• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

quick question

E

edie

New member
i have had my snake for about 2-3 months now, and its doing very well. i've visited this site a lot before i went in to get my snake and i think i have everything down pretty well except for one thing.. should i be giving my snake a bath? i clean its cage out and all that, i just don't know if i should be cleaning the actual snake.
sorry if thats something i should have asked before! it just didn't hit me until today

oh, and heres a picture of it

DSC00280.jpg


and it just pooped on me :(
 
At least is was poop done with love :crazy02:

You can try and give your snake a bath but I don't think it's necessary. The only time I would think you might want to do this is if you are cohabitating snakes and you want to wash off the mouse scent before you put the snakes back together OR you want to handle your snake after it crawled through a nice fresh poo :rolleyes:

Other than that, it might prove interesting to see how much your snake likes water. You might find it helpful some times to give your snake a soak in some mildly lukewarm water if it is having a hard time shedding :)
 
DeadMouse said:
At least is was poop done with love :crazy02:
Click to expand...

or out of hatred for the cats! most of it ended up on their bed, all cleaned up now though.
thanks for the response :), i'll see how it likes it tomorrow.
 
thanks for the response
Click to expand...
My pleasure :)

One thing I do before handling any of my snakes is to make sure they've defecated after a meal. This way I know that I'm not disrupting or stressing out any digestive process they might have going on. It's also a bit on the safer side if you don't want to get poo'd on :)

Also, snakes might defecate/musk you as a sign of self defense. My 14 year old Kingsnake will sometimes do this when she gets pissy. So keep that in mind too.

Have fun on this forum, it's an awesome place full of great people and info!
 
The only thing you might want to think about is corn snakes normally don't care for water. Some snakes stress out when you try to give them a bath. Others seem to love soaking in thier water bowls. I guess you could just see how yours reacts to water, just make sure it's tepid and not warm to your touch, remember snakes temps are cooler then ours. Good luck!
 
My personal opinion is that I would never bathe the snake unless there's a very specific reason for it. By that I mean that your snake has mites, had a bad shed, etc. I would also possibly wash the snake if (as someone said) the animal defecated on itself. Other than that, I provide water bowls that are big enough to soak in. I feel this minimizes the stress that unnecessary bathing can cause.
 
Oh, and if it slithered through poo and you wanna handle it, grab it with a wet washing cloth and have it crawl through that first.
 
Blutengel said:
Oh, and if it slithered through poo and you wanna handle it, grab it with a wet washing cloth and have it crawl through that first.
Click to expand...
That would be my recommendation. Snakes don't need baths, per se, but a gentle cleaning doesn't hurt after they've crawled around in their own feces. I use a moistened paper towel and just let the snake crawl through it to remove and poo that might be stuck to it.

Other than that, the only time I make my snakes soak in water is after a blue phase, when the eyes have cleared, but they haven't shed yet, I will soak them in lukewarm water for a couple of minutes just to loosen everything up. The snakes definitely do not like it, and so I don't do it often, and I certainly don't make them stay in the water for very long. But it helps with the pending shed.
 
My snakes all have baths occasionally. Not to often, but certianly if they are having issues shedding, or sometimes just to watch them swim. it's a personally choice unless the snake is stressing out to much about the bath. Spur will often sit there with his tail anchored around my finger and just relax before swimming off to explore.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top