How often do you guys clean out your cages? And...what exactly do you do? Take the plants out and rinse them down? Change to eco earth? I've heard that you can just mix up the eco earth and it will decompose waste on its own. Also, do you keep your crestie in a critter carrier during this process? My little guy doesn't seem to make too much of a mess so I was thinking maybe monthly but not sure if that's too little...As always, thanks lots!
I use paper towels, so I change them weekly. When I used eco-earth, I changed it every 3 weeks. I still use eco-earth in the lay boxes, which I change monthly. Like I said, I change the paper towel every week, but I take everything out and wash it all down every 3 weeks to a month. I personally have somebody hold the gecko while I do the cleaning, but I also have extra bins I use if nobody is around. I found that the best thing to do with eco-earth is to spot clean daily and remove all dead/unaten crickets. If you leave crickets in there for a few days, they poop and generaly make a nice mess. Taking out uneaten ones helps avoid this.
I clean mine once a week. I used to use eco earth, and when I did I would scoop it all out into a bucket and completely clean the tank out. Then I would put the eco earth back and mix it up a bit. I found after a while though that it started growing mold and I was getting tired of scooping it all out every week, so I switched to repticarpet. I take all of the plants, vines, and logs out and put them into a bucket of vinegar and water. I then spray them off with the hose and run them under hot water. I do all this once a week and a couple of days later it looks like it's ready to be cleaned again, my little guys are really messy. I keep them in a small critter keeper when I do this and they're fine. I just put a bunch of paper towels in there so they can hide.
• Remove obvious poop daily... • Spot clean (leaves, glass, etc) weekly (wipe with a Quat moistened cloth, then rinse with fresh water cloth), and give the water dish a good rinse out... • Remove and thoroughly scrub everything (Quat) monthly (includes scraping the glass and turning the Eco-Earth)... • Change Eco-Earth 3 monthly...
Thanks guys. Once again you are such a big help. I've never had a lizard before, and he seems cleaner than other pets I've had so I just wasn't sure. He's still so scared but getting better (after a whole 9 days of having him!). I want to put off moving him to a critter keeper for cleaning. I think I'll stretch the big cleaning to 3-4 weeks and spot clean now. Hopefully by then he'll be more trusting.
Oh..and thanks Bryan for the idea of using an inverted tank. My 20G Long works great inverted. He has plenty of climbing room and it looks really nice, too.
