Routine maintenance is a daily routine. Every day you should clean out your reptiles poop, change the water, and take out any uneaten food from the previous day. Reptiles are very susceptable to bacterial infections and their cages should be kept in a very clean enviornment. Reptiles also can be carriers of salmonella and this can help to fight that. Routine maintenance should take anywhere from 5-20 minutes a day.
Monthly maintenance should be done about once a month. This is where your going to clean everything in the reptile's cage, except the reptile itself of course. Monthly maintenance can take anywhere from 30 minutes - 2 hours.
- The first thing you should do is take your reptile and put it in a safe place. You can let a friend hold it or you can put your reptile in a safe temperorary container.
- Now take out all your rocks, fake plants, and any other accessory you may have in the reptiles cage and soak it in bleach and water. Remember it does not take much bleach to get the job done nice and cleanly.
- Now depending on if your using sand or reptile carpet, will depend on how you need to clean it. With sand, you can use a cat scooper to sift through the sand, but you will want to change the sand out every couple of months because it can harbor bacteria. With reptile carpet, you can just toss it into the washer and dryer.
- To clean the inside of you reptile cage, you can buy a specific reptile habitat cleaner or you can just use soap and water. You just have to make sure you go over it with water again to make sure you got all the soap off.
- Anything else that you feel is necessary to clean, go for it as this is just the basics.
