I have repti-carpet,

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Posted by WebJoel on May 07, 2003 at 00:10:26:

In Reply to: I have repti-carpet, it's snag free.... posted by -ryan- on May 06, 2003 at 18:25:41:

Okay, -if you say 'reptile carpet' is snag-free, I will accept that. I have never used the 'repti-carpet', but on other Forums have heard about scaly species like Tegus and Uromystyx(sp?) and such are somewhat prone to 'carpet fibre snags' on toe digits, and tails. I had a few green iguanas lose the long-toe, other, due to carpet (household) fibre strangulation. As they grow larger in size and girth, the loosely-wrapped and nearly invisible fibre effectively stangles the toe (or tail), and it dries-out and decrotizes, and breaks off. But that is admittedly, rare, and I have not used 'reptile carpet' and might be crying wolf on that.

But re "" Paper towels are good. :-) I think that Ammonia is a far superior disinfecting agent than Chlorine, however. I work in a food industry and we do use Chlorine wash in the food-making areas for clean-up but our training says that some bacteria are Cl-resistant, -what springs to mind is "cryptosporidium" which is present in everyone's intestines btw, -can survive in a 10 or 15% dilution of bleach for DAYS. Crypto, if introduced into a 'public swimming pool' (a child has a discretionary 'accident' in his swim-trunks, etc), the concentration of Chl. in public pools has shown that the Crypto will survive for up to TWO WEEKS!! Imagine that... you are swimming in a 'public pool' getting some childs poop-bugs in your eyes, nose and mouth! Yuk!!
AT work, we also use a 'quatanary ammonium' spray in the 'raw areas' (that is, where the tanker trucks bring the un-processed milk into the facility), and quat-ammonium kills just about everything, almost immediately AND tends to linger in effectiveness for days even after it has been rinsed-off of surfaces and/or allowed to dry.
Point being, chlorine is great. No faults there. But ammonia is a far superior agent in killing bacteria and surface viruses.
Some postees hereon have found that they had to repeat coccidia treatment several times, -they kept getting mysterious re-infestations. But upon using ammonia to clean the cages, the treatment 'worked', it seemed to be that they wer getting re-infected from their enviroment (carpet, etc?). Maybe, instead of 'cleaning carpets' to rid one's stock of coccidia, it is just better to discard the carpet and buy new... (sagacious advice there, -you cannot do better than 'new', -if you can afford to do it).
I personally have had maybe 100 beardies or a few more, (hatchlings, sold them, raised more, etc) over the course of that final few years that I had BDs, and even though I never 'went commercial' with them, I have never had a coccidian outbreak. The may have HAD it, most do, but they never displayed the 'sick symptoms' of what happens when a generation blooms out of control and the animal becomes ill. -Lucky me, eh? Or, it could be that I used ammonia to clean my cages? We'll never know. :-)

-Joel

Woodland_reptiles

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