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Odor Control?

needles Aug 23, 2006 12:20 PM

I believe this was discussed previously, needing input from you experts.

I keep my snakes in a room inside my main house so constant maintenance is imperative if I want to keep peace in the family. Unfortunately I can't be there every minute of the day and a couple of poorly timed discharges (aka Pine bombs!)from my large Pituophis have created some friction. My Drys are not very large yet and have not presented this problem. Maybe this is due to the fact that they haven't moved up to rats yet?? Anyway, I hear Drys rate high on the stink scale too. Do you find this to be true??

I'm in this for the long haul so getting a separate facility will eventually be necessary. Until then, any suggestions that help me reduce fecal odor are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike

Replies (5)

kenfine Aug 23, 2006 12:57 PM

I care for mine inside my home as well. Maybe I don't have a good nose, but while they certainly poop alot, ounce for ounce, I just don't think it's as stinky as advertised, but not as sweetly aeromatic as pit poop either My Easterns eat every 3 days without fail, which translates into them pooping every 3 days, more or less. I just spot clean each cage on the appointed poop day and all is good.

How much poop does a poopy Dry poop when the poopy Dry poops on poop day? ...the world may never know

I bet I have the record for the most "poop" in a post.

fred albury Aug 23, 2006 05:50 PM

Mike,

I too have lived in a house wherein the snake room was part of the house. Only in my case, the snake room was connected to the living room via a ARCHWAY WITHOUT a closing door. Which basically means that the lovely ODOR of the many Drys and Pitouphis used to WAFT into the living room at the MOST inappropriate times, such as when the family was watching the Tellie(T.V.) or when an "important" non herp-related "Guest" came over ( Read....mother-in-law" This led to general hysteria and more than a few disagreements. Which I lost. Everytime....

Keeping the peace is preferable.

Having said all that, I can assure you of four things:

A) Drymarchon (Indigos&Cribos) produce waste that STINKS. Anyone that tells you that they don't or that their waste is somehow no worse than other snakes is either trying to SELL you one, or is delusional to the extent that they shouldnt be allowed in public. Or around sharp objects.

B) The key factors that cause Drys to poop are:
a) The amount of food and frequencey of feedings
b) The amount of stimulus, noise, movement around the cage.
c) The temperature they are maintained at, both ventral and
air temps.
d) If they are taken out of the cage when it is cleaned,
versus spot cleaning.
e) WHAT they have been fed.

C) Having a snake room that is attached to the house means that the ambient temps are going to be similar to the house temps, which works great for months when it is nice but lousy for really hot summer months or reall cold winter months.

So, here are my recommendations to cutback on the amount of potential drama in your life, Dry wise:

1) Cutback on the feedings, I dont feed my Dry that often, in fact I never have. Snakes that are pumped foold of food usually dont seem to do as well as ones that are grown at a moderate rate or slowly. Feed offspring every 6 days and s every ten days. YES. they will take longer to mature, but less problems occur with them, and with other snakes, when they are not pushed. Also go for smaller meals, drys really dont need the largest meal that their mouths can hold.

2)Limit the amount of lights turing on and off in the snake room, the noise from heavy metal cd;s blasting in their lairs, and the amount of fuzzy pets that go in and out of the snakeroom(This means kids also) all these things are STIMULUS and they respond to stimulus by.....you guessed it...crapping....
Cut back on the stimuus

3)Keep temps in the mid to low range, avoid temp spikes and also avoid letting the snake get to cold which can cause regurg. And THAT IS worse than the fecal matter.

4) Often, if it is just urates, the snakes can be "spot cleaned" if they are kept on shavings or sani chips. I prefer newspaper, neccesitating the removal of the snakes and cleaning of the cage, and when you put them back in it, the nice new cage...all clean and sparkly, STIMULATES them to poop.

5) Feed mice and small rats to easterns. Feed hoppers and fuzzys to juveniles. Avoid fish OR frogs at least until you get a snake room SEPARATE from your house. I've noticed that rat PUPS and pinkie MICe tend to produce some real poops also, so I avoid them on all but the most difficult feeders, or on neonates. Birds seem to work well, but I am partial to birds so dont feed them(I know.....softy Fred)

Mike, best of luck. Work on getting those guys out of the house, even into the garage is an upgrade because it allows you to not be hemmed in by the sensitive nostrils of others. Hope some of this helped, if it didnt please fell free to write me and tell me to bug off.

Take care

Fredrick Albury

kenfine Aug 23, 2006 10:57 PM

Thanks Fred! I thought I had a bad nose. I'm sure glad I'm just delusional.

dryguy Aug 24, 2006 04:23 AM

I second his entire post!!!!
-----
Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

epidemic Aug 23, 2006 02:19 PM

As talk of both almost always turns to poop at one point or another!
I have recently parted with my entire Pituophis spp. collection, had about 40 of them, but with my Dry population quickly reaching triple digits I had to part with the pits to make room and time.
In my experience, the aroma of Dry poop is dependent upon diet, as I feed all of my Drys rats, mice, baby rabbits, chicken, quail, bull frogs and fish on a rotating basis.
To date, I have found few snakes which harbor the lovely aroma a Dry can throw at you after consuming fish and frogs, though wild Thamnophis spp. and Nerodia spp. are certainly in that running, though they produce significantly less poop and do not defecate quite as frequently as a well fed Dry. You might also note the changing décor moods of Drys on fish, as they often enjoy “painting” the sides and ceiling of their enclosures with liquified poop, shortly after consuming a meal of such, something which nothing less than elbow grease, and a quality disinfectant (I prefer Chlorhexidine and a quality steam cleaner) will eradicate regardless of the substrate used.
I know of a few keepers who use aspen or pine shavings mixed with a product called Cell-Sorb Plus to help absorb the liquid properties and neutralize the smell. While I have not used such, those who have seem very impressed by it so it might be worth a try, especially if you are already using wood shavings as a substrate. I have heard some folks indicate the product can cause a mild drop in humidity within the enclosure, so this should be taken into consideration, especially during ecdysis…

Best regards,

Jeff

-----
Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

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