CLEANING YOUR ENCLOSURE

I use chlorhexidine to clean my enclosures and accessories.

I clean my enclosures out daily with chlorhexidine. It’s an anti-bacterial / anti-fungal cleaner that is not toxic to bearded dragons or humans. I use it to spot clean my reptile carpet and to spot clean the floors of my enclosures. I also use it to clean poop off of rocks and limbs.

Monthly cleaning of all the items in your dragon’s home with 10% bleach water (1 cup of bleach per gallon of water) is vital to its health. This is because 10% bleach water is necessary to actually kill coccidia. Chlorhexidine, an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal cleaner is great for daily cleaning; either on a spot basis or weekly, “take everything out” type cleaning. Using chlorhexidine regularly will reduce the likelihood of coccidia, but you’ll want the 10% bleach water treatment to absolutely kill any that could still be present.

First, I remove all items from the enclosure to the kitchen sink, spraying each one thoroughly with bleach water and letting them soak for 15 minutes. While everything is soaking I remove all paper towels or reptile carpet to clean the glass or Plexiglas and melanine sides and floor of the enclosure. Then use chlorhexidine to re-clean the enclosure; essentially cleaning away the bleach residue. After the 15 minute soak, rinse all of the items. I rinse each one at least twice and then smell them. If you are still able to smell the bleach, rinse again until no smell of bleach is left. Dry the items before returning them to the enclosure. Make sure all of the bleach is gone and the items are dry. This is important as you’ll find your dragon flicks its tongue out and licks everything all the time. You do not want your dragon to become ill and possibly die from getting bleach into its system. I know this all sounds like a lot, but once you get the routine down it takes only about 30 minutes. This is time well spent for your dragon to stay healthy and happy.