Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to get some opinions on the use of diluted bleach on wood cage accessories for your reptiles. Generally, whenever my beardy's cork bark is soiled with feces, I scrub it with a 5-10% bleach solution. Afterwards, I rinse it thoroughly. I was recently talking with a friend who disagrees with using bleach on wood becuase since wood is very porous, even though you rinse it, the wood can still have bleach fumes in it which can be harmful to your pet. Instead, she says she uses vinegar, however, I prefer bleach as it disinfects better. Since it is rinsed very thoroughly, I figure the bleach fumes left in the wood would be minimal, and not be of any concern. What do you guys think??? How many of you bleach your cage accessories, including wood after they are soiled???

Please send me your opinions.

Thanks

I bleach and soak mine all the time... never had an issue. Then I soak them in water a few times without bleach in a bathtub dedicated to this.

If you rinse it a few times you will be fine.

Vinegar is pretty potent... but you would need to soak using straight vinegar nearly for it to be as effective.
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good to know. Thanks Wayne

I've used 10% bleach on wood for many years. I spray it, wait 5 mins., and then wash it off with the hose. I then let the items dry throughly.

Bleach can be used on wood or other porous materials. However objects should be allowed to air dry completely in a well ventilated area (outside or by a strong exhaust fan designed to remove fumes/dust from an area (ie like a workshop)) for 24 hours before putting the items back into the cage.

Another option is to just seal the wooden/porous items. You can't do this with cork bark as its basically a sponge and has far too many cracks, groves and ridges to seal properly. I personally wouldn't bother with cork in a dragon's cage. Wood, if very rough, can be sanded down then sealed with any varnish safe to use indoors. Once several coats are applies, allow it to dry the full 'cure' time as recommended on the can. I would give it an additional 12 hours after that drying in a well vented area just to make sure. This will prevent poop or other substances getting into the wood and making cleaning easier.
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess

Diluted chlorhexidine gluconate (nolvsan/virosan generically speaking) is an excellent cage and furniture cleaner. I use it on glass, wood, acrylic, pvc, just about everything. It's not corrosive like bleach and safe to use around, or even on the animals.

Some of those germacide disinfectants have found not to kill oocysts and coccidia as well as other parasites.

oocysts have a hard outer membrane.

See here:

Please note that I have removed Nolvasan from the above paragraph as an effective disinfectant. I have been informed that Nolvasan will not kill coccidia oocysts. This info came directly from the manufacturer.

Pulled from this site:

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Parasites.html

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Disinfectants.html

She recommends: ammonia, bleach, and steam

ammonia is potentially harmful though and leaves a residue that does not come off easily

bleach I have found to work the best
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Interesting links and I appreciate the information Wayne.

Personally, I despise bleach and this is the reason I don't use it for cleaning cages or furniture. Reading through the provided link does support it's effectiveness.

One thing I would like to point out is that there are many different brands of chlorhexidine gluconate & diacetate and each company may use different components. It's also useful to keep around because it's effective cleaning wounds and mild oral infections.

On a side note, when is Raz going to be a poppa?

Im not wild over the bleach in their enclosures either. I do it once every other week. Have a diluted bleach solution in spray bottle and wipe the enclosures out.

I use this stuff and pure vinegar daily for enclosures:

Diluted bleach is good for furniture. The germacides are really good too though. Did not mean to come off as a know it all.

Raz is doing awesome he is an eater. Never turns down anything. He enjoys anything that moves.

He is so calm man. That is the coolest thing about him. A couple of my dragons get really frantic, when you take them outside forget about it. He is always very relaxed and really has this thing about being a dominant alpha male. Head way up arms bowed out and flexed.

He is a trip.

thanks for the interest... he is my favorite too... such a ham

Im going to reduce his lights and heat a bit this winter see if he goes down at all... then this upcoming spring he will be ready to go. Have two females to try him with. Both are double hets. So we'll see.

Here are some pics from yesterday Raz exerting his dominance in the dragon room.

flash and no flash

his belly is turning green and his front arms he is really interesting to look at because he get sometimes too real deep colored

Thanks again, best regards.

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From the shot of that product 'Nature's Miracle' it says nothing about disinfecting surfaces, just removes stains and dirt...basically good for cleaning surfaces, but not for disinfecting them.
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess

Raz is something else, very unique. Only a few dragons really strike me and he is one of them. Bloodbank had a classified a while back for what they called a "darth vader" dragon, I don't remember the morph exactly. It was one of the coolest I've ever seen, pure black/white with tiger patterning. Wish I had the funds back then! I wonder what became of the dragon as he/she has grown up?

Take er easy Wayne.