Should I take my chameleon out when I clean?

Does your chameleons poop hit the leaves? Does he eat it the leaves? Chameleons are known to have parasites which aren’t harmful unless out of control and without doing a fecal test no way to know if yours has them or not. So I like to spray things down with a mix of alcohol and water which is completely safe to do while taking my chameleon out of the cage maybe once a month usually a little longer. Don’t see any harm in that one bit. Either way you are stressing them out by coming into there cage to clean or by taking them out. As long as it’s not prolonged stress.
I feel like you are taking offense to my feedback to the OP. I was not responding to your feedback to them. I was saying what I do.

You can get fecal tests to ensure you are not dealing with a parasite issue. The thing about parasites is unless your medicating for it they will not leave the system and continue to flourish effecting the cham's health. So spraying off the leaves does nothing in the end because your not dealing with the base issue of there being an infection that needs to be treated. If you have a parasite issue then of course cleaning the plants during treatment is imperative because you want to reduce the risk of reinfection via ingestion of the oocysts.

Different parasites require different cleaning. For example pinworm oocycts are much easier to deal with and clean for. But something like coccidia requires an entire tear down and cleaning with 40 volume liquid peroxide and throwing out everything porous. The oocysts for this one are extremely hard to kill off and can live for over 2 years on surfaces. So spraying leaves with the combo your talking about would not kill it off.

I get regular fecal tests on my chameleon. So for me going to an extreme and using alcohol in his cage is not something I am willing to do being he actively eats every plant in there. I am not willing to chance anything when it comes to his environment. And since I get regular fecal tests I do not have to stress a parasite issue.

I have been in this hobby for almost 5 years. I have dealt with parasites and have learned that everyone has their way of doing things... You have your way and I have mine. Nothing wrong with either, we just keep them differently when it comes to cleaning. I try to mimic what they would be exposed to in the wild. So only water.
 
Does your chameleons poop hit the leaves? Does he eat it the leaves? Chameleons are known to have parasites which aren’t harmful unless out of control and without doing a fecal test no way to know if yours has them or not. So I like to spray things down with a mix of alcohol and water which is completely safe to do while taking my chameleon out of the cage maybe once a month usually a little longer. Don’t see any harm in that one bit. Either way you are stressing them out by coming into there cage to clean or by taking them out. As long as it’s not prolonged stress.
Thanks you! How would you recommend I run a fecal test?
 
I feel like you are taking offense to my feedback to the OP. I was not responding to your feedback to them. I was saying what I do.

You can get fecal tests to ensure you are not dealing with a parasite issue. The thing about parasites is unless your medicating for it they will not leave the system and continue to flourish effecting the cham's health. So spraying off the leaves does nothing in the end because your not dealing with the base issue of there being an infection that needs to be treated. If you have a parasite issue then of course cleaning the plants during treatment is imperative because you want to reduce the risk of reinfection via ingestion of the oocysts.

Different parasites require different cleaning. For example pinworm oocycts are much easier to deal with and clean for. But something like coccidia requires an entire tear down and cleaning with 40 volume liquid peroxide and throwing out everything porous. The oocysts for this one are extremely hard to kill off and can live for over 2 years on surfaces. So spraying leaves with the combo your talking about would not kill it off.

I get regular fecal tests on my chameleon. So for me going to an extreme and using alcohol in his cage is not something I am willing to do being he actively eats every plant in there. I am not willing to chance anything when it comes to his environment. And since I get regular fecal tests I do not have to stress a parasite issue.

I have been in this hobby for almost 5 years. I have dealt with parasites and have learned that everyone has their way of doing things... You have your way and I have mine. Nothing wrong with either, we just keep them differently when it comes to cleaning. I try to mimic what they would be exposed to in the wild. So only water.
yeah it was directed at my post.. the OPs question was should they take the chameleon out to clean. Nothing about deep cleaning. And that’s what you started with.. I was asking serious questions. Can spot clean but there will still be fecal on the leaves. What about the poop and urate you can’t see? Taking the chameleon out or leaving them in while your cleaning is going to stress them out… rather take them out so I can clean properly without worrying about them…
 
yeah it was directed at my post.. the OPs question was should they take the chameleon out to clean. Nothing about deep cleaning. And that’s what you started with.. I was asking serious questions. Can spot clean but there will still be fecal on the leaves. What about the poop and urate you can’t see? Taking the chameleon out or leaving them in while your cleaning is going to stress them out… rather take them out so I can clean properly without worrying about them…
Again I was not responding to you. I was responding to the OP. I did not reply to your comment, had I been talking about you I would have responded directly to you. And again.... Everyone has their way of doing it. You can do your way. I was not commenting on it. I was saying what I do with my cham and I was saying it to the OP.

Now should you want to talk further about this you are more than welcome to message me. But arguing in a New Members thread is not appropriate and is not tolerated within the forum. The only thing this does is intimidate new members from asking questions.

@JacksJill @Brad @Decadancin have been tagged here as they are forum moderators as well. If they feel I was inappropriate in my response they will moderate me as well.
 
Again I was not responding to you. I was responding to the OP. I did not reply to your comment, had I been talking about you I would have responded directly to you. And again.... Everyone has their way of doing it. You can do your way. I was not commenting on it. I was saying what I do with my cham and I was saying it to the OP.

Now should you want to talk further about this you are more than welcome to message me. But arguing in a New Members thread is not appropriate and is not tolerated within the forum. The only thing this does is intimidate new members from asking questions.

@JacksJill @Brad @Decadancin have been tagged here as they are forum moderators as well. If they feel I was inappropriate in my response they will moderate me as well.
I’m not arguing with you. Just tell it how I see it. As you can see the OP thanked me and asked for further assistance :)
 
🤔 Having bioactive enclosures, I don’t do any real cleaning at all. That’s what my clean up crew is for. However, I never did a ‘deep cleaning’ when I had bare floor enclosures. Every few days or when I saw it was needed, I’d just wipe away the soiling with water and paper towel. It didn’t disturb my cham much if at all. I try to keep as few chemicals near my chameleons as possible and especially on surfaces they may lick or drink from. Imo poop on leaves is not much of a problem because of gravity. My chams spend almost no time in the lower levels where the poop might have struck a leaf. Whatever poo residue there may have been is usually washed away by a good misting. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that nature is not sterile and that’s ok. :)
 
I’m not arguing with you. Just tell it how I see it. As you can see the OP thanked me and asked for further assistance :)
Perfect we have sorted this out privately as to not derail this thread. Thank you for giving your feedback to the OP. This is how the forum is successful. Many voices and many opinions. I for one value every single one and am very thankful when people are active and help out our new members.
 
I also want to say when I stated that I have a free roam area for deep cleans, that’s not really why I made the area, I did do a deep clean because I wanted to rearrange things so I figured why not clean a little more while I’m in here. I used to come on here wanting a specific answer in black and white and it is just not
Here are my thoughts on spot or daily cleaning. blogs/cage-cleaning-sanitation-part-1 There are more blog posts on deeper cleaning methods.
In short, I don't take mine out to spot clean if i'm cleaning with something mild.
thank you for this!
 
I also want to say when I stated that I have a free roam area for deep cleans, that’s not really why I made the area, I did do a deep clean because I wanted to rearrange things so I figured why not clean a little more while I’m in here. I used to come on here wanting a specific answer in black and white and it is just not

thank you for this!
I see I posted something I didn’t mean to again 😆
 
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