Hard water question......

[sweety314]

I've tried searching and can't find anything....and I know there was a poll done as to if ppl used bottled water for their herps, but this is a little different.

(Mods, pls move if you feel it would be more appropriate, but since it's not JUST for balls, I thought the General Herp would make more sense. )


I'm in the process of buying a house! (Yippppee!! ) but the current owners are treating the well water w/the salt brine water softener system.

Question is....Over time, will the increase in saline affect the snakes thru absorption or drinking????

I've asked my vet, and (at least he admitted) he doesn't have a clue and he suggested going online to search. So, here I am! FIRST place I thought to ask. If there's still some doubt, I'll dig and google more. I know that it's safe for US to drink, but our kidneys are a weeeee bit bigger and also I know from experience, that it will add salt to your diet. I'm just not sure how that would pan out for the snakes.

I've had the water tested for coliform, arsenic, lead, giardia, etc. and they're all neg. but short of bottled water (VERY EXPENSIVE), I don't know what to do w/the salt brine and softening.

Input is appreciated!! Thanks!

RuLyn

[juddb]

Wow thats a good question, i never thought about that....

[MarkS]

I've got a water softener in my house, I've always used tap water for my snakes. I have over a hundred snakes of many different species and I've never run into any problems.

[Evan Jamison]

Water softeners merely replace one ion with another. They replace mainly calcium and magnesium with sodium, but they don't really change the osmolarity of the water itself. All animals need to rid thier body of any excess ions, whether they are the naturally occuring ones, or the ones water softeners will add. On top of this, the amount they pull out of the water they consume is far less than that which comes from thier food. They also have very efficient kidneys (much more efficient than ours), and considering how much water they actually drink compared to us, the relative amount they need to process is significantly less. I would say that if you don't have any toxins in the water, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Hope this helps ease your mind .

-Evan

[sweety314]

Thx everyone.

Evan, I wasn't sure (obviously ) since I know ppl on low salt diets have been warned against using/drinking water softened w/the salt brine systems.

Before I invested all the time and money, I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't kill the critters.....esp. my one little boy who is "special"! Not that the water softener/salt would make it a sale-deal killer, but I'd also have to budget for the bottled water, and that would be tough.

Thanks to all.



RuLyn

[AzureN1ght]

I'm not sure if the water pitchers that use a charcoal filter would remove the saline? I use the water pitcher-filtered water for my BP. There's a heavy chlorine smell to the tap water in my apartment (I HATE showering in it), but the filtered water tastes and smells just fine.