Stupid question about cleaning waterers

[Farmfresh]

The main times to worry about cleansing are when you have disease in the flock or unknown or new animals have used the waterer.

Normally I just rinse well with fresh water and scrub with my hand. If I have any illness in my animals I scrub the waterers really well with some dish soap and then allow them to soak for a while in a hot 10 % bleach solution. I will sometimes do this same sterilization just because - if the water is especially gross.

Cleaning and sanitizing is especially important if you are feeding babies - like a bottle calf or kids. Proper cleaning at the least with boiling water and at most with 10% bleach can help prevent scours.

 

[valmom]

I use a bottle brush to scrub out the chicken waterer- I can feel if it is sippery/slimey and rub it with hot water. I don't use soap because I am paranoid about not getting it rinsed well enough. We use a small waterer in the summer and it gets changed every day. In the winter we use the black rubber flat pans for water and take out hot water every morning, dump the ice that comes out, and let the hot water melt the rest. It stays liquid until nightfall and they roost off to bed.

For the horse troughs, I love my toilet brush! Gets in all the ridged areas of the Rubbermaid tubs perfectly.