animal cages

Q. I am a research tech in a new lab where we will be housing mice and rats for our studies. Since we are a small lab, I will be hand washing polycarbonate cages, wire lids, and water bottles by hand. I would like to know what type of cleaner that I can use that is safe for myself to clean with and safe for the animals. I currently have alconox in powdered form. If I can use that, I also would like to know how much I would dilute it.
A. We recommend using 0.5% Detojet® solution with polycarbonate. Regular detergents like Alconox® or most other detergents and solvents are low surface tension solutions that can cause stress cracking …