"This is not a toilet!" Water dish inquiry.

[EarthlyMaiden]

I've been lucky enough to never have to deal with a snake dumping in their water dish up until this point.

Today, though, the water was brown, and so I immediately cleaned the place and swapped out with an, ehm, not crappy water dish. As for Steve, he's doing fine...eating fine, defecating fine and being his usual alert, semi-dopey self.

So, what do you guys use to disinfect your water dishes? I've already run it under hot water to get it superficially clean, and I've heard that vinegar does a good, non-toxic job of disinfecting snake accessories. If so, we've got plenty of that around because you would not believe how many uses it already has, but I wanted to get a second opinion before I pickled the water dish.

[NH93]

I prefer vinegar (and hot water)!

You can also use a touch of bleach mixed with hot, hot water. Just for fun I also like to do a wash with soap after as well... more to get rid of any left vinegar/bleach residue. Even if I've rinsed it very very well.

[bcr229]

I replace the soiled dish with a clean run, and run the soiled one through the dishwasher on the sanitizer setting after dumping the contents down the toilet.

[vangarret2000]

Just dish soap and hot water.

[Mr. Misha]

I use Healthy Habitat spray by Natural Chemistry because I'm a little paranoid about accidentally not washing out all the bleach. HH is pet safe and smells pretty good to boot.

[belialsson]

I use chlorhexdine diluted. It's not as hard on the snakes lung as bleach and vinegar can be if not rinsed properly

[AlexisFitzy]

I just wash them like I do any other dish with a scrubby sponge and some dish soap and hot water. I've yet to have a snake go to the bathroom in their water bowl though.

[Sonny1318]

I use Dawn dish soap and Clorox cleaner with bleach, and rinse in super hot water thoroughly. I've been doing for as long as I can remember. Never had a problem.