Taking some data

Question for you all.

How often do you sterilize (bleach, ammonia etc) your enclosures?
And also, have you ever had a sick snake (other than arriving sick etc)

I have a hypothesis, and I am collecting data to see if my thoughts are on the right track.

I do a full cleaning once a month, minor cleaning in between takes place as needed. Fortunately, I haven't had any snakes sick at all.

I only sterilize a tub when a new animal is going into it, or if something sick is coming out of it. For the most part, I do not really "clean" tubs at all unless someone makes a mess and even then it's only soap and water. Dump dirty bedding, wipe out tub with paper towel, add fresh bedding and put animal back in rack. Once a week unless they need it more often. Nothing has ever become sick while here, but I have unfortunately had animals shipped to me that way in the past.

I clean and sanitize every week on saturday. I clean water bowls tuesdays and saturdays...
Clean, clean, clean...

I spot clean every couple of days as well as give fresh water every couple of days..I fully clean out their cypress mulch once every two weeks. Dump it out, clean the tub with clorox bleach wipes and all done. Never have had a sick bp..what are you testing?

My theory is that people who sanitize too much don't allow the snakes to build an immune system.
I spot clean weekly, and will wash the tub out with water if they poop really bad or smear it, but that's about it. No sick snakes, ever.
Oh, I will use soap on the tub if a female has dropped eggs.

In the wild they sit in their own poop in their dens...without issue.
I just think it's like people who bathe in Purell...they tend to get sick more often...but so far, the data is not backing my hypothesis...both here and on Facebook.

I learned with bettas years ago. I used to do a lot of importing from overseas. The fish were kept in pristine water with constant changes over there. When they got here, and the water got the teeniest bit dirty or stale, they dropped dead. Their immune systems couldn't handle the stress.

My tubs aren't technically dirty. Far from it. I just don't believe in sterilizing away these animals' immune systems.

Hopefully more people will chime in, though I doubt anyone is going to admit on a forum where they run sales ads that they've had sick animals.

Great idea though. I always like to see how others do things.

Every Betta I have ever had has loved slightly dirtier water. The ONE I had that I kept in pristine water...died fast.

spot clean 1x a week and ill remove some bedding here and there, fully clean it depends on how bad the tubs look, sometimes i change it out in a month and wipe down, sometimes 6 months. When Females lay i also change the tubs and wipe them out.

Originally Posted by Kingofspades

My theory is that people who sanitize too much don't allow the snakes to build an immune system.
I spot clean weekly, and will wash the tub out with water if they poop really bad or smear it, but that's about it. No sick snakes, ever.
Oh, I will use soap on the tub if a female has dropped eggs.

In the wild they sit in their own poop in their dens...without issue.
I just think it's like people who bathe in Purell...they tend to get sick more often...but so far, the data is not backing my hypothesis...both here and on Facebook.

I used cypress mulch, spot cleaning it once a week and changing the mulch every other week for almost 3 years, never had a problem.
I had to switch to unprinted news paper because I moved to a rural area and the closest town has no mulch, but I get end rolls for free from there local news paper. I found when using paper there is no spot cleaning only constant cleaning. I would change back to cypress mulch in a heart beat, a lot less time consuming...