cleaning and bacteria

[Inland Geckos]

are leos super sensitive to illness? i hate having to disinfect my tanks for fear of the chemical or vapor that can pose a health threat. i keep my tanks clean on a daily bases but shouldnt they have a natural immune system to keep them from getting sick? is the 3 month rule really necissary to disinfect? has anyone ever had a leo get sick from not disinfecting often? i mean you hear stories about people who use anti-bacterial soap and claims that it weakens your natural immunities. as long as you get their poop cleaned up and change the substrate, clean their bowls with soap, i really dont see what all the fuss is about. what are some of your opinions on this?

 

[Gecko Ranch]

Another challenge to remember what I wrote! It went something like:

I love saving people money! Over the years I have checked with UC Davis Veterinary Teaching Hospital on this subject. Obviously a clean environment is critical to the health of any animal, including reptiles. For many years I sold Quatricide PV (Quarternary ammonia) as a reptile specific product that cost a crazy $ per oz. I figured out some years back that you can buy this SAME product, with the active ingredient Quatricide, from a chain store called Smart and Final in the cleaning product section. Smart and Final sells Quatricide as "Lemon Clean." Check the label. It costs about $6.99 for two gallons - you mix it two oz to one gallon of water. UCD has told me this is a great cleaner as an everyday alternative to the other great combo, 10% bleach to water solution.

Quatricide is really great as you spray it to clean, it evaporates quickly and you can put your geckos right back in the set-up. For deep cleaning or changing geckos in a set-up I do the bleach/water routine.

You do need to clean your leopard gecko set-up on a regular basis to eliminate bacterial and other types of contaminations. You have to think of reptiles as repositories for bacteria and parasites. Yes, they all have some and this is a natural condition. When the gecko experiences some kind of stress their bacteria and parasites can increase their foothold on the gecko and presto, you have a sick gecko. You can help them stay healthy by staying on top of their terrarium conditions.

Hope that answers your question, if not please let me know!

 

[Inland Geckos]

well if you have to dillute it that means it can still be harmful right? i usually have used the 10-1 ratio for bleach but i learned about one thing i didnt like. before i used to have a few rock magnet hides yet when i cleaned them i realized that the place they have the magnets is not water tight, or maybe the chemical helped eat through the sealent. because of this it allows the chemical to get inside and cannot fully be rinsed. when i shook the hide i could hear a small amout of fluid so it posed a vapor threat in my opinion. i didnt want to risk it so i threw it away. mainly i started this thread to see if there is a non toxic or harmful solution or if it is indeed necissary to disinfect, even when you practice good husbandry? its a iffy thing but has anyone had any heath issues from not doing this? i dont leave poo in there or anything and its always wiped down.

 

[Gecko Ranch]

Quatricide is a great choice for "wiping down" if that is what you mean. Bleach and water solution is not going to be able to clean some types of terrarium items without damaging them, neither is anything else. If you can't clean it then throw it away. You are best only using completely sterilizable items such as things made of ABS plastic, or one use items like paper towel rolls than can be simply thrown away.

The fuss is definitely about things that are present in reptiles, that is, bacteria, such as salmonella (see another thread) and various types of parasites that normally exist in reptiles. These are shed onto the surface of the terrarium, terrarium "furniture" and substrate. You don't need to use bleaching techniques on a day to day basis to deal with this, however, you do need to periodically clean with an accepted solution such as Quatricide or a reptile specific product that is stronger than soap. Such reptile specific products are readily available, and other cheaper alternatives such as Quatricide such as I have discussed are available very inexpensively. Plain soap cannot kill all the stuff these products kill, not by a longshot. Check the research.

As the owner of a large collection of geckos do I wash my hands with anti-bacterial soap? The answer is yes, and that can be many times daily. I got a SimpleHuman infrared motion-activated soap dispenser for Christmas and that eliminates an area of cross-contamination, the soap dispenser itself. They are about $40 I believe. I also use nitrile gloves which I change between cleaning different set-ups.

Hope this info helps!

 

[acpart]

I clean out the poo every day. I "sweep up" the bits and pieces of stuff that gets dropped in the tank --calcium, cricket droppings, old shed. Occasionally, and in all honesty not too often I break down the whole tank and clean by washing with water, then spraying with hydrogen peroxide, rinsing and spraying with vinegar. So far everyone is healthy and parasite-overload free to the best of my knowledge.

Aliza

 

[Mel&Keith]

We've really liked Healthy Habitat for regular cleanings. We also have tubs, dishes, and furnishings assigned to each gecko so there's no swapping.
Natural-Chemistry-Healthy-Habitat
It's also available by the gallon.

 

[Gecko Ranch]

I found Quatricide at Healthy Pet:

http://www.healthypetcompany.com/page/892913

$21.95 for a gallon, not quite as good a deal as Lemon Clean at $6.99 for two gallons! There is a great synopsis of what Quatricide kills there.

 

[DAWNoftheLEO]

I've always used chlorohexadine without any problems....

 

[TokayKeeper]

chlorohexadine and roccal is what I've used. I use roccal at work and the vet we use gave us a little chlorohexadine a while back. The chondro community seems to like chlorohexadine diacetate (sold as Nolvasan).

A little mocro-biology story and why I no longer use bleach in dilution...

One of my last labs as an undergraduate was micro-biology lab. One of our labs was an exercise in inoculation of agar with a cocktail of bateria (Staphloccocus aureus being one of them) and then we took various anti-bacterial solutions and antibiotics to test for resistance and zones of inhibition. A zone of inhibition test is done with small sterile paper waffers, usually containing antibiotics or anti-bacterial solutions, placed on the surface of an inoculated agarose gel and the distances of bacteria growth is recorded between the waffers and beginning growth. Growth up to the waffer(s) is a result of resistance to the substance.

Long story short, our anti-bacterial disinfectant tests were done with straight water (control) and 10% soln bleach, 20% soln bleach, 10% soln roccal, and either 70% or 90% isopropyl alcohol (I forget which). the bleach and water disks had NO, NADA, ZIP, ZERO zone of inihibtion - or in other words they were ineffective! The best zone of inhibition was the 10% soln of roccal and this was class-wide. At work we use 1 teaspoon to 24; a stronger % soln than the 10% used in lab.

The words per our TA was bleach is useless unless in a pure concentration. All you're doing with a dilution is promoting the growth of resistant bacteria and moving around dirt.

Almost forgot...roccal-d, the third generation form of roccal, contains quarternary ammonia, as well as tributyltin oxide

 

[malt_geckos]

We use the Healthy Habitat cleaner and it works great! We get it from Radioactive Reptiles at a great price. But, we feel comfortable using it and knowing there will be no fumes or anything that bothers the geckos.

 

[Gecko Ranch]

According to my source at UC Davis Veterinary Teaching Hospital a tag team of bleach (10% minimum) and Quaternary ammonia product is what they use. They do cultures periodically to determine whether or not this is effective and it is. Here's part of her explanation:

Many pseudomonas spp are resistant to MANY different disinfectants, one of the reasons for bleach. Bleach is highly effective against a lot of things, not everything and not always by itself. Quaternary ammonium products get a wide range of gram negatives (including Salmonella), gram positives, fungi and viruses. It is an extremely good all around cleaner. Bleach picks up where it leaves off.

Quarternary ammonium products do not disturb the geckos or put out offensive fumes mixed in application recommended ratios (2% to water). They evaporate quickly, that is the beauty part as an everyday cleaner - spray and wipe. And we know it is effective unlike some of these enzyme-based products folks are using here. I looked up some of them and what are they effective killing? Nothing listed.

 

[DLS Reptile]

peroxide

I use peroxide for my cages for daily cleanings. Peroxide is a natural disinfectant
that works very well. when I pull the soiled newspaper up i simply spray the whole container with peroxide and let sit 2 minutes. Remember this is for daily cleanings. once a month i use Dawn dish soap (also a very powerful disinfectant) with boiling water to soak my cages. Yes i know this is time consuming but it doesn't matter how much you try to rinse the bleach off. Their is still a hint of the smell.. I also boil all of my food and water dishes. I think this is the best way to rid the chemicals from your cages...My geckos have been thriving under these cleaning practices for years...Dave...