Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering what are the different strategies different people use in order to avoid such a bad smell from chameleon excretion, especially people that have many indoor cages.

The obvious is to frequently clean the cage, but do you guys have other ways of reducing the terrible smell?

wow,i have 3 chams and they dont smell at all??? I just throw away the paper towel when they gp on it.

my never smelled.

do you have water sitting at the bottom?..or mildew somewere in the cage make sure the room it is in has air curculation also

I have 2 chameleon cages in my room and a beardie cage and redtail boa cage and crix in the living room and none of them smell. The panthers feces drop into rubbermaid water container at the bottom.
It shouldn't smell as it dries fast and is pretty small.

Hi - Cham's don't smell. Can you describe your setup? How many do you have? Where is it set up? Is your cage screen? Do you have soaked, therefore rotting, plant material? Do you let you crix run free? Are your crix kept near your cham cage? Why am I asking so much about crix? Because they DO stink! If your crickets aren’t in a well ventilated container they can build up a stench quickly. Frankly, I think they are a lot more work than the chams and I am seriously considering switching to roaches. Anyway, back to your question…let us know some of the particulars and maybe we can put our collective detective hat on and help you out

>>I was wondering what are the different strategies different people use in order to avoid such a bad smell from chameleon excretion, especially people that have many indoor cages.
>>
>>The obvious is to frequently clean the cage, but do you guys have other ways of reducing the terrible smell?

Thanks for all your comments.

I never said my chameleons smelled per se, they dont, I said their EXCRETION (or faeces) are smelly. It is obvious they smell and I guess the only way is to trow away the paper towels once they are dirty.

I have kept chameleons for a very long time and that is the way I have done it, however I was just wondering if you guys maybe had an even more effective way of avoiding having to change the paper towels every day or every other day depending on how much the chams eat.

most of Luna's poop ends up in a plant pot. I just cleaned her cage today and noticed she tends to go in one area (toilet trained?? LOL!). Found 90% of her poops in one plant and only a couple on the ground. But even then I don't ever smell anything. Is it regular poop smell?

hey, we've had long running threads on colors, textures and photos of poop we can certainly have one about the smell!

>>Thanks for all your comments.
>>
>>I never said my chameleons smelled per se, they dont, I said their EXCRETION (or faeces) are smelly. It is obvious they smell and I guess the only way is to trow away the paper towels once they are dirty.
>>
>>I have kept chameleons for a very long time and that is the way I have done it, however I was just wondering if you guys maybe had an even more effective way of avoiding having to change the paper towels every day or every other day depending on how much the chams eat.

mine laways seemed to go iin one spot of the cage....noone really mentioned this but i wonder if chams have a perfered toliet area?

Mine goes in the same spot. She goes way down low on one branch and sticks her butt way out, and it goes on the same spot on the floor, most of the time. It's actually kind of funny seeing a cham poop lol.

Yes, I had noticed that from my chams. They tend to go on the same spot most of the time. Wonder why that is the case.

i have found that 99.9% of all captive animals have a preferred spot to "go". all of my chams do it, so do leos, and quite a few others. in nature, many animals designate one part of their "home" as the toilet. it's part of how they "clean-house". lol.
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groups.msn.com/JEChameleons
1.1 Chameleo Calyptratus
1.1 Furcifer Pardalis (Diego Suarez)
1 Chameleo Melleri

yes, animals do it for similar reasons as humans - we don;t want to eat and @#$% in the same place! LOL!! They are funny to watch - a cross between and cat and a male dog

My tarantula "shoots" her poop so it doesn't soil her web and it is also a "scare" tactic!! I wonder if other forums have such enlightening conversations!?

lele

>>i have found that 99.9% of all captive animals have a preferred spot to "go". all of my chams do it, so do leos, and quite a few others. in nature, many animals designate one part of their "home" as the toilet. it's part of how they "clean-house". lol.
>>-----
>>groups.msn.com/JEChameleons
>>1.1 Chameleo Calyptratus
>>1.1 Furcifer Pardalis (Diego Suarez)
>>1 Chameleo Melleri

LOL That would be something to see
"Stop, or i'll shoot poop at you!!!" lol

If your chams poops themselves are very smelly you may have a bacterial problem going on in the cham's gut. Have fecals tested for parasites (coccidia) and gram negative bacterial infections (staph, pseudomonas) . Lots of smelly mucous in a poop needs checking.