# Site General > General Herp >  Pennies in water bowl

## Neal

So, I'm curious who uses pennies in their water bowl as I know some breeders who do. It apparently helps with keeping the water clean and what not.

I know that the gentlemen I spoke to stated it had to be pre-1982, because in 1982 they began changing the content of pennies from 95% copper to 97.5% zinc and only 2.5% copper.

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## DLena

How does it keep the water clean? Does it prevent sediment formation?

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## Neal

> How does it keep the water clean? Does it prevent sediment formation?


I guess clean was the wrong choice of words, it helps with the whole water bowl being slimy thing. I have no idea how the whole thing works, that's why I'm curious who else does it so I can get a better explanation.

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## Meerna

I don't know about keeping the water clean, but it is true about the pre-1982 pennies being more copper than newer pennies. I always used to sort pennies with my mom for smashing in those machines you can find at theme parks and such, apparently the copper ones smash well but the newer ones get messed up and streak with silvery color because of the other metals. The more you know ^_^

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## piedlover79

Copper is highly toxic to all invertebrates and most bacteria and a penny in the water would dissolve a small amount. However long term drinking of copper tainted water can cause copper poisoning in all animals.

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## Neal

> Copper is highly toxic to all invertebrates and most bacteria and a penny in the water would dissolve a small amount. However long term drinking of copper tainted water can cause copper poisoning in all animals.


There's a company that makes copper plated water bowls, so I'm pretty sure that this isn't the case. Now for inverts I can't speak. You do know that water goes through copper pipes right?

http://www.cubowl.com

The breeder that I spoke with has been doing this for years with his snakes and all are completely healthy.

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## John1982

I wouldn't mess with it personally. I spot clean bowls as needed throughout the week and every bowl, even if I cleaned it the previous day, gets a good scrub out on Sunday. I've never had any slime issues. I do get a bit of mineral buildup over time so bowls get a soak in vinegar about once every year to make them like new again.

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## Neal

> I wouldn't mess with it personally. I spot clean bowls as needed throughout the week and every bowl, even if I cleaned it the previous day, gets a good scrub out on Sunday. I've never had any slime issues. I do get a bit of mineral buildup over time so bowls get a soak in vinegar about once every year to make them like new again.


Yea I was only curious after I saw that bowl for water, then I was speaking to another breeder awhile back and he mentioned it. So I was wondering if any others do this. I'm putting a bird bath in the back yard and I was going to put a few pennies in it to keep algae and stuff. But I'm likely not going to mess with it.

I generally change my snakes water out once or twice a week. I clean it with the chlorhexidine then rinse under warm water.

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## piedlover79

Copper pipes (like lead ones still in use) quickly get a coating of minerals on them that keep the copper from leaking into the water. Copper pots and bowls have a special coating.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_toxicity

Im not saying a penny is going to kill a noninvert quickly but small doses do kill inverts and that may be why they do it.

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## distaff

I don't have any info. specific to snakes, but I would NOT do that.  Even in tiny amounts, zinc is toxic to birds. Ditto for fish, and IIRC, copper too.  Copper is tricky.  Goats need it in large amounts, but those amounts would be toxic to their close relatives, sheep.  

In birds, metal toxicity is real, and serious.  Do vets even have a way to diagnose it for a snake?   There are far safer ways to keep water bowls clean.  I've noticed some snake breeders use a couple inches of PVC pipe as a holder for disposable plastic water bowls.  Wasteful, but sanitary.

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## Sauzo

Yeah I don't think I would do it. There is no substitute for good old fashion cleaning. I change all my snakes' water every other day and once a week, spray their bowls down with F10 and rinse it out. I imagine a penny in the water bowl would be like you sucking on a penny, cant be pleasant.

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_Ashley96_ (11-30-2016)

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