BP Stinks

My 4 ft 7 year old BP stinks. I just noticed it yesterday. The enclosure was clean but I cleaned it again anyway. I had a log hide in there but removed it since it absorbs urine. There's only 1 hide in there now. It's a plastic igloo hide that's easily cleaned. The humidity level is up there at 95 percent so maybe that is the cause. Has anyone else had a stinky snake in an otherwise clean tank?

How is your humidity at 95%? In NC, in the winter?

Either you have a broken hyrometer, or you need to get your snake out of there and into an enclosure with appropriate humidity (50-60%) ASAP. I can't even get humidity to 95% in my tropical frog tanks with saturated bedding, covered tops, and a mister!
If the humidity is even close to that though, I think it's entirely possible that you're smelling mold or some sort of bacterial buildup.

Are you using one of those stick-on thermometers from Petsmart/Petco? Because those tend to get water inside them and then constantly read WAY off.

He's in a 40 gallon glass aquarium with a screen top. I put a towel over 75 percent of the screen and occassionally pour water onto the towel to keep the humidity level up and hold heat. I'll take the towel off to get the humidity back down and replace it with a dry towel and see if that fixes it

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oh, it's a digital hygrometer so I'm sure it's right

Wow. Yeah, I bet that's what you're smelling then.

Thanks. Can I wipe him down to clean him? Is there a solution you would recommend to get the smell off of him?

It wouldn't hurt to wipe him off with a wet paper towel, but if you've got mold or something in your tank (I think that's probably what's going on) you'll probably have to do a thorough tank clean to get the smell out.

The only thing that hasn't been cleaned is him. I'm going to wipe him down with some warm water with a small amount of vinegar in it

I'm not sure I'd use vinegar.. May not do any harm, but their lungs can be really sensitive to smells and vapors.

You waterboard your enclosure and now you want to wipe your snake with vinegar to get rid of the smell. This has to be a joke right. Ask your parent for some help getting things correct with your snake.

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Originally Posted by BrianDallek

You waterboard your enclosure and now you want to wipe your snake with vinegar to get rid of the smell. This has to be a joke right. Ask your parent for some help getting things correct with your snake.

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back off dude, this isn't facebook. Glass aquariums don't hold heat well and screen tops don't hold humidity, hence the towel covering part of the top and keeping it damp to keep the humidity up. I'm on this site for advice so that I can take care of my pet the way it should be. By the way, I'm 40

I would recommend you maybe starting a new thread so you can get advice on getting the enclosure correct. That humidity is pretty far off from the goal, so it might be a good idea to let some more experienced members trouble-shoot your husbandry just in case there are other things that could be fixed.

thanks, I've been monitoring the humidity and it was staying at about 65% but I must've overdid it with the dampness of the towel on top the last time I watered it. It's been resolved. The smell is already gone also

Every few weeks I take a small hand towel, damp one corner with water and use it to wipe down my BP. He seems to enjoy it because he'll press up into the towel as I move it along him. He'll stay calm for maybe 2 or 3 neck-to-tail wipes and then let me know he's had enough.

Speaking of smells - while the snake is quite small, sometimes I'll catch of whiff of something foul and realize he let fly a fart that you would only expect from a much larger animal.

It could have been musking also. Snake musk smells horrible. I have heard of ball pythons musking, although mine have not, and I was once musked by a king snake that somehow got into my house and I could not catch:O It was....well...horrible.