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I recently purchased a few Exo-terra glass terrariums for some young chondros, however, after thoroughly cleaning and airing these cages out for weeks they still smell of silicone. Has anyone using these cages noticed this problem? I am hesitant to place my much valued animals in these cages until I am sure that this odor is safe for them to breath. In order to keep the humidity high I will have to limit ventilation which means the animals will be inhaling these fumes 24/7. This concerns me! Does anyone know anything about this topic? Thanks.-----RON

I noticed the same thing when I purchased mine. All I did was put in the substrate I was going to use, misted it down a little bit, and ran my ceramic heat for about 2 hours. After that it just smelled like the substrate I was using. I haven't smelled the silicone smell since. Hope this helps.

i dont know much about exoterra cages other than the occasional complaint..this is a problem i have not yet heard but being experienced in building my own cages of glass,i do have experience with aquarium silicon.its been my experience that while still wet,the odor is pretty strong,but after it dries(24 hours)i really have never noticed any odor at all.i find it odd that after the amount of time for the product to be packaged,shipped,sold and then arrive at your house,it would still have a silicon smell.i wonder if maybe youre smelling something else and are mistaking it for silicon,or maybe they are just using a substandard type that i am just unfamiliar with.i know when i go to buy silicon for my projects,i do notice several different types and grades but i always stick with the first one i ever used(GE).just this morning i used some silicon to attach some new airplants in one of my vivariums,so before i finished typing this post,i ran to get my silicon corking gun,that happens to have old,dried silicon caked all over it,used as recently as 12 hours ago.after placing the tip almost up my nose,i could barly make out a sorta rubbery smell.really almost not even there.its nothing like the almost blinding fumes that are being given off while its still wet.i really dont know but based on my experience, i cant help but wonder, if its as bad as you are describing it,maybe its not silicon???

I'm really bothered by this silicone smell. I bought 3 exo-terra cages at the same time about 7 weeks ago. I took 1 out of the box 5 weeks ago - that's when I first noticed the smell. I cleaned it, and aired it out for a couple of weeks. The odor seemed to be gone so I added substrate (eco-earth), branches, etc. and blocked off most of the ventilation to keep the humidity high. When I opened the cage, the smell was there again! This was obviously because I had reduced the ventilation but that is neccessary to keep the humidity up. I had my contractor at my house yesterday to do some work and I asked him to smell the cage and he confirmed that the odor was definitely silicone and that it was very noticable. He told me also (just as you said, Iceyesnteeth) that there are different grades of silicone and that the company may be using a substandard grade which is not fully drying and is continuing to give off gasses. He also suggested the possibility of there being a problem with the silicone at the plant where they make the tanks. Either way, one of the gasses emmitted from drying silicone is amonia which would be real bad for any reptile especially since reptiles are extremely sensitive to any toxic chemical. I took the other 2 cages out of the boxes yesterday and they have the same exact odor! What's up with this! I e-mailed the company since this is a major product flaw and I'm still awaiting their response. I'll keep you posted on what happens. It's a shame because they are nice looking cages but if I can't fix this issue, I'll be using all three as flower pots!----RON

Weird...I have 2 of them being used to house chondros and I've never noticed that smell. Even with the increased humidity and decreased ventilation. How are you heating the cage? It's possible your heat source is heating up the silicone.

Chris
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1.1.0 Irian x Jungle Carpet Pythons
1.2.0 Black Rats- Robert, Cady, Kylie
1.2.0 Albino FL Kings-Nick, Jessica, Ashley
1.1.0 Crimson Corns-Kane, Ruby
0.1.0 Het-Crimson Corns-Lola
0.1.0 White-Sided/Pos Het Albino Black Rat-Lita
1.0.0 Albino White-sided Black Rat-Rey
0.1.0 Albino/Het White-sided Black Rat-Stacey
1.2.0 Creamsicle Corns-Vince, Trish, Torrie
0.1.0 Fl King-Bonnie
1.0.1 Green Tree Pythons Biak-Brandon, Aru-Orochimaru
1.0.0 Flame X Blood Bearded-Ruff
2.4.0 Ball Pythons-Kritsy, Gretchen, Alexis, 100% het for albino balls- Naruto, Hinata, 66% het VPI Axanthic-Sasuke
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor-Izzy

I realize this is very strange. I've never experienced anything like this. No chance of the heat source causing the problem though, since I'm not using one - my entire snake room is heated to 82-84 degrees and the tank isn't near the radiator. It is possible that I just got a bad batch of tanks - bad in the sense that there is a problem with the silicone causing it to continue to give off gasses after all this time. I do have other glass tanks in the room being used for chondros (not exo-terra tanks) which are set up exactly the same way and they have no odor at all. I'm stumped on this one.

yea ron,i was going to say the same thing in regards to fishtanks.like i said i make my own glass cages from scratch and have never noticed the silicon smell after it dries,but i have also bought fishtanks and also never noticed the smell.i always imagined the exoterra cages are made with the same silicon and made in the same way except for the plastic trim,hinges,latches,ect.thats why i wondered if maybe it was something else ,like one of these things that would be causing the odor.silicon is a very noticable smell, so i dont doubt thats what youre smelling.if you have smelt it once,its hard to mistake it for something else.i just had to mention that as maybe a cause(unlikly).i also suspected that something in your setup is heating up the silicon but you also shot down that idea,so im at a loss here.you are very right to be concerned.anything that you may smell and is irritating to you,will be 10 fold for the snake.the idea that once you add the substrate and that earthy smell will overpower the silicon is fine for your nose,but any unhealthy properties this unknown gas is producing,will not be eliminated by a coverup smell.thats like saying you can just spray cologne to protect yourself from mustard gas...lol...anyway,im at a loss but maybe try letting it airout for a couple days or if youre really concerned,maybe ask for an exchange??.