How often to clean

How often should I clean my viv?
and whats the best method of cleaning?
if it means anything i use paper towel as substarte

Spot clean your substrate and clean your viv' every 3 weeks to a month depending on conditions. Alot of people will recomend bleach diluted with water. This shouldn't be necessary if your viv' can be picked up and be washed and rinsed out with ordinary dish soap and water as frequently as needed.

well i have my heat mat taped to the bottom of my viv . i was actually thinmking once a week but i'd rtaher not have to remove3 the uth and reattach it every week.

spot clean every time you open the viv - by this i mean checking for "soil" and removing, also just making sure water dishes and hides are clean, that sort of thing..
Do a thorough clean with soapy water every few months or so..
that should be adequate for most people.

Is it possible to over-clean? I don't know if this can be detrimental to a snake's health - like weakening it's immune system by lack of exposure. I spot clean, and then take everything out every two weeks and clean it with chlorhexidine, which I order whole-sale from the vet that I work for. It pretty much kills anything, and every time I refill his water bowl, I spray it down first. Could this just be increasing his susceptibility to infection? I haven't seen anyone say that they clean this often, but when I was doing my initial research, everything I read said that snakes can be extremely susceptible to secondary bacterial infections, and I was just trying to prevent that.

I just wrote to Don at SMR and here waas his reply...

2. cleaning , how often and what do I use to clean the viv?
I've read washing it out but picking it up and carrying it to bathroom wouldn't be practical not to mention my heat mat is taped to the bottom of the tank/viv and I'm afraid I'll break it if I try to remove it .

"Just take out the soiled substrate when necessary. Keep the water and water bowl clean. Sometimes, this equated to once or twice a week. You can completely change the substrate and clean the cage every one to six months depending on your personal standards. Snakes are territorial so if you clean too much or too often, they will be stressed from not recognizing smells.

I use a dilute solution of water and dish soap. Some use very dilute bleach and water. I recommend about one cap of bleach per gallon of cold water for that"

that was his suggestion to me , so please don't email him with questions unless you've done business with him,
anyway i hope that helped