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help with foul smelling bottom part of cage

bencham Oct 27, 2003 08:47 PM

hi everyone

i have noticed that the bottom part of my indoor cage of my cham smells incredibly bad. I have no loose crickets in his cage, his poo sometimes goes un noticed in the dirt and have a cup full of dripper that falls into his ficus every day...

is the constant wetness and possible poo causing this aweful smell or is it something else...

by the way-- his poo smells quite foul as well by itself....

any help appreciated

Replies (7)

trinacliff Oct 27, 2003 09:03 PM

Hi there,
Unless you have one of the pygmy species, you really don't need any type of substrate other than paper towels or something else that is very easy to keep clean. Most just layer the bottom with paper towels and change them out at least once a week. It keeps the bacteria and such to a minimum.

I would imagine that the dripper is probably keeping it pretty wet, and this could be causing the odor. What type of cage do you have your cham in that allows you to have dirt as a substrate? If it's glass, see if you can rethink that and get it into a screen enclosure.

Kristen
-----
1.1 pygmy leaf
1.0 carpet
1.0 jackson
0.0.3 red eared sliders

bencham Oct 27, 2003 09:16 PM

hi, i have him in a screen cage 36 height, 18, 18 and yes i suspect that the water is making it smell very bad.......

i plan to take everything apart tommorrow afternoon and fix the problem......

any more ideas helpful...

trinacliff Oct 27, 2003 09:34 PM

I think removing the substrate should fix your problem. Do you just have a thin layer of dirt if you have him in a screen cage? (I'm wondering how the dirt stays in?)

Try the paper towel route...it's pretty easy to maintain and keeps things looking nice and clean.

Kristen
-----
1.1 pygmy leaf
1.0 carpet
1.0 jackson
0.0.3 red eared sliders

lele Oct 27, 2003 09:15 PM

I use paper towel and change them as needed. You are the second person recently that has said their (cham's, not your own! ) poop stinks. I do not detect any odor from Luna.

The general bad smell could very well be the soil which can develop mold esp. if your dripper goes right into it. You'd be better off etting up a catch basin and emptying it daily. Some decaying leaves can also have a VERY bad odor. Can you post a pic of your setup?

lele
-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles (Jaida, no name)
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - (still no names)

bencham Oct 27, 2003 09:18 PM

no, my cham doesnt smell at all;;; i never said that;;; it is his poo!!!

bencham Oct 27, 2003 09:20 PM

i still have no idea of how to post a picture on this forum...... it seems like a rather confusing process.....

it is your basic baby veiled cham setup....

it has a 24 inch ficus, various branches throughout and hardly any dead leaves in the soil of the plant, i currently have nothing on the floor of the enclosure, just wipe it up once he pooes?? (is that how u spell it )

any more suggestions??

lele Oct 27, 2003 09:43 PM

when you mentioned that his poop (poo - whatever! LOL! :/ goes unnoticed in the dirt I think we took it as substrate, not plant soil.

As for posting a picture...there are a couple ways, but the easiest is to do it right here on the KS Gallery. The help page is - well, helpful!

You can upload a pic of 250K or less and each of us has a free account of x-amount of space (don't recall number off hand). Scan in/download your pic to your computer, then go here: www.kingsnake.com/photohelp/ and follow instructions.
hope I have helped!

lele

>>i still have no idea of how to post a picture on this forum...... it seems like a rather confusing process.....
>>
>>it is your basic baby veiled cham setup....
>>
>>it has a 24 inch ficus, various branches throughout and hardly any dead leaves in the soil of the plant, i currently have nothing on the floor of the enclosure, just wipe it up once he pooes?? (is that how u spell it )
>>
>>any more suggestions??
-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles (Jaida, no name)
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - (still no names)

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