when putting my snakes together for breeding, i leave them in a bare tub with no substrate, and no water dish to rumpus around in.

often, one or both of them will poop. the result is LESS than ideal, and VERY smelly/sticky. and NO, plain water does NOT do it!

i personally don't think soap is harmful to the snake at all. i use softsoap aloe vera. it is not an antibacterial soap, as i am not a fan of those.

what i do, is put the snake in the bath and let it swim around for awhile. then i soap up my hands as if i'm washing them, and let the snake slither through. i don't put any soap near their head, and once i'm done soaping them up, i put them back down in the bath water, let them rinse themselves off, and then pick them up and dry them off with a hand towel.

all my snakes are still alive! their scales are like armor, lol!