Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been using a 1:20 bleach-water solution to wash my cage when ever i switch new animals between them, and now its time to do "spring cleaning" in a sense, on the poop-washed plywood, cork bark, etc.
i spot-clean and regularly wash down cage furniture with water/soap when they deficate on it, but.. how do you guys wash/disinfect your cage/furniture?

would this same bleach solution/method go for cage furntiure?
I know making sure the cage was was free of the bleach smell was important to prevent poisoning the animals, but since my animals actually sleep/bask/eat on or under the furniture I wanted to know if BLEACH was a NO-NO?
Thanks.
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

I just hose it off and throw it in the sun. Been doing that for nearly fifty years with all sorts of reptiles. Sometimes I forget to do one or the other, or both.

While many claim that is bad, it seems those folks are the ones who experience problems. I imagine my method works, as I have not had ANY problems with any reptiles going on 45 years. I guess something bad will happen, so I will still be waiting.

Wait, I have had lots of problems, but not from bacteria or any pathogens from cage cleaning or lack of cage cleaning. Hmmmmmmmm that reminds me, I have some cages that have not been cleaned this decade, better get at it. Or not.

Now please before some of you freak out. It only takes a tiny bit of smarts to understand, do not let a cage get septic. Cheers

hmm, yes i dont clean ANYTHING as often as i should, but when i DO clean i try to as much as possible...
I remember reading somewhere to bake your cage furniture in the oven... i think it was drift wood.. i was like wtf overboard? i dont know
but i sprayed my plywood with the bleach solution, then soaked it in hot water, im just hoping the bleach doesn't stick too long

but yeah i just hosed the cage with water, since i was not interchanging cage/furnuture between the CB ackies and wild caught savannah

sometimes i think i put too much thought into this crap since there is so much varying documentation on herp care, i always think i forgot something important i read once, but i guess common sense can't kill?

like my saavy gets a bloody snout, from attacking aluminum, nose rubbing and then eventual mice bite, I would wash it and stick neosporin on it? like i would myself.. but he just rubs his snout in the dirt!
fudge, see overthink = overcomplicate?
heh, imma go shower in my bleach-drained bathtub
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Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

Iv seen a few case where keepers lost entire collection thinking it was IBD when it was bleach poisoning, make sure you rinse enough.

The symptoms are disorientation, the lizards or snakes turn counter clockwise with the heads tilted to the sky, they seem unable to gain control of there bodies.

I fund this by accident after months of investigation, the keepers was cleaning his rat colony when I visited and some rats showed these symptoms.

Consequently I have never seen or know of someone who pin pointed IBD, I am convinced IBD is in fact bleach poisoning.

That's interesting.

I would not and do not worry about bleaching or cooking anything anytime. Personally, I think that causes problems, start another thread and I will explain if you want.

But I would worry(look into) a bloody snout or rat bite or those such things. As those are not normal. If a monitor has a bloody snout, somethings wrong. They do not rub their noses on things. Their noses are very very sensitive and I believe contain more sensory organs then whats published. They will rub their noses if something is horribly wrong.

Rodent bites, I feed hundreds upon hundreds of rodents weekly, Alive, and while the monitors get bit(a darn funny thing to see) IT NEVER results in anything visible. No sores, no blood, etc.

If a monitor has trouble killing a rodent, then somethings the matter. Even a large rodent, monitors have techiques to quickly kill their prey. If a prey item is too large or strong, they quickly fling it into the next county. Or off the walls, which is also a method of killing.

An example, If one of my monitors gets lazy and they do, and a large mouse bites it. They get this funny look in their eyes, and then smack the mouse with their front feet. While still holding and increasing their bite.

So yes, those things would be of huge concern to me. They are not normal with a healthy monitor. Not boiling or cooking or bleaching. Cheers