Disinfect reptile enclosures without bleach
If you’ve ever encountered household bleach, you know that it stinks, it burns everything it touches, including your airways, and it’s really something you don’t want to expose your reptiles to.
But you do need to clean their enclosures, and from time to time, you’d want to disinfect them, too. In the past, I’d evacuate the reptiles from the room, use weak dilution of bleach, suffer through it, air out the room, and reintroduce the reptiles hours later. I’d lose my ability to smell for a day or two, also. Bleach is a powerful oxidizer, and there’s just no getting around that.
But there’s a different oxidizer-based disinfectant I’ve found that’s been a complete boon: Sodium Percarbonate.
This glorious basterd. When dissolved in water, it disassociates into H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) and Na2CO3 (sodium carbonate, aka washing soda).
Check this shit out: a disinfectant and a cleaning agent! Woot!
It isn’t a stable solution, and fairly quickly the H2O2 turns into plain ol’ H2O and O2 (aka water and oxygen), but on the way there you can use it to clean and disinfect reptile enclosures!
This mofo is used by brewers and wine makers to disinfect their barrels, so it’s food-safe (I mean, don’t drink it, dummy, but after you use it on a surface and wipe it down with water, there’s no toxic residue). It also leaves no odor, and even gets rid of the smells in the cage, like pee or poo or whatever.
It is the “Oxy” component in the “oxy-clean” and other such cleaning powders. But those buggers have other cleaning agents in them, and perfume and shit, so you don’t really want that in a snake cage. But this dude here, totes safe when used in correct dilution - which is stated right there on the bag.
I said, don’t drink it, dummy.
I wear gloves when I use it because after a few mins in that solution my hands get all yucky, it’s an oxidizer after all. You wouldn’t soak your bare hands in bleach, right? Right?
Best thing is, I can use it on a small spot, and don’t even have to disturb the snake, or like today, I evicted Sunny and cleaned his home, and now it smells of nothing -- and it started out rank, let me tell you. He was chilling on the floor next to me while I was working, and I had no concerns about irritating his respiratory system or leaving caustic residue in his cage.
Oh, and it’s CHEAP. Like, 5 lbs (2.2 kg) for $15 bucks or something. It lasts a long time, since I only use a little at a time, and the powder is shelf-stable for ages, so buying in bulk is a good option. Any brand marketed for food/beverage industry use is fine, don’t have to use the one I have. This is not a paid advertisement, it’s a cool thing I discovered and wanted to share with you all.
Now that I have Sodium Percarbonate, I disinfect and deodorize snake cages so much more often, because it’s not such a giant production anymore. Also, nice not to lose my sense of smell for days. I hate bleach. Like, really really hate it. And now I don’t have to use it. Woot!
Oh, and you can use it for everything where you’d use bleach. Add it to laundry, clean sinks and counters, etc.
Anyways, this was your PSA. If you’re like me and you hate using bleach, especially around reptiles, this bad mofo is your friend.
