Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is the best thing to use when cleaning out snake enclosures. I have corn snakes and some boas and they are all in rubbermaids. I am trying to figure out the best disinfectant for them.

after EVERYTHING is out of the cage I use a 5% bleach solution. Meaning 95% water 5% bleach. I let it air out untill you can't smell the bleach then wait 10 minutes after that Most people use 10% bleach and let it air out over night but I don't have the spair cages for that. So I hold them for 20 minutes each while their cages air out. try to clean it a few days in middle of feedings that way they aren't as stressed after the cleaning and are more likely to eat.
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Redtail "Kilo"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"

I have heard some great stuff about Jurassi Clean spray. It safely cleans and deodorize your reptiles habitat with the fresh scent of limes in some. It is perfectly safe. Sounds good to me im gonna try to find a place that sells it and order some.

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1.0 Albino Corn "Lucky"
1.0 Snow Corn "Snow"
0.0.4 Southern Ringneck "Collar", "Bc", "Lazy", "Biggie"
1.0 Green Amevia "Gizard"

I used to do the bleach thing. Until it splashed into my eye. (It hurts.) Now I use Virosan. It's a brand name of Chlorhexadine -- an antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral cleaning solution used by veterinarians. It's basically a mouthwash for animals. And it's good for minor cuts and abrasions, too. It's safe, fast, easy, and cheap. And a bottle lasts forever. Just spray the enclosure and wipe with a paper towel. And if it gets in the water dish or on the animal, no problem. It's completely safe. Like I said, it's used as a mouthwash for animals. Oh! And now I can clean all my Sterilite boxes inside the house. No more nasty bleach fumes or dangers from spilling on the carpet. Gosh! This stuff is a small-scale miracle for animal enthusiasts. Check it out.

Chris
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mean people suck

In my opinion, if you are only going to use one cleaner, use Roccal-D. It's what most vets use to wipe the table between animals, etc. Great stuff and a lot less risky to your animal than things like bleach. BTW, bleach is nuetralized by organic matter. Cleaning up poop, etc. with bleach isn't as productive as most people believe. Bleace is most effective on cleaning a mostly clean cage.

Since nothing kills everything, I do a very complex process between animals if I re-use a cage. First, physically clean the cage with water (pressure sprayer) to remove particulates, let it sit in the sunlight for a couple of days (sunlight kills some things), then clean it with 10% bleach (let soak for a while) and rinse REAL well. Follow up with ammonia for the same process. Finish up with Roccal-D.

Bleach kills some stuff sunlight didn't, ammonia kills osme thinmgs those don't, etc. Believe it or not, but there are some things resistant to all of the above things that are VERY hard to kill. Thankfully, those diseases in reptiles are rare.

KJ

Roccal is an American brand. What's the active ingredient? Vets up here use quatanary ammonia... Quatsyl-D

Chlorhexidine is cheaper, smells less, and perfectly fine unless you have a particularly nasty bug in your collection.

Ian

>>Roccal is an American brand. What's the active ingredient?
Just google it or go to the Pfizer website - you can get better answers that way than I wouldlikely give to these questions....

My galloon is so faded, that I couldn't read anything off of the bottle to save my life.
KJ

>>Roccal is an American brand.

I assumed that the person originally asking the question was an American. TSU "might" be his university, but that was just my guess. I also didn't think that Pfizer wouldn't sell overseas. Not sure if that is true or not, either.
KJ