whats the best way to clean BP cage :)

[steffa]

any ideas on good cleaning

[The Serpent Merchant]

Chlorhexidine or F10 disenfectant.

[Crazy4Herps]

For weekly (or however often) spot cleaning, I simply change the substrate and wipe the cage down with some water and a paper towel if necessary. For deep cleaning (2x per year at our house) I set the cages on the driveway and wash everything with watered down bleach, then rinse thoroughly with the hose and let it air dry so fumes dissipate.

Everyone has their own cleaning regimen. Do whatever is easiest and works best for you, but I urge you to limit the frequency of chemical use in the enclosure. No matter how well you rinse, there's always the risk.

[RobNJ]

For deep cleaning, I take everything to my shower and scrub with non-abrasive soap and HOT, HOT water, towel dry everything thoroughly, and spray with a light-medium light F10 solution and let air dry.

[steffa]

how often should i deep clean the whole cage?

[The Serpent Merchant]

What substrate do you use?

For paper based substrates I clean after the snake poops/pees

For Aspen/cypress/Eco-Earth... I clean once per month.

[captainjack0000]

I use repti-bark fir substrate and glass tanks. I spot clean up fecal matter and urine whenever I see them. One tank usually smells before I see it, and know to hunt for it. I remove as much of the waste material as I can.

I deep clean every 3-4 months (unless some other reason to clean arises).

First remove the snake. Then I remove all of the mulch. I have a cut up plastic milk carton to use as a scoop and use my household bagless vacuum to suck up any remaining pieces. I then wipe down the glass and bottom with window cleaner and thoroughly air dry. I have at times set a little desk fan in the tank to get the air flowing.

All furniture usually gets washed with super hot water and maybe a mild detergent. I have used my dishwasher without soap too, and that seemed work well. Wood products (such as sticks and half logs) can be baked as well to further "sterilize" them. I recently baked mine at 300F for 20-30 min with careful attention to avoid fire. The flash point of wood though is something like 500F, so I wasn't too worried about it. I have also read of people who bake theirs for a longer period of time, up to 3 hours in one case.

Then I put the cage back together. The time spent washing the furniture so far has been long enough to air out the tank. I have in the past, and heard of others using a diluted bleach/water solution, but I try to avoid that when I can. I only use it when I feel I need the fire power (see my woodmites thread below).

I like my method because it avoids having to move the tanks around. I figure less time moving them is less time for me to drop/chip/shatter any of the tanks.

[steffa]

the substrate i use is called plantation soil

[The Serpent Merchant]

Plantation Soil is the same thing as Eco-Earth. Both are brand names for pulverized coconut husk.

I would spot clean poo/pee when you see it, then deep clean once per month. Any longer than that and the cage starts to get nasty.

[steffa]

what would be the best substrate in op ion?