Hi, I have this cage from pocket pets:
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Despite my cleaning every 2 weeks, it smells. I have tried baking soda, vinegar, dawn, etsy bought cage cleaning spray, and steam cleaning to no avail. I clean all the accessories (wheels, pouches, etc) weekly. I have litter pads on the bottom.

The cage is in my living room and I really don't it to smell too bad (my husband wouldn't be happy either). The only thing that I was thinking I could do was take it to a DIY car wash and pressure wash it.

What do you do? Tips to avoid smelly cages?

Thx..

how much of the cage are you cleaning?
gliders mark their territory with scent glands and pee.
If you start cleaning the whole cage they will just want to mark up that much more
of the cage, working even harder to mark their territory.

we clean out the pee and poo tray at bottom, that takes care of most of the smell, but we wipe down part of the cage with paper towels using a solution. (wife makes it up, think it is part water part vinegar).

I have also been told a high protein diet can cause their pee to be stronger smelling. If ours start to smell my wife will ask me to slow down on the mealworms and yogurt treats.

We picked up a few gliders a while back. the owner started cleaning just half the cage and the smell started getting better. but the gliders were not grooming and they used baby wipes to clean the gliders. I think that was a big mistake, what glider would groom with all the baby wipe chemicals on them. We got them and one had matted hair in some areas, and two were brown/yellow.

BYK, good point about the baby wipes. My first glider came from pocket pets and they suggested using baby wipes to clean gliders. I bought a bunch but couldn't bring myself to use them. Most gliders groom/clean themselves anyway. My glider's cage gets cleaned once a week, mainly the bottom tray. Inside gets wiped down at the same time and pouches and toys get cleaned on a rotating basis (for the reason you mentioned earlier about marking). Pocket Pets will tell you cages should be cleaned once every 2 or 3 weeks but I really don't feel that's realistic or healthy for the gliders.

Ptamom, I have the Congo cage from Exotic Nutrition and keep it in the living room as well. For the most part, smell is not an issue. You're using all the best things for cleaning...vinegar, baking soda, dawn, etc. (rinsing well of course). If it continues to be a problem, I would probably go in for a vet check up and make sure everything is ok and it's not a health or diet issue. Wishing you all the best!