Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I plan on getting another snake and I wanted to use the tank that we used to keep our turtle in. My question is what should I use to clean it? Is it okay to use CLR to get rid of the calcium build up?

Bleach! Just rinse it out real good before you put the snake in. My method is to stick my head in the tank and sniff and if I can smell bleach I wash it out some more.

I don't know what CLR is so I dono what to tell you

~jenny
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1.2.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, Periscope, and dah bebbies)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Lizard (Freckles)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 mice (Cute Girl Mousy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
0.0.1 chupacabra (it ate our chickens)

jenny.thegreenes.org

I used a fish tank for my snake and I used a straight edge razor, scraped everything right off. Tank looks brand new. Also do what jenny said..Get herself a good pair of locks.They can be escape artists..
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1.0 Het for pied
0.1 Het for Pied
1.5 normal balls
1.1 bearded dragons
0.1.0 Sulcata tort
1.3 kids
1.0 husband
To many little critters list

Im not going to be able to get a locking lid for it, just a screen top but I figured I put a brick on top and that would be good.

Trust me when I say that you will need more than that. Something on all four corners, If you have a pet store like petco the locks can go on the lid and they are under 3 dollars for the set. Just make sure they are locked My baby escaped because one was not locked right. I did find her 5 days later and she is fine..
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1.0 Het for pied
0.1 Het for Pied
1.5 normal balls
1.1 bearded dragons
0.1.0 Sulcata tort
1.3 kids
1.0 husband
To many little critters list

>>Im not going to be able to get a locking lid for it, just a screen top but I figured I put a brick on top and that would be good.

Hahahahahaha! I tried that. Worked for about a month - because the snake felt like staying in the tank. Managed to get out without even bothering the lid. She musta moved it up and then when she got all the way out it just slid back into place. I cannot *begin* tell you how great ball pythons are at escaping.
Petco sells little locks that are, like melindas said, 3 bucks. One part slips under the black lip (or whatever color the tank borders are) and the other just snaps on. Very very awesome gadgets.
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1.2.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, Periscope, and dah bebbies)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Lizard (Freckles)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 mice (Cute Girl Mousy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
0.0.1 chupacabra (it ate our chickens)

jenny.thegreenes.org

I'll have to look next time I'm there. Ive never seen any like that but Ive never look. My current snakes tank has a sliding screen top with locks in the front. Thanks

Here's what I did for the first noth I had my snake. I kept her in a ten gallon with just a sit on screen top probably like what you are talking about. I never found the locks that I am hearing about so I went to walmart and got some nylon straps that have a bickle like you use to adjust the straps on a backpack and I put them around the tank lengthwise and straped them down very tightly. I have seen this in a picture somewhere, anyway the point is it is inexpensive and works well when you don't have a top that is made to lock. good luck.

here is a link to the care sheet on the forum. This photo is exactly what I did although my straps had a different buckle but the principle is the same.

http://www.kingsnake.com/ballpythonguide/stacked.jpg

I know this is a little late in the thread, so you might not see this, but here's hoping.

If you do EXACTLY what Jenny described in using bleach, then that method should be safe enough. A lot of people are not that picky or precise when working with bleach though, so I would advise caution - there is no such thing as "good enough" when you are talking about rinsing bleach from a cage. You really need to rinse it until you cannot detect that there was bleach in there.

That's why I don't like to use bleach; I prefer to use vinegar to clean cages. Walmart and any old grocery store you can come across sells distilled white vinegar in gallon jugs. This is a good deal! It is inexpensive, and very effective. Vinegar kills bacteria quite well, and cleans up not only animal messes, but hard water scaling very nicely. If you have a lot of hard water stains built up, then it would work best if you can soak the stained area with vinegar for a while before you scrub on it. Vinegar is a weak acid, so keep in mind that it will cause mild corrosion on conductive metals like copper (it isn't anything destructive, but makes neat colors where you might not expect them). The great thing about it being a weak acid though, is that it's strength is greatly diminished by dilution - so rinsing once or twice is all you will really need to do (and that's really just for you, since a lot of people don't like the scent of strong vinegar). It won't harm your snake. It also works nicely as a deodorizer when you use it to clean the cage later (while you have a snake living in there, and can't just rinse and re-rinse the cage a million times).

Good luck to you. I hope you see this, and I hope it helps.

~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)