Cleaning of the cage

[jotay]

I wanted to get some info on how and when to clean Ozzy's cage.
It's a 20 gal tank with fir bark, and some plastic plants and vines along with a bark hide and a clay hide and his fav a plastic take out bowl from my fav Chinese resturant which he stays in a lot.
Just wanted to know what to use and how often.
Ozzy has yet to soil his tank. I fed him a large pinkie on Friday and another one last night. ( I will be going to the store tomorrow to buy adult mice to feed him as several people have told me he can eat these easy) he is about 20-22"
Thanks again.

[steelsack]

I clean once a week or as otherwise needed. Use your nose! Lean in and smell..........good? or like socks? Humidity causes dampness, which causes odors to run free.......
Mine took a dump one night last week, and even though I had just cleaned it the day before, the smell wouldn't go away so I had to clean the whole thing again......
I use a very weak bleach solution and then rinse over and over and over again. They have ultra mega smell sense (as I'm sure you know :wink: ) and I feel it's important to really get the bleach back outta there after cleaning.
The bark I'm assuming you just pitch whatever is soiled and add new as needed. I use astroturf, which I wash and then dry. I made two pieces so I can dry one and use the other.

[Tigergenesis]

I use Lizard Liner (green felt like carpet) for substrate - so that part of my cleaning wouldn't apply to your bark. I would imagine you would spot clean the substrate daily and change out completely on a regular (say monthly or bi-monthly basis?) - or at least when it smells bad! LOL

Every week I clean (hot soapy water) the water dish and any deco that came in contact with any urates/feces on it (keep in mind I spot clean this daily) and then disinfect (Nolvasan/Virosan). Once a month I remove everything and clean and disinfect each item. I also clean and disinfect the tank. So far my snakes take a dump pretty regularly (a few days after eating) so I wait to do any cleaning until then.

My Aragorn is about the same length as your snake. He gets adult mice (he usually takes 2) every 7 days. You should definelty try an adult mouse once a week - more if he'll take it.

[BallKingdom]

Just soak everything for an hour in a 1:10 bleach solution.