though is to prevent them altogether. To do this try to change the padding in your bunnies cage regularly and don’t place the cage directly on a floor of any kind.
When your bunny is running around the house try to keep them away from the carpet and if possible potty train them.
It is especially important to remove stains from the carpet as it has a tendency to mold.
If you would like to buy a cleaner we recommend a cleaner from Rocco & Roxie which you can buy here on Amazon. While a cleaner is more expensive it is definitely worth it for particularly tough stains to save you time and prevent stress.
~Evander