Washing a smelly snake??

jncoclub · 03-24-03, 11:39 AM

Our Hogg Isle and Columbian Red Tail are in the same tank. Our Burm is in her own tank. All are roughly the same size (~2 ft), eat weekly, and are great. They are currently eating every weekend one large live feeder mouse. (I know we should start changing to frozen. I have only gotten them to eat frozen once out of about 8 attempts. They are just not digging it.) After they eat we GENTLY rinse them off in water (to get rat pee etc. off them) and put them in back in their tanks. Every week the poop and we clean out their tanks 100%. When we take them out for the first time after they eat (2-3 days later) we have been noticing that when we handle them, they smell. They smell kind of like the mice. It's not a horrible stench, but they smell just enough that we don't like putting them on the blanket on our bed or something we regularly tough. We do a good job at keeping their habitats clean- they get cleaned each poop and each feeding day (so at the very least once a week). My question is- can you wash snakes with anything to make them smell, well, nicer? I know I know, they are snakes- but they didn't really smell before. I have a natural herb-type soap that is supposed to be the same PH as water and is all natural which is unscented. Can I try a fait washing of their bodies with that? Just curious.

SnowFoxx · 03-24-03, 11:55 AM

First of all put your hogg and your other boa IN SEPERATE CAGES RIGHT AWAY.

Next...I have not noticed a bad smell with any of my snakes, and I don't ever wash them. I clean their cages, but not the snakes themselves. Is it possible that they could have scale/mouth rot? If that definitely isn't it, stick your head inside the cages (after removing the snakes

) and see of there is something in the cage that they could be picking up a bad smell from. I once used phagnum (sp) moss in a wet hide for one of my BPs, and she came out of there smelling like rotten fish! Needless to say, I never used that stuff again...who knows what bacteria was growing on it. Those are the only reasons I can think of why your snake might smell bad.

- Victoria :w

LdyDrgn · 03-24-03, 01:49 PM

You can use a gentle antibacterial soap to wash the snake. Just be sure to rinse very well.

And as SnowFoxx said, get those snakes seperated a.s.a.p.

nicola_boulton · 03-24-03, 02:00 PM

u can scrub them

Pixie · 03-24-03, 02:56 PM

I would do as SnowFoxx says and smell the enclosure alone. I have many species of snakes and none of them smell at all (except when my milksnake musks me of course!). A healthy snake shouldn't give off any particular odor so if it isn't the enclosure, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have your snake checked by a vet.

Pixie

Frankie · 03-24-03, 03:27 PM

What kind of hide box are you useing? I use shoe boxes they get smelly pretty quick.

Zoe · 03-24-03, 03:38 PM

I agree, snakes shouldn't stink. The problem lies in your enclosure. If it stinks, there is probably a big bacteria culture in there, so I would clean it up good, and keep cleaning it frequently to keep your snake healthy.

Zoe

LdyDrgn · 03-24-03, 03:43 PM

There are times when a snake will crawl through its feces or eliminate in its water dish while soaking. When this happens, it is a good idea to wash the snake off. A smelly snake isn't necessarily indicative of a health problem.

Mr Maggot · 03-24-03, 04:50 PM

Never had a smelly snake, just a smelly enclosure. Try pupmping a lot of air through the enclosure sometime, i find sometimes its just smelly air caught from a dropping or so forth

BurmBaroness · 03-24-03, 05:34 PM

Your snakes are not "digging" f/t feeding because there is probably a problem with the way it is offered. there are many tricks to switching snakes, I have boa AND burms here who had only eaten live but took f/t for me the first feed, and every feed since. First, make sure it is completely thawed. Second, make sure it is warm....no one likes cold food. Third, some snakes like to have the rat "danced around" with a pair of longhandled tongs or hemostats. Others like to be left alone with the dead prey. If your snakes haven't been bitten by live prey, then it's just a matter of time before one of them IS. There are other tricks, but these I mentioned usually work just fine. It will not hurt the snakes to miss a few meals if they are extremely stubborn. After all, there is no one in the wild offering them a meal on a regular basis. Good Luck.

ReptileX · 03-24-03, 11:40 PM

as did everyone else say sepersate the two snakes!, what type of bedding do you use for you cages? i would try papertowl for a week or two too see what that would do..you shouldn't have to wash your snakes after feeding though...and would probably be rough on them right after the feed too..?
ryan

LdyDrgn · 03-25-03, 12:07 AM

ReptileX: when housing 2 snakes together, it is necessary to rinse them off after feeding to get any feeder smell off of them. Otherwise, it is possible one will smell food and try to bite the other snake. We have 2 male bci housed together until we can get a rack built (almost done!). If the rinsing is done gently, it is not a problem for the snakes. If you are dealing with a species that has a tendency to regurge (bcc) then it is necessary to always house seperately. In jncoclub's case, even though both are bci, they are 2 very different locales which require slightly different care. There is also the possibility of mating between these 2 that needs to be averted.

ReptileX · 03-25-03, 12:25 AM

oh okay thanks for the heads up LdyDrgn, never had a probablem with the bp i have but makes sense, just thought it would be hard on the snake though....

boa · 03-27-03, 04:49 PM

never wash your snake after you feed him he might regurgitate as for the boas seperate them a.s.a.p also never breed the hogg and the normal together as for the small clean your tanks more also hand soap in a warm bath is best after the snakes poop out their food bath your snakes every cycle that is what we do here they smell realy great after there baths hope this helps.

jncoclub · 03-27-03, 05:36 PM

Thank you everyone for responding!
Just to make sure I didn't mislead anyone: they don’t “stink” they just faintly smell like the food they ate (rat pee/poop). We feed them in separate containers then just quickly yet gently rinse them under tepid water; that lasts only like 4 seconds. We were using cage carpet (which I’m guessing was the culprit) but I just changed all our tanks over to EcoEarth. I also made sure to really clean all the tanks out and deodorize them with vinegar and water. I want to see how they do after that. Their hidey-hole is one of those tree bark arch things you can get at a store. They also have recently acquired a treated grapevine to crawl around on. Because we used to live in Florida and we’re now in Connecticut we were concerned about their temperature. Other than having a heating pad always on under their glass tank, and having a 100 watt heat bulb above them during the day; we added these plastic/acrylic sheets that cover the half of the tank screen lid that the lamp doesn’t rest on. So I am thinking that we are possibly just capturing in poop smells in the tank and heating up that air and making it more ripe smelling. I hope this answers some of your questions and maybe clarifies others.

Now may I ask why exactly do we have to separate them? I thought, read, and was told, that they are of the same category and can live together. They are the same size and have been together for roughly a year, and they aren’t much older than that. Other than sharing diseases (should one get sick) what else could happen? PS- they are both female.

Thanks again for your help!