Using bleach

I just bought some chlorox bleach and I want to use it to sanitize my tubs/water bowls/hides. But the stuff make me nervious. I put just a cap full of bleach in a 3gal bucket about 1/4 with water and soaked a water bowl. Worked nicely, I'm just not sure when I'm comfortable putting water in the bowl and giving it back to the snake. Any suggestions?

Same question goes for using bleach to clean hides and tubs. Thanks!

PS- I'd like to use chlorhexidine for cleaning the tubs, but I can't find any locally

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.h...2-00b0d0204ae5

Cheapest place to get chlorhexidine. It's a whole gallon, and shipping is maybe $7-$8. Ships very fast too. You only have to use 2-3oz chlorhexidine per gallon of water(or more if you are disinfecting heavy duty things) and that gallon lasts a long time.

Bleach is fine, just rinse and let it air dry for a bit. It's pretty safe :)

one capful of bleach in a sink full of water is a good concentration ;)

rinse very well before using ;)

Cool Thanks.

I'm a guy who doesn't know much about cleaning, so rinsing very well... Run it under water for a few minutes? That good enough?

Run it under water until you can't smell the bleach anymore, and that should be fine.


And the rule of thumb for the bleach to water concentrate is usually 10% or less... Basically if you make the solution and you can still smell the bleach strongly, that is a sign you need to dilute.

I use bleach/water for plastic stuff. For our old terracotta hides I didn't though as untreated terracotta is very porous stuff and I just never felt comfortable that I was getting all the bleach out. Since switching to all plastic or heavy rubber hides I'm much happier as they are so much easier to keep clean and sanitize properly (and poop doesn't stick to them like it did the terracotta...blech!)

Bleach is a snake mans best friend. After rinsing I like to let things air dry for about a dry.

As stated earlier, you generally want no stronger than a 10% bleach solution, so 1 part bleach, 9 parts water. You want 10 minutes of wet contact time with the surface you are disinfecting, then rinse thoroughly.


If you don't feel comfortable with bleach, you can use any household disinfectant that contains quaternaries (amonium chloride). Look at the ingredients: you are looking for something to the effect of "dimethyl benzyl amonium chloride" or something to that effect. Usually disinfectants will list two different ammonium chloride componds, this is called a dual quaternary disinfectant. Just follow the directions on the label for the proper dilution to disinfect, rather than sanitize, and again, maintain a 10 minute wet contact time before rinsing.

How often should you clean tubs, hides, and dishes with bleach?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Larry Suttles

Bleach is a snake mans best friend. After rinsing I like to let things air dry for about a dry.

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How long is "about a dry"? ;)