Cleaning Chameleon cages, Help needed

Im just wondering what everyone uses to clean Chameleon cages with, mine has an awful oder. I do clean it out, but i have been reluctent to use anything but water.

If anyone has some suggestions, I would definatley appreciate it.

Howdy Shari,

After I remove all of the plants from my screen cage, I first wipe up anything chunky like potting soil etc. If I'm taking the enclosure outside for cleaning, then I will use something like 409 or some other spray cleaner. I'll then flush the surfaces with lots of hose water. I may also sterilize the surfaces with either 10:1 bleach or a product like Nolvasan. Nolvasan or the generic chlorohexidine diacetate, kill many germs etc. that may be present. Diluted bleach also works, but I've ruined enough cloths to pay for a lot of Nolvasan! I am looking into getting Virkon ( see: http://www.ratlovers.org/articles/disinfectant.html interesting write-up.) since it seems to do an even better job of eliminating germs etc. Whatever you use, you just want to make sure that you rinse things well enough to not leave any significant residue.

If you are smelling something like a rotten egg odor, then you have bigger problems... Maybe parasites in you chams system. Time to take a fresh fecal sample to the Vet for a test.

Wow good to know, also is there a recommended frequency for cage cleaning like once a week or once every other week. Just because it doesn’t look dirty or smell really bad does not mean that you don’t need to clean it right?

Howdy,


Yep. Poop from you cham and the prey that might be on the loose are easy places for bacteria etc. to get a foothold and turn into potential problems. Just wiping up things doesn't take care of the micorscopic lifeforms. You don't have to go the full-on Nolvasan direction but it helps. Wiping and drying using a disinfectant that is safe around chams done once a week will keep you from the worst of troubles.

So do you think it would be safe to use something like a one part bleach to 10 parts water mix to clean cage. Than dry out and let sit to air out the bleach smell. Or maybe a 1 to 20 mix. I ask about the bleach because I have it laying around and because my cham is in a glass deal untill I finish building his all new, all screen cage.

Howdy,

Bleach, at 10:1, does kill many types of bacteria. Along with bacteria it has also killed 2 of my shirts and one of my blue jeans! I just couldn't seem to keep that last drop from ruining clothing at least once a month. So, I switched to Chlorhexidine Gluconate (had it available.) Nolvasan® (chlorexidine diacetate) is even better for disinfecting surfaces. Always follow dilution directions. Bleach is highly toxic so make sure you rinse with fresh water and then dry. The gluconate formula is also used to wash wounds. The diacetate version is much more potent and only used as a surface sterilizer and not for use on skin. If you have a good buddy Vet, he'll probably sell you some at a reasonable price. One ounce makes a gallon! An undiluted gallon of gluconate is as low as $14/gallon. Diacetate is more like $20/gallon undiluted. Only mix what you can use in a week or so. It goes bad and crystals form.

Thanks for the info, I think i'll stick with bleach for now and just make sure to rinse and dry out very good. I'm hopeing to have him out of this glass cage and into a screen deal by the end of the month, that should make cleaning a whole lot easyer.

I don't own chameleons, so I don't know if this would cause any problems or not. This is what I use on my beardies and uros.
White vinegar! I just rinse afterwards like I would if I had used bleach. It's natural and non-toxic.

Disinfect with Vinegar
The disinfectant properties of vinegar have been verified by numerous studies including those conducted by the Good Housekeeping Institute, as reported on 48 hours (on CBS) in 2000. A straight 5% solution of vinegar kills 99 percent of bacteria, 82 percent of mold, and 80 percent of viruses, however in the USA, it cannot be declared a disinfectant without registering it as a pesticide with the EPA. Having said that, mix distilled white vinegar (found in any supermarket) with water and keep spray bottles of this non-toxic disinfectant in your bathrooms and kitchen - to disinfect and clean.

Candy

Howdy,

I'm just doing a copy/paste from another site that has info on one of the other reccomended disinfecting recipes using vinegar and hydrogen peroxide (kept separate):

http://www.reptilekings.com/caresheet.htm

Cleaning / Disinfecting

Cleaning and disinfecting techniques are extremely crucial in maintaining the overall health of your leopard gecko. An unsanitary enclosure will most definently cause many problems, especially because they are kept in captivity, with a very limited space in their enclosure compared to in the wild.

Many people use a one part bleach to a four part water solution. With this solution you can pour it into a spray bottle, spray your enclosure with it, and let it sit for around 30 minutes for it to work effectively. Once the time is up, rinse VERY WELL, make sure there is absolutely no residue of the solution left. Once you are sure that it has been watered off completely, dry it off, and your enclosure is ready to go! For the cage accessories you can soak them in this solution as well.

Another method, a method that we truly find a great one, especially if you want to keep your back, is disinfecting enclosures with a hydrogen peroxide and vinegar solution. You can go to a drug store, pick up two spray bottles, then go to the first aid aisle and pick up some 3% hydrogen peroxide solution, it will only cost a total of around $7CDN. Then purchase a bottle of either white/apple cider vinegar found mainly at grocery stores. Next, pour the hydrogen peroxide into one of the spray bottles, and pour the white/apple cider vinegar into the other. All you will have to do now is to spray each solution around the walls of your enclosure as well as the floor of it, there's no need to drench the enclosure, just enough that will cover that area, and leave it for 30 seconds. You can either spray with the vinegar first, and the hydrogen peroxide second, or vice versa, it doesn't really matter. However it has been proven that the disinfectants work best when the vinegar and peroxide are not mixed together in the same bottle.

The combination of these two have proven to be extremely effective in killing many types of bacteria/viruses, parasites, salmonella and many other pathogens on contact! After 30 seconds wipe the enclosure dry, and now you have a completely spotless good as new enclosure ready to go! For it to be even more effective leave the solution in the enclosure for around 5 minutes. You can do this once a month or so, other times you can let it sit for 30 seconds to a minute if you wish for broad spectrum sanitizing. With this method, there is no heavy lifting of tanks/enclosures involved, all you do is spray, wait a little while, and dry off, simple as that, and it is extremely effective! The solution works on glass, plastic, wood, metal, and more! Using the sprays together is ten times more effective than using one by itself!

Another bonus to this is that it is environmentally friendly! Hydrogen peroxide breaks down to simple water and oxygen after a while, no harm to your reptiles or the environment there! What's better than using a non-toxic safe disinfectant? After all, the FDA warns us about the cancerous affects when using chlorine bleach!