Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For years i have always used a bleach water solution to disinfect my cages which up until recently have been tubs. It worked fine and tubs are easy to completely rinse. I now have a boa in a 4' vision cage who urates a lot. I use newspaper as a substrate and am not interested in switching to something more absorbent out of convenience. (i use aspen with my colubrids and change the bedding frequently). So ive been researching alternatives. i came across Chlorhexadine. Does anyone use it? any tips about the stuff? whats an easy spray and wipe disinfectant that is 100% safe. Also as this is my first snake that tends to lay in his waste what is a good safe way to disinfect a snake?

Once you use Chlorhexadine, you may never want to use anything else. It is essentially odorless with no residue. After wiping a cage down with this product, you will notice the cage odor is largely gone. And it is perfectly safe for the snakes.

My advice to you is to purchase the gallon of concentrated Chlorohexadine. Then fill a spray bottle with water and add a few squirts of the concentrated product in it. That easy. A gallon jug will last a very long time, and you won't smell like bleach. When you consider how little you need for each spray bottle, the cost is low.

Bleach is good stuff, but this product is easier to mix, cleans very well, is safe and has zero odor.
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Mark

Are there common local stores that would carry Chlorohexadine? I have never once looked for it before so that's why I ask. Of course it very well may be that I have seen it in almost every hardware or big box store I have ever walked into but have never paid any attention
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~Markus

The very existence of flamethrowers means that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves..."You know, I really want to set those people over there on fire...but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."

I just got a good deal on a jug of it from amazon. Upon reading the reviews i noticed a lot of people claimed to have purchased the product from their veterinarian at a much higher price than amazon. Im anxious to try the stuff.

Just bought me some on there too
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~Markus

The very existence of flamethrowers means that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves..."You know, I really want to set those people over there on fire...but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."

If you look on the kingsnake.com classifieds I think under Supplies, Bedding, etc, you will see it.
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Mark

I keep my large boas and pythons in Vision cages and have used diluted chlorohexidine for years with great results. As has been posted, use a spray bottle with very well diluted chlorohexidene. Spray and wipe dry. Dissolves urate deposits also. Kills the bacteria which in turn kills odors. Cleans the glass sliding doors on the Vision cages too. I use it to clean/disinfect the water bowls but rinse them with water very thoroughly. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

Received my gallon of chlorhexidine today. A few drops into a water bottle is all it took. I have to say i am impressed with this stuff assuming that it disinfects as well as bleach. It does kill odor pretty well. all these years and i just recently found out about this stuff.

Right on mine is on the way here. Good to hear it works so well!
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~Markus

The very existence of flamethrowers means that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves..."You know, I really want to set those people over there on fire...but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."