Cleaning Cage?

[Keiraffe]

How often do you guys clean your cages?

When you do clean them how do you go about it?

[cchardwick]

Well I have two ARS racks and I use coconut husk bedding. I change out the bedding every month in all of my tubs. But I do spot clean every snake every day, I open each tub, spray it down with water from a 2 gallon pump up sprayer and if they made a mess I clean it up. If I can just spot clean the bedding I'll do that, if they get it on the side or bottom of the tub I'll wipe it down with diluted Chlorhexidine solution. If there's any mess on the snake I simply spray the snake down with water right on the bedding. I live in a desert climate so I have to spray with water every day. I change out the Dixie cup and water every week, but if I find any bedding at all in the water I'll swap it out during spot cleaning with a new cup and water. I find that keeping it clean on a daily basis keeps their appetite up, if they have a smelly tub they most likely won't eat.

[SDA]

I clean my self really good before handling my snake to avoid entering anything in his cage. I spot check daily the enclosure for waste and clean if there is any including removing substrate around urates because he pees a ton. I agitate substrate weekly to prevent it settling too much but only remove and clean every 4 or so months. I change water ever 3 days and monthly I run the ceramic bowl in the dishwasher under sanitize and heated dry. I clean decor when I do a substrate change. I scrub hides with F10 every substrate change as well.

I see no point when you own an enclosure to change everything monthly. To me that is just wasted overkill. Racks for breeders or larger collections are different but for a personal collection of single snakes, there is absolutely no reason to deep clean more than quarterly as long as you spot clean.

I have a RBI 4x2 enclosure with Reptile Prime coco fiber and I clean with F10

[cchardwick]

The cleaning schedule really depends on the size of your snake. For my 30 pound retic I have to clean out her cage and replace the substrate every two weeks because she pees and I can smell it, even in the coconut husk. I also have a lot of big females, some are getting close to 4000 grams (some of my ball pythons are almost 9 pounds!) If you have a small hatchling and a big tank you can go a really long time between cleanings. I just like to clean out everyone's tub monthly, makes the routine simpler for me. And it keeps the coconut husk smelling fresh. It also depends on the substrate, aspen and others may mold and need to be changed more frequently.

I used to use paper in my rack system, what a nightmare. You are deep cleaning several tubs on a daily basis. You save money but waste tons of time. I see a lot of people keeping reticulated pythons on paper, they are cleaning every few days or at least once a week.

It also depends on how much you feed. If you don't feed very much there's not much that comes out LOL.

[SDA]

Well duh :p

If I had the fire hydrant that is a retic I would be sure to clean it out weekly too.

[cchardwick]

Actually for my retic I use a whole block of Prococo substrate in his five foot boa tub in my ARS rack. It absorbs all the pee and you can't even smell it, works fantastic. After about three weeks it does get an odor when you open it up so I change it out at two weeks.

[bcr229]

Mine are on paper in a rack or stack so they get a full clean-out when they make a mess. It's fairly easy since I weave the paper together so it can be rolled up into a bundle and thrown away. Spray F10, wipe clean, put in new paper, clean water bowl, clean hide, and done. Even the retics don't take too long to do, unless they painted the walls.

[KillerKame]

I spot clean as needed and replace the substrate once per month.

[Crowfingers]

I check each hide for urates daily (except when he is in blue, then I skip whatever hide he is in), If there is any urates I clean all the mulch from that area. Same for when he defecates - I clean the area thoroughly and add fresh mulch. Once a month or so I remove all of the stuff from his cage and soak it in very hot water (usually in the tub), vacuum all the dust out and spray down the cage with dilute chlorhex before rinsing and drying then adding all new mulch.

[Dutti]

When the snake poop or urinate i clean the spot immediately and replace the substrate around it and disinfect that area. If the Substrate started to smell bad i would replace it all and clean the enclosure. But if everything is normal, no bad smell or signs of dirt, i clean the whole enclosure and replace the whole substrate every several months.