Tap or Dechlorinated water

[jason4173]

Happy New Year everyone!! Need to see if anyone can tell me if Tap water is safe for my snake or if she needs to have dechlorinated water...ie bottled or something. I have read in different places different things, some say it dont matter others say it needs to be dechlorinated...

Thanks all!!!

[JLC]

Tap water is fine.

[jason4173]

Thanks for the response! It is so hard to know what to do when there are so many different things out there. Not sure who or what to trust. Is there any single source of information that is reliable that any one would recommend? Seems like the best place is a place like this where people really care about the animals and have EXPERIENCE with them. The willingness of everyone on here to offer advice and help is great!!

Thanks everyone who has helped me out on here. I have learned a lot and appreciate the help!!

[JLC]

Thanks for the response! It is so hard to know what to do when there are so many different things out there. Not sure who or what to trust. Is there any single source of information that is reliable that any one would recommend? Seems like the best place is a place like this where people really care about the animals and have EXPERIENCE with them. The willingness of everyone on here to offer advice and help is great!!

Thanks everyone who has helped me out on here. I have learned a lot and appreciate the help!!

To answer the highlighted question....no. LOL Seriously...there are simply SO many different ways of doing things, and no one of them is any more wrong or right than another. (So long as we're being reasonable here and not talking about things that actually endanger the animals) Therefore...you get some people insisting that the way they do things is the "best" way because it works for them....while other people may insist on something completely different.

Some common issues that are often hotly debated, but actually have no single "best" answer:

Live feeding or Pre-killed
Feeding in enclosure or Separate
Tap water or "Purified"
Glass tanks or Tubs
Overhead heat or UTH
How often to handle
How often to feed
How big to feed

And I could go on and on. The thing every keeper has to be willing to do is to work things out on their own. YES...come here and ask your questions...carefully listen to the answers and weigh the source of the answers and the merits you believe each one has...decide which options you'd like to try and see if they work for you. If something doesn't seem to be working, be willing to try something else.

Hope this has helped!

[JLC]

Oops...meant to add one more thing. Although I believe there is no single source for perfect answers....there ARE certainly good sources out there to look into. This site, I believe, is probably one of the very best sites for learning how to care for ball pythons in particular and other herps in general. And as far as ball pythons go...I highly recommend any book by Kevin McCurley of NERD or Dave & Tracy Barker of VPI....just to name a couple.

[jason4173]

Well, I must say that so far this is by far the most helpful place that I have found for information. Everyone here is very helpful and all seem to be very well versed in herps. I have gotten a couple of small books, nothing real expensive or elaberate...but something to start on...Ball Python Care by Colette Sutherland and The Guide to Owning a Ball Python by John Coborn. Even in these I have found a couple things that are contridictory to eachother. I figure it best to come to a place like this where people with far more experience than I have, and I am sure with a combined experience of everyone one here of several years, can offer up some advice on what they are doing and what they have found and proven to work and not. This is a great thing that you all have going on here and I am very glad to have found you all! I have not been here long, but do already consider each of you an important part of my learning and my BP building family!

Thanks everyone for all your help!!

[Skiploder]

Happy New Year everyone!! Need to see if anyone can tell me if Tap water is safe for my snake or if she needs to have dechlorinated water...ie bottled or something. I have read in different places different things, some say it dont matter others say it needs to be dechlorinated...

Thanks all!!!

It depends on what your local water company is putting in your tap water........

If it's just chlorine, letting the water sit will allow any added chlorine to evaporate. Unfortunately, chloramine may also be added and does not evaporate as quickly as chlorine and is also less reactive.

All drinking water suppliers using surface water are required by the EPA to use disinfectants to eliminate organisms in drinking water supplies. Utilities must maintain a residual disinfectant throughout the drinking water distribution system to control bacterial growth. In other words, odds are that chloramine is being added to your water supply.

Chloramine and chlorine have been consider safe for all non-aquatic reptiles. However, our vet claims that she has seen animals relocated from well based water supply systems to areas that are treated with these chemicals come down with digestive and renal issues.

If you are concerned, there are products that are specifically made for removing chlorine and chloramine from drinking water. Reptisafe is one such product. It is relatively inexpensive and a little goes a long way.

[Noek]

I use a PUR water filter on my sink. I'm not sure how much (if any) chlorine it removes from the tap, but it certainly tastes a heck of alot better and I don't notice that chlorinated aftertaste of regular tap water.

[ladywhipple02]

I have used both. Here's my experience: When I used city water or well water to spritz the cages---I used this for my geckos, too---there was a nice film of minerals left on the side of the glass/plastic when it dried (this stuff was NO fun to clean off, either). When I bought a gallon of distilled water to use, the sides stayed cleaner.

I prefer to use distilled water. It's cheap, it's clean, and I feel better knowing that my critters aren't ingesting that stuff that got stuck to the sides of their cages. But that's me

Quoted from the other water thread

[joepythons]

Happy New Year everyone!! Need to see if anyone can tell me if Tap water is safe for my snake or if she needs to have dechlorinated water...ie bottled or something. I have read in different places different things, some say it dont matter others say it needs to be dechlorinated...

Thanks all!!!

Yes the tap water is fine