too soon to clean?

[KylieT]

Hey guys! (again! I know soooo many questions! ) So, It's been four days with Geordi and I really need to clean up and get leaves out and change the towel at the bottom of his cage, but he's still so skeptical. Should I put it out of my mind for awhile and spare him the discomfort of being handled and leaving his cage? or should I pull a "suck it up buddy" and do it anyways?

 

[gwilliams]

It depends, when I clean my cages, my guys stay in their cage, they usually just go to a spot they can carefuly watch me at and seem intruiged by what I'm doing at the bottom.... so you might not even have to handle him - just depends on how tall your cage is...

 

[Robyrango]

Ocd

It's never too soon for cleaning!
Just kidding, you could wait another couple of days I guess. It depends how messy your set up gets after 4 days..

 

[KylieT]

It's not that its that messy, its that the towel on the bottom is soaked, and with our humidity issues that we have in our house (65-85% pretty continually) it's not getting drier than absolutely dripping. I'm afraid that its going to mold. I really don't want to psychologically scar the little guy, and in order to clean it id have to get the plants off of the bottom.

 

[Robyrango]

I had the same problem when I first put the enclosure together, it was driving me crazy!! That's what you can do: lift your enclosure and put it on an open stand but a bucket underneath, so it will collect the water and the only thing you have to do is empty it every day!

 

[KylieT]

that's a great idea! right now we have a bowl under our dripper and were misting and such and It's pretty bad the water overflow is bad enough but the crickets die as soon as they get to the bottom of the cage. It's ridiculous.

 

[KylieT]

maybe I can justify it by taking him for a shower? it's really a ten minute clean. would a shower be good for him? would doing this help him adjust to us and everything? I have so many questions, I'm such a noob.

 

[thePopeJP]

If you don't have a screened bottom but have a plastic bottomed enclosure, drill a small series of drain holes in the center (or as close the center as you can with the pot. I put the holes centered and the pot off center) small enough holes that crickets won't get out. The weight of the pot slightly bends the plastic piece, causing the water to flow to the drain holes, now, instead of one towel underneath everything, since they hold less humidity use a few paper towels folded and placed like a puzzle in the space around the pot(s).

Then place a bucket underneath the cage, under the drain holes. The paper towels will catch a lot of the fecal matter, and the excess water will drain from the center.

I can just open up the bottom, pull out the towels and lay in new ones, and be done with it.

 

[Robyrango]

Not you're not! We all have to start from somewhere!!
I won't give him a shower yet, as he's still adjusting to his new environment.. Every once in a while I spray water on him when I'm misting, hot water. If he doesn't run away I keep going for 20 sec otherwise I spray somewhere else in the enclosure.

 

[Robyrango]

that's a great idea! right now we have a bowl under our dripper and were misting and such and It's pretty bad the water overflow is bad enough but the crickets die as soon as they get to the bottom of the cage. It's ridiculous.

That bucket made my life so much easier!!

 

[carol5208]

I would not leave a wet towel in there for any length of time. change that out daily

 

[KylieT]

I would not leave a wet towel in there for any length of time. change that out daily

Agreed I'm already regretting the towel.

As for the bucket, I'm already considering how to rip the center of the table hes currently on out! great great idea.

The shower was just a thought, how long should I wait until we're doing things like that?

The misting is something I don't get. This little guy is super weirded out by us. As soon as we walk by hes moving out of sight, he hides behind things and you can always see one of his little eyes peeking up watching you. BUT he's not afraid of misting, he likes it. He's not jumping for joy or anything but he stands in it and doesn't run. It's like he doesn't even care. I could come in with 100 tasty crickets and hes bolting for the dense part of his tree, but if i come at him with a scary large thing that blasts everything with water that's okay...

 

[thePopeJP]

Sounds like you have a great Cham. Mine took about 3 weeks and 3 successful handlings to get him to not run away every time I came near the cage. So patience! He will come around.

 

[Robyrango]

Agreed I'm already regretting the towel.

As for the bucket, I'm already considering how to rip the center of the table hes currently on out! great great idea.

The shower was just a thought, how long should I wait until we're doing things like that?

The misting is something I don't get. This little guy is super weirded out by us. As soon as we walk by hes moving out of sight, he hides behind things and you can always see one of his little eyes peeking up watching you. BUT he's not afraid of misting, he likes it. He's not jumping for joy or anything but he stands in it and doesn't run. It's like he doesn't even care. I could come in with 100 tasty crickets and hes bolting for the dense part of his tree, but if i come at him with a scary large thing that blasts everything with water that's okay...

I guess you can consider that his showering time!
As somebody said in a previous post you can drill the bottom of your enclosure if is not an ope one! Good luck, keep us posted!

 

[KylieT]

Sounds like you have a great Cham. Mine took about 3 weeks and 3 successful handlings to get him to not run away every time I came near the cage. So patience! He will come around.

Haha "great" is in the eye of the beholder, he is one super angry muchacho. Every time I reach in there for anything and get too close he puffs and hisses. I know his intentions are to be scary but it's too cute to be. He doesn't "run" necessarily but he's pretty wary and backs up and hides if we look at him.