Pipecleaner?

I've never used them, so I was just guessing, could you soak it in Hydrogen Peroxide or bleach?

I think you can take them apart  and change a diaphram

You can but that usually is good for a leaking valve. I would try the peroxide before the CLR. first though, not sure how CLR will effect the rats drinking out of the valves. Most times, I'll just replace if I don't see something blocking the flow. At a couple bucks each I usually don't mind switching them out

soak them in white vinager  thats safe  and does well on hard water  stains  and sucj

+1 on vinegar

They can be twisted apart to replace o-rings and diaphrams. I take them apart and soak the parts in vinegar overnight and then reassemble. After soaking you may wish to cover them in an oil such as vegetable oil to keep the brass from tarnishing after being soaked in the vinegar.

I run vinegar through my lines ever month or so and let it sit for an hour, then flush the system out. Takes awhile, but keeps the limescale from building up.

We agree with the above mentioned vinegar solution.  We have a rat/mice shed where we raise enough for our collection and we frequently use vinegar to clean valves, hoses, etc. even with our household issues.  As mentioned above it is a safe cleaning method that will not harm animals - hard cleaners such as Bleach and CLR can do damage internally to mice/rats (there is a solution to this if you choose to use a cleaner that I (Jamie) used at the aquarium when I was in aquatic husbandry to make sure all devices were rid of any Bleach or other cleaning solutions - you can soak them in thiosulfate after exposure to Bleach).

This question has had no activity for 14 days and will be closed by an administrator unless the original poster takes action.

Recommended Action: Points awarded

An administrator will select responses and assign points at their discretion.

Original poster, please close this question out and assign points. If you have any further information in the resolution of your problem, please post it here so that others may learn from it.