Alcohol is a good, effective disinfectant for many pathogens, as long as it's Ethyl Alchohol. Isopropyl Alcohol is not nearly as effective at eliminating pathogens and is not considered a disinfectant. It is used to clean injection sites, etc., but mostly just to clean away surface debris, although it does help to eliminate some microbes. The strength (proof) of the alcohol is important, too. The higher the proof number, the more effective. Some viruses and Cryptosporidium may not be killed by either form of Alcohol. Alcohol also needs a long "soak" time to be effective (as much as 30 minutes) and because of alcohol's evaporation rate that can be difficult. Also, alcohol can be somewhat dangerous to work with in that manner because of it's flammable properties. Some commercial disinfectants such as Virosan contain Ethyl Alcohol as one of the active ingredients.



Chlorine bleach is also an effective disinfectant and easier and safer to work with than Alcohol, but does not effectively kill Cryptosporidium. As stated in the thread below, ammonia is the only disinfecting agent proven to effectively eliminate Crypto.





My recommendation is to use a 2-pronged approach, using first a preparation such as Roccal-D or Virosan or Nolvasan, followed by a thorough rinse, then an application of a 10% Chlorine Bleach solution followed by another thorough rinse. Any of the preparations can be used for spot-cleaning as long as all residue is removed. For spot cleaning, I normally just use a paper towel dampened with the bleach solution, give it a minute or two, then wipe it out with a dry paper towel. For small spots, there isn't enough bleach left in the cage to cause problems. If a fair amount of the cage needs to be cleaned, I just swap the cage out and do a complete disinfecting on it.

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