washing your snake..

i like to clean the snakes up a bit when they need their cages cleaned. because of the little people in my house we always have baby shampoo on hand. is it ok to bathe them in it when they need it? Ive done it a few times and both my balls have had a great shed recently but i just want to verify that its ok.. does anyone else wash their snakes?

I rinse mine off everytime I clean my enclosures but with no soap, just luke warm water. I'm not sure about the baby shampoo but would think it would be ok. I had a 12ft burm that I used to give a bath. I used Dove soap with him and never had any problems.

The only reason I have ever heard of using soap on snakes for is to break the water tension for treating mites. Even then its only a few drops of soap.

For anything else, some diluted chlorhexidine solution works well to clean them up, but to be honest I dont do it unless they clearly have poo or urates on them. I just think it's best to leave them be. There are things such as good bacteria and bad bacteria. I don't wash them with anything besides water, because I wouldn't want to harm anything I didn't mean to.

I also just rinse mine in luke warm water

I only *wash* them when they have that stinky smell to them like urates or poops.. maybe once every couple weeks i have done it lol.. guess thats the obsessive mommy instinct coming out there ;)

I never wash mine. They never smell either. I figure their routine sheds "cleans" them just fine for me! :)

Sometimes there are certain individuals that really just love to slither around in their poo. Maybe they are trying to be artistic... hahaha. With these snakes if I can actually see the poo on them and if I have some extra time, I spray a paper towel with the same chlorhexidine that I use to clean their tubs, then I just spot clean the snake. I figure if chlorhexidine is safe to use as a wound flush it should be safe to clean the surface of their scales. But I never put them in a "bath" of chlorhexidine solution.

I've bathed Carmen a couple of times, but just in water about 88 degrees to get "pee" off...oh, she just LOVES it. NOT.

it might be my imagination.. and perhaps its the smell of the cage that makes me *think* the snake itself smells lol, either way its always made me feel better to wash them. i dont soak them in anything.. i get them wet with warm water and use one squirt (those of you with johnson/johnson soap know how little that is) and rub it all over their body creating minimal suds and paying close attention not to get it near their face/eyes i rinse them off and thats it. it gives me a chance to really look them over well too. Ive never had any problems doing it.. they dont try to get away or anything and they dont ball up on me either. just kinda relax and let me do my thing.

i normally just use warm water to rinse them off. there have been occasions where ive had to wash them though. i just used a little drop of dial dishwasher soap and didnt get it in their eyes or mouth. all is well.