**Stupid question I need to ask**

What does it mean to 'top off' water? I see people talkign about it and it's driving me crazy because I don't know what it means.

And how often should I change water? Is it best to give and mist them with distilled water? Or is our fridge water fine?

I clean my bowls every few weeks and top off daily. Evaporation and drinking lower them a bit so I add water when I notice the bowls lower. I use sink water that's been sitting in my heated snake room. That allows it it sit and dechlorinate. I also like to add room temp water at 80 degrees in my case. When in shed I move my water bowls over the Flexwatt so the humidity is raised. That results in needing to top off more frequently.

Regards,

B

So the water you have isn't cold either I see. ;3 Distilled is fine though, right? It's not that expensive and I already have a couple gallons... I use it for my gecko.
So topping it off it just adding more? Thanks for answering. :3 I just didn't know what that meant.
You only clean every few weeks? I've heard every other day, or once a couple weeks, ect... I guess it changes with almost everyone though.

I wash the snake bowls every couple of weeks. The rest of the time, I check the bowls and top them off from a jug of tap water I keep next to the snake rack. The het pied and Darthie are the exceptions--I end up washing theirs every few days because they like to crap in them.

Let me clarify my previous statement. I clean them if there are any floaters, substrate, urates, fecal material, rat hair, etc in the bowl as soon as I find it. I'm in my reptile room at a minimum of 3 times daily just to check things out and clean. I don't however deep clean a water bowl except every few weeks.

Regards,

B

Ah, I see. So every couple weeks for cleaning is fine unless they go potty in them .XD
Thanks for the replies!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simple Man

Let me clarify my previous statement. I clean them if there are any floaters, substrate, urates, fecal material, rat hair, etc in the bowl as soon as I find it. I'm in my reptile room at a minimum of 3 times daily just to check things out and clean. I don't however deep clean a water bowl except every few weeks.

Regards,

B

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Makes sense. :3 Thank you for clarifying.

Pretty much any cooties in a snake's water bowl are going to come from the snake. The snake already has them. I go for keeping my snake's bowls visibly clean. I would feel fine with washing bowls every few weeks like Simple Man does. I've just got a routine that I superduper clean the snake tubs every couple of weeks and get the water bowls at the same time. That is dictated more by my personal schedule than need. When I get more snakes it will probably be adjusted.

I treat the water bowls like the rest of the cage. Visible mess or stink get immediate attention. The rest gets cleaned every couple of weeks and I wouldn't feel bad if it went longer.

Sounds like you got a nice routine going. :3
I just want one snake for now, but I'm sure that I'll end up getting more. XD

I can power more than one heat pad with one thermostat by plugging a power strip into a thermostat and plugging multiple heat pads into it, right? I think I read/heard you could do that as long as the total watts stay under the maximum wattage?

I haven't done it yet, but you can. Right now I have a rack on one thermostat and my cootie cage (isolation) is on another because it's separate.