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What do you guys use to clean??

legitimatehypnotist

legitimatehypnotist

New member
So I've been having this problem only recently...
I usually clean my snakes tanks every week, spot clean every few days and deep, fully clean and soak everything once a month. This month I've encountered a new problem: STINK.
I use regular antibacterial dish soap followed by a white vinegar/water solution for the plants and decorations, then for the tank, I soak in a bleach/water solution for about an hour, followed by a cleaning with vinegar/water solution and thorough rinsing.
But this is apparently not enough. Today, I walked into my room, and it smelled so bad that I thought my yearling regurgitated. After searching the tank, I found nothing. I searched again, underneath everything, sure I'd find something dreadful, and nothing. I fed her 48 hours ago, so no poop yet. I literally cleaned those tanks four days ago.

So what gives? What do you guys use to deodorize that's also safe for the snakes?? And does it also kill bacteria?
There is a wood branch in the tank, it's porous, so could that be the culprit? What should I soak it in? And she uses cardboard hides, but none of the hides smell bad.
I don't get it. My snakes usually smell pretty pleasant, actually. Never this bad. Any tips?
 
There's a company that makes a reptile-safe sanitizer and deodorizer. Unfortunately, I can't quite remember the name of it at the moment. I'll search around for a bit and see if I can remember/find it for you.
 
Do you think Healthy Habitat smells good, though? I like that lime-scented one. JurassiClean.

With a smell that bad, and how much you clean, something is wrong. It would take a major event for me to take down a viv and soak it, and mine don't smell at all.

Is it the _aspen_ that smells? It doesn't smell good to me in the first place, and _can_ smell regurgish. I have one viv that I did the same thing you did- smelled the regurge smell, went over the viv with a fine-toothed comb, didn't find anything, threw out the aspen, put in new aspen, and it still smells!! And it's pretty much just that one.

Anyway- I soak hatchling bins in hot water to get the tar poop off, then soak in ammonia 25%, then rinse. When an adult moves out, I soak/scrub with 10% bleach, then rinse. You can soak hides and silk or plastic plants in either solution, but 20 minutes is long enough. Ammonia will eat the paint off hides. I spot clean with a reptile spray such as Healthy Habitat or JurassiClean. I clean permanent marker off the fronts of hatchling bins with alcohol wipes.

I clean the weighing scales with Clorox Green Works wipes, but I dry it off before the next snake. I also clean counters, faucets, freezer door handle, etc. with these after feeding.

I clean water bowls with chlorhexadine soap and soak the scrubber in bleach in between bowls. I don't use the scrubber on bowls of snakes in iso, or if the bowl has been pooped in.
 
I use Chlorhexidine solution for everything. Water bowls, tubs, deli cups, scales.....everything. It's safe to use and and it doesn't have much of an odor. At work we use a 1:10 Simple Green to water solution to clean our plastic and stuff. It works great, but I like Chlorhexidine as it's easy to use and can be used on just about everything.
 
Nanci said:
Do you think Healthy Habitat smells good, though? I like that lime-scented one. JurassiClean.
Click to expand...

I think the Healthy Habitat smells great. Then again, I've never tried the JurassiClean. Maybe I'll have to pick some up the next time I see it. I do love citrus scents.
 
I use Nolvasan solution (also known as Chlorhexidene diacetate disinfectant) to clean out the viv, tanks, water bowls and hides. Works great for me. About three ounces per gallon or so.
 
Last edited:
Carinata said:
At work we use a 1:10 Simple Green to water solution to clean our plastic and stuff. It works great, but I like Chlorhexidine as it's easy to use and can be used on just about everything.
Click to expand...

Simple Green is a degreaser which is what makes it a great cleaner however it is not a disinfectant. So I wouldn't use it as your only form of cleaning things that you might be sharing with other snakes.
 
cmalchow said:
Simple Green is a degreaser which is what makes it a great cleaner however it is not a disinfectant. So I wouldn't use it as your only form of cleaning things that you might be sharing with other snakes.
Click to expand...

It's not. We use a variety of other cleaners depending on the situation.
 
Nanci said:
Do you think Healthy Habitat smells good, though? I like that lime-scented one. JurassiClean.

With a smell that bad, and how much you clean, something is wrong. It would take a major event for me to take down a viv and soak it, and mine don't smell at all.

Is it the _aspen_ that smells? It doesn't smell good to me in the first place, and _can_ smell regurgish. I have one viv that I did the same thing you did- smelled the regurge smell, went over the viv with a fine-toothed comb, didn't find anything, threw out the aspen, put in new aspen, and it still smells!! And it's pretty much just that one.

Anyway- I soak hatchling bins in hot water to get the tar poop off, then soak in ammonia 25%, then rinse. When an adult moves out, I soak/scrub with 10% bleach, then rinse. You can soak hides and silk or plastic plants in either solution, but 20 minutes is long enough. Ammonia will eat the paint off hides. I spot clean with a reptile spray such as Healthy Habitat or JurassiClean. I clean permanent marker off the fronts of hatchling bins with alcohol wipes.

I clean the weighing scales with Clorox Green Works wipes, but I dry it off before the next snake. I also clean counters, faucets, freezer door handle, etc. with these after feeding.

I clean water bowls with chlorhexadine soap and soak the scrubber in bleach in between bowls. I don't use the scrubber on bowls of snakes in iso, or if the bowl has been pooped in.
Click to expand...

It's entirely possible that it's the aspen, but I smelled it up close and although it doesn't smell all that great on it's own, it didn't smell like that horrible smell lol. It's only the one tank. I don't get it. I changed the aspen anyway.
I woke up this morning, though, and it seems the smell has dissipated. I still want to get a semi-pleasant smelling cleaner, though, to avoid the problem from coming back. That was really horrible. I smelled it and thought for sure I'd find a regurge. She never ever smells that bad, she's usually my most pleasantly scented snake (with the exception of that first big turd she likes top leave on top of her hide a few days after eating.)
And I'll definitely grab some Chlorhexadine, too. Thanks so much guys. I have no idea what caused this, but at least I know how to prevent it from happening again in the future and what products are safest to use.
YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!
 
Oh, and the only reason I soak it, is because there's this weird rubber line on the bottom of the tank, I just get paranoid about things soaking into it and staining or building up and causing a sanitation problem, so I usually just out about 3-4 inches of water/bleach solution in it and let it sit for a bit.
No major event, just concern about the tank's porous rubber sealer.
 
Does anyone else just use dish detergent for cleaning? It seems to work for me and I think we clean our dishes with it and eat off it so it is probably pretty safe for cleaning snake cages.
 
I use a chlorhexidine solution to clean as well. The one I use smells faintly minty, and I like it.

Also, Reptile Basics is awesome!
 
willderphil said:
Does anyone else just use dish detergent for cleaning? It seems to work for me and I think we clean our dishes with it and eat off it so it is probably pretty safe for cleaning snake cages.
Click to expand...

I do. I use anti bacterial dish soap to clean everything in my tanks for both beardies and snakes. I just make sure to rinse it well. It always smells good and I never have problems with smells afterwards. For just spot cleans I use JurassiClean spray on a paper towel.
 
what brand of bedding do you use? i changed to a compact aspen and it smelled a little off when i first got it. and my colubrid urates smell pretty bad when they mix with it if its a wet poo.

the kind i got is like a petco store brand. smells like playdough when you first put it in. then a little bit like baby vomit when it gets pooed on. so you have to clean it a little more promptly.
 
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