Trying to fit things in

[akane]

It does seem obsessive to need to be able to 100% sterilize everything compared to practically every other animal we keep with reused slightly to completely absorbent items that are scrubbed with mild, nontoxic cleaners at best. I've got mammal and bird wood houses, perches, shelves, and toys or mildly absorbent brick and rock reused for years if they aren't chewed up with mostly hot water scrubs and only vinegar for antibacterial. It's overall nontoxic to most of the actual animals I keep and the acid simply gases off if you are careful of items that can absorb too deeply for enough air exposure. I use stronger cleaners on bird grates and cage pans or lower ph acid than vinegar like oxalic acid based sprays on glass mostly to get things off completely without the effort or damage to the surfaces hand scrubbing with rougher materials rather than to kill bacteria completely. Carnivorous animals of all types have more types of bacteria present in their digestive tracts than most herbivores we keep but they end up being more resistant to it when we aren't talking about situations like wounds that can be infected. Provided the levels are kept low it's pretty normal and impossible to avoid exposure in the environment. It's also been shown repeatedly in humans and various animals to prevent health issues and improve resistance to more infections not to be kept completely sterile most of the time.

I worry more about mold with natural materials it can feed on. While most is not truly toxic few animals are as durable to fungi as common bacteria. It's easier to kill but if you give it something to grow on it's more persistent without needing more waste added to have more fuel. Without a bioactive cleanup crew I'd have to be a lot more picky about what I use if it's going to get at all damp. I've had far more mold problems around the house than I've had bacterial infections in any species that the immune system couldn't destroy without further treatment when some initial fungal or pest that allowed it to survive in irritated tissue was eliminated.

[jjhill001]

Originally Posted by akane

It does seem obsessive to need to be able to 100% sterilize everything compared to practically every other animal we keep with reused slightly to completely absorbent items that are scrubbed with mild, nontoxic cleaners at best. I've got mammal and bird wood houses, perches, shelves, and toys or mildly absorbent brick and rock reused for years if they aren't chewed up with mostly hot water scrubs and only vinegar for antibacterial. It's overall nontoxic to most of the actual animals I keep and the acid simply gases off if you are careful of items that can absorb too deeply for enough air exposure. I use stronger cleaners on bird grates and cage pans or lower ph acid than vinegar like oxalic acid based sprays on glass mostly to get things off completely without the effort or damage to the surfaces hand scrubbing with rougher materials rather than to kill bacteria completely. Carnivorous animals of all types have more types of bacteria present in their digestive tracts than most herbivores we keep but they end up being more resistant to it when we aren't talking about situations like wounds that can be infected. Provided the levels are kept low it's pretty normal and impossible to avoid exposure in the environment. It's also been shown repeatedly in humans and various animals to prevent health issues and improve resistance to more infections not to be kept completely sterile most of the time.

I worry more about mold with natural materials it can feed on. While most is not truly toxic few animals are as durable to fungi as common bacteria. It's easier to kill but if you give it something to grow on it's more persistent without needing more waste added to have more fuel. Without a bioactive cleanup crew I'd have to be a lot more picky about what I use if it's going to get at all damp. I've had far more mold problems around the house than I've had bacterial infections in any species that the immune system couldn't destroy without further treatment when some initial fungal or pest that allowed it to survive in irritated tissue was eliminated.

I just use hot water in my enclosures that aren't bioactive.