Chams cage reeks!!!

I keep all my chameleons in bare bottom glass tanks.
I remove all feceas when spotted, and use a piece of paper sprayed gently with 96% alcohol to clean the bottom once a week. After wiping with alcohol I always go over with a paper sprayed with water.
It has worked for me in 10 years with great sucess.
 
A plant with root rot will smell terrible. Especially when it's wet. The smell could be from the live plant(s).
 
lumbasammler said:
If you americans would simply use some substrate with useful little things like Trichorhina tomentosa and aspringtails in it, you would never need to clean the cage (and i seariously mean NEVER!) and would not have such unnecessary problems ;)
I would never give my chameleon the stress of cleaning the cage daily or every other day.
The only thing i need to do is collect the poo i can see without searching too much.
Life could be so easy ;)
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sorry but I would never want to take the chance of my cham eating the substrate by accident (and it does happen, just happened the other day as a matter of fact to a member) also, the only thing LIVE I want in my cage is my cham! No bugs crawling around the bottom for me! Sorry! To each his own!;) As far as the poop, your cham poops, you clean it up immediately. It is that simple! I do agree with the other member on the root rot. It does smell horrible.
 
carol5208 said:
sorry but I would never want to take the chance of my cham eating the substrate by accident (and it does happen, just happened the other day as a matter of fact to a member) also, the only thing LIVE I want in my cage is my cham! No bugs crawling around the bottom for me! Sorry! To each his own!;) As far as the poop, your cham poops, you clean it up immediately. It is that simple! I do agree with the other member on the root rot. It does smell horrible.
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Exactly, I would rather air on the side of caution when it comes to my chams and be able to SEE what is going on in his terrarium daily rather than just scoop up poo and then walk away. Diligence in keeping chams > lack of work.
 
As has been suggested, your smell most likely comes from plants. Make sure your plants have good drainage and do not sit directly on the bottom of the cage. If the do the water has trouble getting out of the plant, and they reek. I take a 3" pvc pipe and cot 1" slices that keep my plants off the floor. I also have a layer if about 1" of rock in the bottom of my plants it ensure the water can drain. Since the mistking waters them a lot, if the water can escape properly the plants grow really well. And they don't stink!!:)
 
sorry but I would never want to take the chance of my cham eating the substrate by accident (and it does happen, just happened the other day as a matter of fact to a member) also, the only thing LIVE I want in my cage is my cham! No bugs crawling around the bottom for me! Sorry! To each his own! As far as the poop, your cham poops, you clean it up immediately. It is that simple! I do agree with the other member on the root rot. It does smell horrible.
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If you use the substrate i recommended it will do no harm even if eaten by the cham.
A lot of people around here use this, some for many years already, and there have never been problems. Also you won´t see or sense anything of the bugs as they are only active at night, sleep in the soil at night and never leave the cage.
I have never seen even one of them crawling around.
 
lumbasammler said:
If you use the substrate i recommended it will do no harm even if eaten by the cham.
A lot of people around here use this, some for many years already, and there have never been problems. Also you won´t see or sense anything of the bugs as they are only active at night, sleep in the soil at night and never leave the cage.
I have never seen even one of them crawling around.
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I understand what you are saying, but just the thought of them crawling around in the cage would creep me out! That is just me! I can handle some of the insects to feed but just don't want them living in the cage!! lol!
 
Well, guess that´s understandable, i didn´t like the thought in the beginning either but forgot it pretty fast as you really won´t notice them at all.
 
lumbasammler said:
If you use the substrate i recommended it will do no harm even if eaten by the cham.
A lot of people around here use this, some for many years already, and there have never been problems. Also you won´t see or sense anything of the bugs as they are only active at night, sleep in the soil at night and never leave the cage.
I have never seen even one of them crawling around.
Click to expand...

Can you tell me what is in your substrate? I use the kind of bugs you talk about in the terrarium with my williamsi gecko's, but have never used substrate with chameleons. Do you use a misting system and if so how do you keep the substrate from getting soaked? i am always open to new ideas.
 
laurie said:
As has been suggested, your smell most likely comes from plants. Make sure your plants have good drainage and do not sit directly on the bottom of the cage. If the do the water has trouble getting out of the plant, and they reek. I take a 3" pvc pipe and cot 1" slices that keep my plants off the floor. I also have a layer if about 1" of rock in the bottom of my plants it ensure the water can drain. Since the mistking waters them a lot, if the water can escape properly the plants grow really well. And they don't stink!!:)
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I agree, this is most likely the problem. Re-pot the plants to get rid of molds and fungus in the old wet soil (or it will just start growing again), fix the drainage, keep pot saucers emptied, and I bet your cage will smell a lot less!

BTW, don't burn scented candles, aromatherapy candles or oils in the room with your chams. Air freshener sprays too. Be careful with those ozone-producing air filters. All of these can irritate or damage a bird's respiratory tract and I treat my chams pretty much like featherless birds.
 
I use a 1:1:1:1 mixture of undunged (is this the right word?) potting soil, sand which is used for sandboxes for children, wood peat, and soil from a broad-leaved forest.
I can´t tell if the last ingredient can be recommended for you guys in america as i don´t know if there may be anything harmfull living in the soil, in germany it works very well due to the lots of micro- and macroorganisms in there which also help a lot with keeping the cage clean. Maybe someone wants to try it, that´s the only way to know it.
I do not use a misting system at the moment but i know a lot of people who do. However, we in europe do not turn it on as often and as long as you guys as we don´t need it because the substrate will help to keep the humidity up a lot.
I´d say the normal misting time around here is about 30 secs 1-2 times per day but you´ll need to try for yourself how much misting you need.
 
Yes I would need to alter my misting schedule a lot. Currently it is 4 times a day, and 5 minutes each time. I have montanes so I like a lot of misting. Still it is something to think about. Maybe with a panther who does not need as much water. I could just take him off the system and hand water him.
 
I currently keep a juvenile parsons, which needs a looot of water, and it´s still enough to hand-spray 1-2 times a day and i only spray for 15-20 secs. I simply hand-water him so there´s no problem with that. On the other hand his cage is not very big at the moment (65x65x65 cm) i´ll need more spraying for his new cage which i almost finished today.
It´s 80x80x140 cm. I´ll also use a misting system for the new cage.
For security if there´s any accident with the system, i simply bought a water-tap and use it to get rid of potential waste-water. Normally you don´t need one but safe is safe you know ;)
Picture:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/822/wanneauen.jpg/
 
lumbasammler said:
I use a 1:1:1:1 mixture of undunged (is this the right word?) potting soil, sand which is used for sandboxes for children, wood peat, and soil from a broad-leaved forest.
I can´t tell if the last ingredient can be recommended for you guys in america as i don´t know if there may be anything harmfull living in the soil, in germany it works very well due to the lots of micro- and macroorganisms in there which also help a lot with keeping the cage clean. Maybe someone wants to try it, that´s the only way to know it.
I do not use a misting system at the moment but i know a lot of people who do. However, we in europe do not turn it on as often and as long as you guys as we don´t need it because the substrate will help to keep the humidity up a lot.
I´d say the normal misting time around here is about 30 secs 1-2 times per day but you´ll need to try for yourself how much misting you need.
Click to expand...
Hey, ich bin aus Deutschland. Ich habe dort nicht für eine sehr lange Zeit, aber ich war dort geboren und lebte bis ich 12 war. Wir können nicht die breite Blatt Waldboden hier, weil die Organismen gefährlich Chamäleons sind.
 
Use lemon juice and/or peroxide as a cleaner.

Clean it out more often.

That's about it....

If the driftwood is heavily stained with poop residue, it will stink forever unless you soak it in hot water and soap in the bath or something.
 
Hey, ich bin aus Deutschland. Ich habe dort nicht für eine sehr lange Zeit, aber ich war dort geboren und lebte bis ich 12 war. Wir können nicht die breite Blatt Waldboden hier, weil die Organismen gefährlich Chamäleons sind.
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Na man merkt, dass du nicht mehr regelmäßig deutsch sprichst, aber ich kann dich verstehen ;)
btw. for all the non-germans: he wrote that you guys in america can´t use the soil from forests due to harmfull organisms in there.
That´s really unfortunate as it really helps us guys over here.
You may try to simply get more woodlouses and springtails in the substrate so there are enough to do the dirty work ;)
Maybe somebody wants to try this?
The most important thing about it is to let the soil dry out at least once a day.
Due to the substrate there´s normally no need to spray more often than 2-3 times a day for a period of 15-20secs. In know this must feel like someone tries to tell you to only mist once per week, but maybe there´s still someone who wants to try this.
Its also important to have a layer of swelling clay underneath the actual substrate to collect potential wate water and to always provide water to the roots of the plants.
Simply seperate the swelling clay and the substrate with 1-2 layers of fine mesh so there´s no dirt with the swelling clay.
 
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