total cage cleaning????

[lisagr07]

hey,,
just got to wondering... do you have to do total cage cleanings???

i guess i was just under the assumption that you cleaned the lin
er at the bottom of the cage a couple of times a week.. is it necessary to remove all of the plants, fake and real, along with the vines and branches weekly?? do you have to scrub and/or disenfect them????

thanks,, lisa

 

[kpritch17]

I usually clean up dead leaves and poop as I see them, but this weekend I decided to remove all of the plants and really clean well at the bottom and I also changed the soil in the plants(mostly because I was trying to get rid of gnats) and I also cleaned off the river rocks I have on the soil.

I haven't taken out vines, fake plants, etc to clean, but I will from time to time just to switch up where everything is.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I spot clean daily, do a slightly more involved cleaning weekly. I "deep clean" much less frequently (every other month or so)

 

[OOOst16]

I ceep mine clean 24/7, therefore I never have to do a full clean. I consider it my garden in my living room, so I want it spotless.

 

[Ellron]

I spot clean daily, do a slightly more involved cleaning weekly. I "deep clean" much less frequently (every other month or so)

What would deep cleaning entail? Would it be removing all the plants and thoroughly cleaning?
What solvent would you use to clean?

 

[pssh]

OOO, how do you get rid of the germies and stuff? I do a soooper cage clean once a month with bleach and vinegar and everything. I spot clean frequently though.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I have never cleaned an enclosure beyond picking up poop and urates.
Why would you want to get rid of the "germies" ???

Now, I will say that if we got a positive test for coccidia or something of that nature, it would be a different story.

We also have no anti bacterial gel or soap in our house (they are forbidden) just plain old soap and water for hands here!

In the last two years our sons (ages 3 and 6) have been sick once with a very minor cold, Frank and I have not had so much as a sniffle in I don't know how long and all animal fecals are clean to date.

No germaphobes here!

-Brad

 

[Elizadolots]

I just "muck out" the bottom of the cage and wipe off any leaves I see that are poopy...

 

[ChamFreak]

OOO, how do you get rid of the germies and stuff? I do a soooper cage clean once a month with bleach and vinegar and everything. I spot clean frequently though.

that is mixing a acid and a base..... dont use sodium hypochlorite (bleach) its designed to kill...

 

[pssh]

Not together. I use the diluted bleach on the bottom part where the stray poop goes. His poop stains the stupid PVC flooring even though I pick it up as soon as possible. It gets rinsed really well after.

I use diluted vinegar on the other parts of the cage, and I pour boiling water on the vines and stuff. I also hose down the plants.

By the way, we don't use any antibacterial soap and stuff like that (and the bleach is never used on anything but the floor of the cages) in our house and I get sick all the time. Maybe I'm just weird.

 

[sandrachameleon]

What would deep cleaning entail? Would it be removing all the plants and thoroughly cleaning? What solvent would you use to clean?

Most of my chameleon choose to deficate in the same place every time, so this makes the bulk of the clean-up, the daily spot cleaning, very simple.

But bits of skin and smegma and the odd stick bug leg or whatever falls where it will. This is taken care of every other month or so. For this I remove the chameleon. Sometimes the plants and vines and branches. I wash the sides and floor of the cages with a vinegar solution, wipe down branches with same, or pour boiling water over them. I use a steam cleaner as well (a high end one, not one of those crappy $50 ones). I do not use chemicals. I do not worry over much about doing a perfect job every time.

Every second year or so, I take everything out, scrub and repaint (zero voc paint)

 

[Nixehface]

I tiled the bottom of my enclosure to keep it really easy to clean so I just wipe the bottom of it daily and then do a big clean when I notice that there are dying leaves and crap on the plants!

 

[draetish]

I too spot clean everday and rarely take everything out to clean. I agree with Brad 100%. Also panthers lick their branches and maybe it's to see if any other cham has been there or to mark their territory. So I leave those alone.

 

[morpheon]

Do people clean forest in Madagascar, Yemen or elsewhere? And chameleons end up living well there.

At the end, if they are more vulnerable in the nature than in our houses, in my opinion, it's because of the lack of food or water sometimes, the up and downs in temperature or because they get sick from various things and don't get helped by vets.

So no, i'm no germaphobe either!

 

[Elizadolots]

Do people clean forest in Madagascar, Yemen or elsewhere? And chameleons end up living well there.

At the end, if they are more vulnerable in the nature than in our houses, in my opinion, it's because of the lack of food or water sometimes, the up and downs in temperature or because they get sick from various things and don't get helped by vets.

So no, i'm no germaphobe either!

I do think some amount of cleaning is required simply because we don't have that wild environment. Poop doesn't get consumed by the neat poop eating bugs, for example.

 

[chams1]

I have never cleaned an enclosure beyond picking up poop and urates.
Why would you want to get rid of the "germies" ???

Now, I will say that if we got a positive test for coccidia or something of that nature, it would be a different story.

We also have no anti bacterial gel or soap in our house (they are forbidden) just plain old soap and water for hands here!

In the last two years our sons (ages 3 and 6) have been sick once with a very minor cold, Frank and I have not had so much as a sniffle in I don't know how long and all animal fecals are clean to date.

No germaphobes here!

-Brad

I totally agree. Not only do I have NO time whatsoever, but I only give it a good scouring when a) a plant dies or I decide to replace it every 6-8 months or so or b) that cham was sold and it's time to put something else in there.

Since I have been keeping chams, I have actually been healthier than I've ever been. Even more reason to keep a house full of them.

 

[morpheon]

Of course Eliza. However, since it has been said at least 10 times already, i didn't think i had to copy and paste that once again!

 

[Mr Wilson]

We spot clean pretty much every day. Luckily Shooter uses part of the umbrella tree literally as a toilet! Seriously, there is one branch where all the leaves shoot out from the middle, and he almost always goes right in the middle of them, isn't that funny?

We take all of the plants out weekly, remove the substrate, clean the bottom tray with a terrarium cleaner. Once it gets warmer out we can take the plants out back and rinse them down, I'm sure they need them.

 

[pantherlover]

my repibreezes rust, can anybody give me a specific paint to redo the mesh with?