Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Guys,

After haveing read SOME of the many posts below(Thats what makes this forum so good, the participation of its members when there is NO profit involved) I have decided to comment, for what it is worth. Just my opinion and I am no Thesarus when it comes to Drymarchon....

I have always been considered totally anal when it comes to cage cleaning standards. Its NEVER clean enough for me.
(Funny that I should specialize in messy snakes like Pituophis and Drymarchon with these standards..ironic isnt it?)

Over the years I have used everything from bleach to Anti bacterial house soap, to ALCOHOL(No...not beer, I HATE beer, whiskey perhaps, but no beer))

My observations:

AFTER ALL visible particulate matter has been REMOVED from the cage, after all the interior decorations have been thrown away(Yes I said it, and I'd do it again) I would scrub the cage with a good anti bacterial soap, scrub the water bowl with same, and then apply TONS(I waste a lot) of either :
a)Quatricide

b) Full strength ammonia soaking it

Both method I soak for about 1 hour. Yup.
Then wasting about 8 gallons of water per bowl rinsing it well(I am not the best conservation of resources guy. Cut trees down..I NEED paper towel to clean my cages man!!..but I TRY to recycle,,I really do..well...........kinda ....

THAT was my prefered method, and I did this ritual quite often. I also threw away newspaper and occasionally threw away bowls too when they were so dirty I didnt want to clean em' . When pressed for time I would SPRAY the bowls and cage with a solution of ammonia. Thats when Im rushed.

Remember class: DONT do this inside. I almost choked myself to death after pouring straight ammonia into a water bowl , only to pour it out later and inhale a BIG WHIFF. Its like eating a WASABI ball and swallowing it(Yes...have done this to, regretably)

As far as Crypto and waterbowls, I wouldnt even comment, other than to say that stagnant ater full of waste and or bacteria is a ripe grown for MANY pathogens.

Water bowls?

Clean em or throw em away

Either way you win

Most sincerely

Fredrick Albury
Aztec Reptiles

I agree. I try to keep EVERYTHING as possible for them. I do so for the following, simple reason;
I would not want to be locked in a small room with my own bodily exciments all over the place. Common sense tells me that to do so, would be lazy and terribly foolish. So I will apply that analagy to the way I keep my animals. I try to account for every factor of wellness.

UH OH,... here comes another bad T-BOOMER,...I gotta shut down, Later,
T.
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"No tree would have branches foolish enough to argue amongst themseleves".

Well I only have a pair of Texas Indigos so I read more than give input. However I use deli cups in crocks for my waterbowls. I just throw them away and use a new one weekly. If they need changing sooner then its easy to do. Ron
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The Crawl Space

I moved from trying to keep water bowls clean to using disposable deli cups placed in a plastic dog dish years ago. Always replace deli cup at each cage cleaning. Cages are cleaned every three days. During breeding season cleaning may be skipped when a pair is caged together, but cup for water is still replaced on schedule. Buy cups in bulk from a party/paper goods dealer. Can be purchased separately from the lids.