Bleach is good, as long as you scrub with a rag, not just spray it around.
Bleach is rendered ineffective in the presence of organic matter, so you must remove all organic matter first, before you scrub with bleach, otherwise you can end up spreading it around.
Most people use too much bleach anyway. I have had quite a bit of for-real chemical training, and if you use bleach stronger than, say 200 ppm, or so, it's just too strong to do it's job effectively. It also needs more contact time that most people think to do it's job.
I prefer quat, as in quatenary ammonia, a common quat is benzyl ammonium chloride and it's various salts.
This is the main ingredient in scrubbing bubbles.
It also is much less corrosive to flesh and much less likely to irritate lung tissue, although it still is wise to rinse it off.

Don't ever, ever use lysol to sanitize a snakes' enclosure.
That's just common sense.

Another great one to use is chlorhexidine, it's expensive, and doesn't keep very long, but it's a great agent to use for cleaning and sterilizing cage furniture.

[ Hide Replies ]

• Is bleach bad? What do you use 2 clean? - HerpZillA, Sat Sep 13 14:50:31 2008
• RE: Is bleach bad? What do you use 2 clean? - DMong, Sat Sep 13 15:25:44 2008
• Thanks Doug. And I agree. - HerpZillA, Sat Sep 13 16:29:10 2008
• RE: Is bleach bad? What do you use 2 clean? - jyohe, Sat Sep 13 20:20:41 2008
• RE: Is bleach bad? - jyohe, Sat Sep 13 20:22:20 2008
• WOW - HerpZillA, Sat Sep 13 21:48:00 2008
• RE: Is bleach bad? What do you use 2 clean? - cherokee_reptile, Sat Sep 13 20:28:24 2008
• RE: Is bleach bad? What do you use 2 clean? - aanata1, Sun Sep 14 00:23:18 2008
• RE: Is bleach bad? What do you use 2 clean? - caz223, Sun Sep 14 12:56:41 2008
• RE: Is bleach bad? What do you use 2 clean? - caz223, Mon Sep 15 00:51:09 2008
• RE: Is bleach bad? What do you use 2 clean? - mingdurga, Mon Sep 15 13:58:38 2008
• Bleach vs. scrubbing bubbles MSDS - caz223, Tue Sep 16 01:00:19 2008
• RE: Bleach vs. scrubbing bubbles MSDS - caz223, Tue Sep 16 01:43:53 2008
• Cryptosporidium parvum is immune.... - caz223, Tue Sep 16 02:01:10 2008