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How often does everyone else disenfect? I usually clean house once a month or every two months if the mess isnt too bad. Of course I always give the cages a srubbing after a catastrophic failure lol like a turned over water bowl. Just curious to see what everyone else is doing.

>>How often does everyone else disenfect? I usually clean house once a month or every two months if the mess isnt too bad. Of course I always give the cages a srubbing after a catastrophic failure lol like a turned over water bowl. Just curious to see what everyone else is doing.

once a weak helps to keep track if you have mite problems developing
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until next time make mine slither.herb
www.housesnakes@yahoo.com

I do not disinfect as part of a schedule. Instead I try to be diligent with disinfecting individual cages as needed. I keep various species and some are messier than others. If the snake likes to burrow under the Aspen substrate the floor of the cage gets dirty and I disinfect more frequently than I would with a snake that does little burrowing. I also tend to change substrate quite a bit as opposed to just spot cleaning. I change water bowls quite a bit and they all get disinfected before being reintroduced back into rotation unless it is being washed immediately for placement back into its original cage. When I do disinfect I use chlorhexidine, ammonia and often an expensive steam cleaner I purchased just for that purpose.

I am also interested in what other keepers are doing in this regard.
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Randy Hallman

I asked one of the exotics docs at the vet school here about it, and she recommended using a medical style disinfectant such as Roccal or Vindicator (diluted a bit). She said it'd be safer than something like bleach, where you have to wash it out repeatedly to make sure it's entirely gone before putting the animals back in. I used Vindicator when switching animals around between tanks, and it seems to have done alright!

Are these products available at the local pet/feed store? Or did you go through the doc?

Thanks,
Wil

I borrowed some from school. The pharmacy in the grocery store didn't have them, but I didn't check at a CVS, Walgreen's or whatever. Googling for Roccal turned up that it's for sale via Amazon. Pretty expensive for just the bottle, but you dilute it pretty far before use, so it'll end up lasting forever.
Roccal on Amazon