The Rex schedule: daily tidies, weekly reset
A Rex rabbit's cage follows the familiar rabbit pattern — spot-clean every day, deep clean about once a week — but the reason deserves emphasis with this breed. Rex rabbits carry their weight on feet that have notably thin fur padding, and their short plush coat offers less protection against damp than a standard rabbit's. A cage that would merely smell for another breed can give a Rex sore, reddened hocks, so the daily removal of wet bedding is a health task, not just housekeeping.
Each day, scoop the litter tray, clear droppings, and replace any bedding that is damp, flattened, or soiled, especially in the sleeping corner where a Rex spends long stretches resting with its heels pressed into the floor.
Daily care around those delicate feet
When you do the daily pass, look at where your Rex actually sits. The resting area needs deep, soft, dry bedding at all times — if you can feel cage floor through it with the palm of your hand, there is not enough under those hocks. Add fresh bedding on top between deep cleans rather than waiting for the weekly change.
Use the moment to glance at the heels themselves. Healthy Rex heels are furred and calm-skinned; early trouble shows as a small bald patch, pinkness, or the rabbit shifting weight and stamping less willingly. Catching that at the daily-clean stage usually means fixing the flooring — drier, deeper, softer — before it becomes a vet visit. Also shake out any hay or bedding clinging to the velvet coat, since a Rex's dense plush traps debris against the skin.
The weekly deep clean for a Rex
Once a week, move your Rex to a pen with a soft surface to stand on — not bare hard flooring for a long stretch — then empty the cage completely. Wash the base, litter tray, and bowls with warm water and a pet-safe cleaner, scrubbing the toilet corner where urine scale grips, then rinse and dry everything thoroughly. Rex feet on a still-damp cage floor defeat the purpose of the clean.
Rebuild with a genuinely cushioned layer: absorbent bedding over the whole floor, deeper in the rest area, plus a low-pile mat or fleece pad in favourite sitting spots if your rabbit likes them. Set the litter tray back in its usual corner with fresh litter and hay, refill water, and return hideouts once wiped down. If heel redness keeps appearing despite this, look hard at any wire or rough surfaces and cover or remove them.
When to clean more often
Two Rex rabbits sharing, warm weather, or a rabbit recovering from sore hocks all push the deep clean to twice a week, with daily bedding changes in the resting area becoming non-negotiable. An unneutered male that sprays will also soil walls and corners beyond the tray, so wipe those down during daily cleans rather than leaving them for the weekly scrub.
A Rex that stops stretching out to rest, sits hunched on its toes, or resists moving around the cage may be protecting sore feet — clean and re-bed the enclosure, soften every surface it uses, and ask a vet to look if the heels are broken-skinned, swollen, or not improving within days.
Making sure the soft-bedding routine happens
Because the Rex routine hinges on small daily actions rather than one big weekly effort, it falls apart quietly when one person assumes another refreshed the bedding. A shared schedule, where the morning scoop and the evening bedding check are named jobs, protects the feet that need protecting. KinsLe's Care Teams holds that daily-and-weekly pattern for your Rex, assigning each clean to a helper and time-stamping it when done, so dry bedding never depends on guesswork.