Cleaning and housing multiple cham questions

[jamest0o0]

I have a few questions, would appreciate any feedback!

1) i bought some 2% chlorhexidine solution and 12% hydrogen peroxide. For cleaning with these what would you guys recommend diluting them to? (Separately, not using them combined). Right now i have just been spot cleaning with 6% vinegar undiluted, a deep cleaning of my cage is probably past due.
I see people talking about steamers, do they sanitize well, would it be worth picking one up?

2) how do you guys clean large plants of pesticides? i was thinking of spraying soap or vinegar all over and then just running under the shower).
Every time i clean plants in general they seem to die off a lot and have a hard time recovering. I have some nice pothos that are large enough for what i want to use them for, but they need repotted and cleaned. I always wash the plants, rinse off roots, repot, but most of the leaves end up dying, any idea what i'm doing wrong? I try to keep the roots intact as best as possible. A lot of my plants are from home depot so i worry about chemicals they add.

3) the main reason i am asking most of this is because i'd really like to get another cham (or 10....) and i want to make sure i sanitize everything correctly. I was reading about quarantine and i have 1 issue, due to having cats i can't really keep a new cham anywhere else in the house. I have one room pretty much dedicated to my cham and any future pets. Would it be a problem to have a new cham kept in the same room. I'd like to have them all on free ranges with some sort of divider to keep them from seeing each other.

 

[Andee]

2) this is the question I can answer for sure, for anything treated with pesticides as long as it's not directly in the plant, you only need to wash the leaves and rinse them (either soap or vinegar will work). Don't rinse the roots, that is what you are doing wrong. It disturbs them too much and upsets the plants. Even the hardiest plant would be hurt by that. Just knock off a decent amount of old soil and repot them.

 

[ChamLB]

You can just wash the leaves and replace the top couple of inches of soil. You just don't want you chameleon to directly contact fertilizer or pesticide. Cover the new organic soil with rocks and/or window screen. If you think you plant will get a lot of water from the mister replace the bottom inch of soil with aquarium sized gravel for drainage.

 

[jamest0o0]

See i was just worried because the plants had those little blue balls from the soil, all through the roots. So i rinsed them out.

I was going to just plant them right into the ground so there would be access to the soil. I'm working on a bioactive substrate for my cham. Any type of rocks, sticks, or anything dangerous that could be swallowed will be removed. I don't know if this makes any difference in cleaning the roots. I guess it'll all still eventually drain out, but i didn't want any possible pesticides to kill any of the critters in the soil. maybe i'm just over thinking!

Thanks for responses

 

[Andee]

The blue perilite stuff? That is just fertilizer and trust me fertilizer isn't actually a problem. The plants don't really suck into their leaves or anything ^^. As long as your chameleons can't actually eat it themselves it should be fine ^^

 

[jamest0o0]

Thanks for the reassurance! Yeah they're like tiny blue balls. I think they pop if you squeeze them.