"Cleaning"

[kiltheduck]

I'm in research mode before putting a lot of effort and money into building my own custom enclosure. I've never owned a chameleon before. When I hear of designing an enclosure to make it easier to clean, I'm intrigued. Can someone give me a quick rundown of exactly what needs to be cleaned? I'm figuring droppings and dead leaves/crickets. What else? Am I missing something?

 

[Thompson]

I clean the whole cage as well as wiping down the plant, picking up poop, and dead things at least once a month. Dirt can get stuck in some small cracks in the cage so I make sure I get that up.

 

[coldsweat97527]

I clean my cage twice a month. once i just change the papretowells off the bottom due to poo and dead stuff then the second time in the month i take everything outside (except the lizard) and hose it off then dry it all up and put it all back togather for em usualy havin the lizard kickin it on a plant in the sun where i can keep an eye on em
hope it helps

 

[jojackson]

Indeed the entire cage, atleast a weekly cleanout. Bacteria of various kinds colonize all areas and all enviroments, especially substrates, furnitings and water sources (dripper resevoirs etc). Food insects and your lizard defecate and dead insects (or half chewed ones your lizard drops) decay.
While nature isnt spotless, neither is it static and unchanging. Wild lizards and bugs 'move on' and dont remain near sources of harmful bacteria for long, and ofcourse Sunlight (UV) degrades waste, sterilises and the elements breakdown these things, not so in your enclosure.

Most folk aim for attractive and naturalistic cage design with live plants, which generally keeps chams happy, but at the same time, put it together with a little forthought to removal of said plants, furnitings etc, so that it dosen't take 3 hrs to properly clean up.

Tips: Try to avoid the permant installation of branches vines etc by screwing, nailing, gluing in place, rather use an easily removable method such as branch end supports, hidden plastic ties etc.

Excepting some species, most chams dont require substrate at all, eliminating on place for bacteria. For those that do, spotclean more often and change all the substrate regularly, unless using natural (biological cleaning) methods such as the inclusion of springtails and other bio organisms.

For general surfaces, a jolly good old fashioned scrubbing with hot soapy water, a dash of disinfectrion agent and good rinse and sun dry work well indeed to keep background bacteria levels quite low, and thus, lessen risk of disease.

For water dripper/mister resevoirs, A good cleaning weekly, Daily for small systems, to remove colonising anaerobic bacteria and algae etc from the resevoir itself and associate delevery apparatus (tubibg, nozzels) etc.

Never leave traces of chemicals of any kind on your lizards enviroment, Always rinse and rinse again.

 

[kiltheduck]

Wow. That was exactly the type of information I was looking for. I have a small green thumb and I was really wanting to make a nice "live" terrarium with a full soil substrate and permanent live plants. I'm very interested in what you said about "springtails and other bio organisms". How complicated is this idea? I was planning to build a pretty big enclosure . . . maybe 24"D x 48"W x 60"H. I haven't even begun the process yet because I know that it's going to take a lot of planning and time and money so I want to make sure I know what I'm going for before I begin. I'm pretty anal retentive, so if I can find a good plan, I can make it happen. Am I being naive?

 

[chameleon884]

clean it out at least once a week. while we clean in we usually take him outside, but i take everything out clean it with hot water. so it kills any germs or bacteria, and put paper towels at the bottom and replace them weekly.

 

[sticky2010]

I lure my lizard out with a superworm and place him on my 6 foot ficus thats on my balcony, let him sit there for a few hrs while I clean everything out. Bout once every 2 weeks.
I clean out the poop, replace the bottom with new paper, clean the plants, and swap my Hibiscus. I ahve 2 of those , one stays outside other one in cage for optimal growth.