Disinfect?

[Laurie]

I'm picking up my new baby Hermanns in a few hours. I'm going to house him in Brains' (steppe) old indoor enclosure. It's 4' x 2.5'. This enclosure is lined with pond liner and filled with coir. I've emptied the coir and ripped out the liner. I have new liner and coir to fill. I don't need to disinfect the wood under the liner, right?

I am disinfecting the handles, latches and so on with a little bleach/water solution.

I think i'm just starting to over think this now, with all new liner, coir it should be good, right?

We chose to use Brains old enclosure and build Brains a new indoor enclosure because he is bigger. We have made him a new 4x4' table for winter.

 

[Tom]

Certain organisms are not harmed by bleach. I would do bleach first, rinse thoroughly, make sure the whole area is free of any hint of bleach and then clean again with a 10% ammonia solution. Ammonia kills the things that bleach doesn't and vice versa. No harm in treating the wood underneath either in case any little nasties have found their way through any little crevices. You can just spray the ammonia on and let it air dry before putting down the new liner.

After all that, you should be good to go.

 

[Laurie]

I knew you would know the answer Tom Thanks!

 

[Tom]

You're welcome. I used to use bleach for everything and then I found out about the few organisms that are "immune" to it. I can only find ammonia locally here in quart or half gallon sizes though. Seems ammonia is not such a popular cleaning agent anymore.

In school the vet instructed us to disinfect; first wash with hot soapy water. Then rinse well and apply a 10-20% bleach solution and let it stand for at least 20 minutes. If you are worried about other organisms, apply the ammonia solution after ALL the bleach is thoroughly rinsed and gone. Mixing bleach and ammonia will create a toxic gas, so be very careful about this.

 

[Laurie]

I know you can't mix bleach and ammonia Good to point it out though in case others do not. I vacuumed all the coir dust up (with my dyson, I must love these tortoises!), washed everything with warm soapy water, then the bleach solution, let that sit. I then rinsed again with just water, its currently air drying

 

[yagyujubei]

Well, I don't know. Unless Brains recently died of some super virulent tortoise plague, I think that bleach AND ammonia seems a little obsessive compulsive to me. A new liner and substrate seems just fine to me.

 

[Laurie]

Well, I don't know. Unless Brains recently died of some super virulent tortoise plague, I think that bleach AND ammonia seems a little obsessive compulsive to me. A new liner and substrate seems just fine to me.

lmao!! I agree it may be overkill, but, I'm a little ocd. I will openly tell you, I'm crazy

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Well, I don't know. Unless Brains recently died of some super virulent tortoise plague, I think that bleach AND ammonia seems a little obsessive compulsive to me. A new liner and substrate seems just fine to me.

lmao!! I agree it may be overkill, but, I'm a little ocd. I will openly tell you, I'm crazy

My initials are LM, at work everyone calls me Lady Macbeth because I constantly wash my hands.