How can I keep my iguana's cage from getting so stinky?

His cage is wood and plexiglass, with an outdoor grass carpet for the bottom. We remove the poop each day, and clean any liquid stuff off the glass. He usually just poops on this one rock, so that's easy to clean.

We take the outdoor grass carpet out once a week and spray it down, but it still seems to have a bit of an odor. Can we use a light bleach/water solution or will it hurt him?

Any ideas? He's generally a clean, awesome pet, and loves his bath! Outside of his cage, he hardly ever smells.
Answers:
DON'T USE BLEACH! Hogwash, I just had to jump on the bandwagon there.

I am going to assume you are going to remove the ig when you clean the enclosure, so a bleach /water mixture is ideal.
Take the outdoor carpet outside and spray it down with a bleach/water solution. Rinse it several times and let it dry then rinse it again, rinse well and let it dry completely. I even toss mine in the dryer sometimes, without a fabric sheet.

As far as the actual enclosure, I DO clean all my enclosures with a bleach/water mixture. I simply remove the animal, take everything out of the enclosure, my 12 year old son takes hides, climbing things, etc... To the bathroom and sprays them down with bleach then rinse them in the tub using the hand-held showerhead (I know he rinses well, water is everywhere.) So, while he is doing that I spray the enclosure down with a bleach/water mixture, wipe everything down with paper towels, and then use a spray bottle filled with plain old water to spray the enclosure down. I wipe it all out until it is dry then I re-spray with plain old water again and wipe everything down. I use fresh new paper towels and then stick my head in the enclosure and take a deep breath to see if I smell bleach, always, out of sheer habit from back when I was a greenhorn and was worried about not getting the bleach off.

I do NOT spray down any wood, wood will soak up the bleach and you won't be able to get it all out by rinsing. I have gotten out of any wood at all showing in any of my many, many enclosures by covering any wood with a rubber/plastic coating. It's the same thing you use for shower walls, good stiff plastic and easy to wash down.

I have dozens of enclosures, from basic 10 gallon store bought to 6x6x4 homebuilt enclosures to 8x6x5 homebuilt that house everything from bearded dragons, leopard gecko, snakes of all sorts, iguana, tarantula, scorpions, etc... And nothing has ever had any problems. Just remember, rinse, rinse, rinse.

I use a spray bottle with mostly water and a small amount of bleach. I normally use about a 1/10 solution of bleach to water. I also use a red spray bottle and a blue spray bottle, and mark all over the red one bleach. Because we do spray down the veiled chameleon and some of the other reptiles and I do not want to use the bleach/water mixture so I mark the heck out of the bleach bottle and keep it in a completely different room from the reptiles.

-Good luck.

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Hello %26 NO BLEACH ...yikes..you can try white vinegar..or some vanilla in water in a misting bottle .. not much else can be done %26 it's just how things are..am guessin you do have the wood painted with latex paint or a latex varnish, otherwise the smell is in the wood %26 nothing you can do then .. Take Care :)

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instead of the grass stuff use corn cobb bedding. its a little messy but it keeps the oder down. you should be able to find it in most pet stores or maybe at wal*mart. my iguana loves the stuff.

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Dont use bleach!!! Try just using hot, clean water, or a steam machine to kill bateria perhaps. Chemicals might kill it.

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Try first cleaning with hydrogen peroxide and then after that with vinegar. I do that with my chameleon enclosure once a week. I notice that if I don't remove the white urine stuff everyday, it will start to smell. I think the bleach will get rid of the odor, but it might harm him if the smell is still lingering. They can absorb the odors through their skin.

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if the other ideas don't work... pet stores sell pet safe cleaners for disinfecting cages.. try that.