Cleaning your blue tongue skink’s tank is a very important part of keeping your blue tongue healthy and happy. In this post, we will discuss how to clean a blue tongue skink enclosure, tank cleaning schedules, and how to get rid of any smells if your blue tongue skink smells.
To clean a blue tongue skink enclosure, you need to perform light daily duties such as food & water refreshing, spot cleaning. Also, weekly cleaning duties include more thorough tank cleaning, and monthly – deep cleaning & disinfection.
Blue tongue skink enclosure cleaning schedule
- Daily cleaning – light cleaning duties such as water and food bowl washing etc.
- Weekly cleaning – a more thorough cleaning, but not deep cleaning.
- Monthly cleaning – deep monthly cleaning
What can you clean your blue tongue skink tank with?
- For light daily or weekly cleaning – you can use a 1:1 vinegar and water solution. Or, you can also use a 1:1 hydrogen peroxide (3-5%) and water solution. You can pour the solution in the sprayer to clean the glass.
- For both light and deep cleaning, you can use safe and non-toxic chlorhexidine solution like this. Dilute it according to the label. Chlorhexidine is anti-fungal and anti-bacterial, good for disinfecting the tank. You can also use non-toxic total spectrum vet disinfectant F10 (mainly found in the UK).
- Reptile safe cleaning sprays such as this Fluker’s super scrub natural cleaner – for both light and deep cleaning. There are various reptile-safe sprays for sale.
- To disinfect wood – you can bake it at 250-300 degrees for 30-40 minutes or boil it for 30 minutes. You must disinfect newly bought or collected wood. For existing wooden accessories, disinfect once in 3-4 months.
- The best safe way to clean and disinfect your blue tongue’s tank is to use a steam cleaner like this that uses hot pressurized water. Make sure it heats the water to 250-300 degrees (121-149 C) to kill all potential parasites and bacteria.
While you can also use a bleach solution (9 part water and 1 part bleach), it’s not recommended due to toxic fumes. If you do use it, make sure to let the tank off-gas properly and rinse everything very thoroughly.
Daily blue tongue skink tank cleaning tasks
For the daily cleaning tasks, you will need to remove the food and water bowls from the tank and clean them. You can place them in a bucket and soak in hot soapy water, and then rinse thoroughly.
Refresh water in the bowl, and return to the tank. Sometimes you might even need to replace water twice a day, if your blue tongue poops in it. Make sure not to spill water while moving the bowl.
You will also need to remove your blue tongue’s poop once you see it and any soiled substrate. Most blue tongue skinks poop every day. Depending on the substrate (which is often some sort of loose substrate), you can look around the tank and scoop out any poop that you can see.
Weekly blue tongue skink tank cleaning tasks
For the weekly cleaning, you will need to perform a slightly deeper cleaning. Please choose one day in a week when you will clean the tank more thoroughly.
Once a week, take your blue tongue skink out of the tank and place in a separate container while you are cleaning. Make sure that the temporary cage has ventilation holes or a mesh. You can use a plastic container with holes, or a plastic faunarium like this.
Try to look in various corners of the tank, to look for any unnoticed poop or dead bugs. Then, wipe the tank glass using a spray or another cleaning method covered above.
What is more, you can take out the tank accessories to wipe them slightly. Or, you can deep clean them once in 2 weeks.
Monthly blue tongue skink tank cleaning tasks
For a monthly tank cleaning, you will need to perform a deep cleaning.
First of all, take your blue tongue skink out, place it in a container, and take to another room. This is important if you are using any chemicals.
Take all the tank accessories and put them in a bucket. You will need to soak them in a dish soap solution, chlorhexidine, or bleach solution. Leave for 60 minutes, and make sure to properly and thoroughly wash and rinse the accessories. Also, you can use a steam cleaner to properly disinfect the accessories.
3-4 monthly blue tongue skink cleaning tasks
Every 3-4 months, you will need to change the substrate in the tank completely. Empty the whole terrarium, and remove the substrate. Replace with new substrate. If using any loose substrate, bake it as well to make sure it’s disinfected before putting in the tank (however this might harm if it’s a bioactive substrate).
Apart from taking out all the accessories and disinfecting them, you might consider replacing porous accessories completely. These can be wooden logs or hides etc., as they can accumulate bacteria and are hard to clean and disinfect completely.
Clean and disinfect the whole tank with steam cleaner, or reptile spray. Make sure to rinse if required. Clean in all the gaps and corners thoroughly.
Even though not related to cleaning, please remember to replace UVB tubes/lights every 6 or 10-12 months (bulbs often last only up to 6 months, while tubes – 10-12 months.
Blue tongue skink smells? How to get rid of blue tongue skink smells
If your blue tongue skink smells bad, then it’s probably due to it walking over the poop in the tank. Also, depending on the substrate, it might produce an earthy or other specific smell. Make sure that substrate is clean and that you remove poop as soon as you see it.
Having low temperatures in the tank might mean that your blue tongue doesn’t dry properly after soaking in its dish. This can cause unpleasant smell too.
If your blue tongue skink smells, try soaking it in warm water (around 80-85 F, or 26.6-29 Celsius) for around 10 minutes. Make sure to dry it before returning back to the tank. Other issues might include fungal infection, so please take your blue tongue skink to the vet if you notice any rash on the skin or similar.
Blue tongue skinks should not smell generally, but any leftover food can do. Make sure to throw away any uneaten food daily, or it will smell. Poop will mostly smell when fresh, but as it dries, smell will faint. Make sure to remove poop once you see it.
To read more care guides on blue tongue skinks, please see this resource page.