**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.

Yes you can.

And as a sidenote, letting water "sit" may remove chlorine, but if you have chloramine in your water, it will not evaporate.

I don't see why it's important though, I didn't realize it would harm the snake.

Hi,

Just to add.

If you are going to use multiple heat pads on the same thermostat they either need to be the same wattage or you need a dimmer inline so you can balance the temperature.

Same voltage on different wattage heatmats gives different temps. :gj:


dr del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

Yes you can.

And as a sidenote, letting water "sit" may remove chlorine, but if you have chloramine in your water, it will not evaporate.

I don't see why it's important though, I didn't realize it would harm the snake.

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Chlorine evaporates fast - in less than ten minutes.

Either way, at normal drinking water levels, it won't harm your snake.

That's what I thought Skiploder, thanks for clearing that up .... I know a lot about water and the stuff they put in it because I have been into the fish hobby, but I wasn't 100% sure if it mattered for snakes. Figured no, but now I feel even better. :D

So you can use distilled or just drinking/sink water. My bearded dragon drinks/absorbs tub water and he's as happy as a horse. I know that they're different than snakes, but they're both reptiles. I figured it wouldn't hurt them. But with the frogs I kept, I had to use distilled. Frogs are a lot more sensitive to chemicals than reptiles are.

Distilled theoretically isn't great to drink osmosis and all. Practically speaking however I'd expect that there is enough elements leaching from the bowl to neutralize osmosis. I just use tap water that has been boiled in my kettle. I however completely sanitize every bowl every 3-5 days.

We just run them through a spare dishwasher once a week.

(.... Is it bad we don't have another dishwasher for lizards stuff? We wash our lizard's dishes with ours since we've had them... Five years with the gecko, nearly 1 year with my beardie and we've never gotten sick.
Is a separate dishwasher really necessary?)

Dishwashers should sanitize everything anyway so I don't think it matters. I've washed my snakes bowls in mine with white vinegar before and never had a problem.

I change my water and clean the water bowls every 2-3 days, at temps appropriate for a bp, water grows bacteria and other funk very fast.


(Cut/paste right off the care sheet)
WATER
Your BP should have a readily available supply of fresh water at all times. When possible use a relatively weighted bowl or dish to prevent it from being overturned. Ball pythons are not often known for soaking in their water sources so an oversized container is not necessary unless needed as a means for maintaining adequate humidity. Often snakes who do enter their water supplies for the occasional soak will also defecate in it –so be prepared to clean and replace as needed. It is recommended the water be replaced (not just “topped off”) and the dish cleaned while doing so every few days at a minimum. Bottled water or special additives are not necessary.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fluffpuffgerbil

(.... Is it bad we don't have another dishwasher for lizards stuff? We wash our lizard's dishes with ours since we've had them... Five years with the gecko, nearly 1 year with my beardie and we've never gotten sick.
Is a separate dishwasher really necessary?)

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It's probably fine. I'm just a bit of a germ freak and don't want snake poop near my dishes :P.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I see. ;3 I'd probably just rinse the dish out in the tub before putting in the dishwasher, then sanatise the tub. XD (I'm a little germ freak too)