Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The below thread brought up a question in my mind. How many of my friends here with large collections (lets say >40 adult snakes) provide water ad libitum, versus how many provide a water dish once or twice a week.

For myself, I leave water bowls in at all times (I have about 150 breeder adult colubrids, boas, balls and chondros), but it does seem that I'm constantly cleaning soiled water bowls, and replacing wet substrate from spills!

So how do you handle water?

Brad Chambers

I used to use cheap plastic waterbowls that you can buy at Petsmart, etc, like the one of the right here. They were good, cheap, and easy to clean. I had twice as many as I needed so I could always throw a clean one in as soon as I found one soiled/dry.

But I eventually got sick of cleaning waterbowls, so I went to a disposable system and will never go back.

I use PVC pipe rings (4" diameter) to hold cheap disposable deli cups (left in picture). I prefer the clear deli cups since I can see if the water has been soiled easily. For really active snakes, like big kings, I generally drill a small hole in the PVC holder and use a wing nut to secure it to the side of the cage so the snake can't tip the bowl over.

Yesterday I changed 35 waterbowls in less than 5 minutes. That included removing the old ones, draining them and tossing them, putting in new bowls and filling them. Back when I was washing waterbowls, that would have been 30 minutes worth of work, at least. Yes, the deli cups cost money, but it works out to about 8 cents each where I get them. I think any of us can afford to "invest" 8 cents per week on each of our snakes, particularly when you factor in the time savings.

For babies, I use little condiment cups shown in the middle. Again, dirt cheap and disposable.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I've heard of that idea before Chris-it's just my inner frugality holding me back. Even @ .08 a cup, for my collection it would work out to $10 a week-$500 a year. I don't know if I want to invest that much just to save myself some elbow grease and time.

I'll think about it this week on cleaning day LOL.

Brad Chambers

Brad,

First of all, do you wash all your bowls every week? If so, your math is correct. If not, then you have to factor in the $10 over the time period you use for one complete washing cycle. So if you clean/replace each bowl every two weeks, suddenly your price is down to $20 a month.

When you just look at the outlay of money, I used to feel the same way. But then I did the math.

Figure out what an hour of your working time is worth. For example, you are washing 125 bowls at a session (based on your $10 number). How long does the actual washing take? An hour, two hours? If you are fairly quick, you might average 2 a minute (including time to fill the sink/bucket, wash, dry and drain dirty water) and get the whole stack done in one hour. So at that rate, you are working for 1 hour to save $10.

Now, if someone else offered you $10/hour to come wash their snake waterbowls, would you do it? If so, great. You have made the right decision.
If not, why not? Not enough money? That's what you're paying yourself.

Even if that was time you would have spent goofing off, you are still working for an hour doing rather tedious work for $10. If you are slower and it takes more than an hour, you are paying yourself even less.

Just another way to look at it. At least, that's how I justify the expense for myself, but I'm only in for $2.40 a week.

Chris
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I don't mind paying myself an amount I'd never accept from an actual employer!

I'm definitely thinking about it, though.

Brad

Thanks Chris. I use the cheap plastic bowls with the disposable cups for my hatchlings and yearlings like you have in the picture, but the next size up from the cup in the center of your picture fits perfectly in the bowls you have pictured on the right. From your idea, I'm going with the 4" pipe with the deli cups. Great idea. People can rinse those if they want, if they feel it gets too expensive. Just throw them away if there's poop in them. Derek

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>>I used to use cheap plastic waterbowls that you can buy at Petsmart, etc, like the one of the right here. They were good, cheap, and easy to clean. I had twice as many as I needed so I could always throw a clean one in as soon as I found one soiled/dry.
>>
>>But I eventually got sick of cleaning waterbowls, so I went to a disposable system and will never go back.
>>
>>I use PVC pipe rings (4" diameter) to hold cheap disposable deli cups (left in picture). I prefer the clear deli cups since I can see if the water has been soiled easily. For really active snakes, like big kings, I generally drill a small hole in the PVC holder and use a wing nut to secure it to the side of the cage so the snake can't tip the bowl over.
>>
>>Yesterday I changed 35 waterbowls in less than 5 minutes. That included removing the old ones, draining them and tossing them, putting in new bowls and filling them. Back when I was washing waterbowls, that would have been 30 minutes worth of work, at least. Yes, the deli cups cost money, but it works out to about 8 cents each where I get them. I think any of us can afford to "invest" 8 cents per week on each of our snakes, particularly when you factor in the time savings.
>>
>>For babies, I use little condiment cups shown in the middle. Again, dirt cheap and disposable.
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>>Chris Harrison
>>San Antonio, Texas
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I keep the water dish in with a lid and a hole cut in the lid...and only enough water to last a few days. I replace the water once a week when I feed. It is arid out here in Arizona so the water evaporates pretty fast.

I hate spilled water.

Kerby...
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Lonesome Valley Reptiles
www.lonesomevalleyreptiles.com
Specializing In California Kingsnakes

This is how I keep mine too. I use the discarded small microwaveable containers for my neonates. I leave the lid on and use an exacto knife to cut a nickle size hole in the lid. No matter how much they try they can't spill the water. Plus they love to soak in the water. I use a discarded small butter plastic container (or something similar in size) for my juvies and a discarded Coolwhip bowl for my adults. All of these have the lid on with a hole cut in the middle of the lid. I NEVER have any spills. I change the water once a week or when they soil it.

The beauty of this is that no matter how hard they try to spill it the weight of the water which can't come out because of the lid, is working against them

Here's an old pic of my adult rack. You can see one of the butter dishes on the top shelf.

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Vichris
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"- Marcus Aurelius

Vichris Variables

I keep water dishes in cages 24/7. I have 50 adult snakes. The spills are annoying, especially when they happen after I'm finished cleaning a cage and slide the drawer back into a rack system. Despite the occasional mess, I think it's best that snakes have access to water when they want it.

Tim

Third Eye

I keep water bowls in with my animals at all times.

I use small bottom heavy ceramic bowls that i buy at Pier 1 Imports.. They cost about .75 each.

They manage to dump them every once in a while, but I use newspaper as substrate and i clean everyday anyway so it's not a big issue for me.

~ Mike

I keep water in with my snakes at all times. I check/refill it every day. I change it at least weekly when I feed. I feel its good to let the snakes choose when they wish to drink...the old "let the animals tell you what they want" theory.

For my hatchlings, I use 1.5" PVC caps I buy at Lowes for .64 each:

They work great. They are heavy enough not to tip over, cheap enough to buy as many as I need with extras, and easy to clean.

For my adults, I have disposable 16 oz. deli cups. I have an ARS 30 slot rack with 33 x 17" drawers. The cool part is it has built in molded water dish holders:

My snakes cant tip them over, I can rinse/reuse them a couple times, then toss them and put in fresh ones. Heres an adult setup:

Here is a pic of the entire rack. Very well made. You can also get the drawers in translucent, or gray. I like the translucent ones so the snakes get ambient light:

I love it. I can feed and water everybody in about 20 mins.
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Species kept:

Nuevo Leon Kings
Kunasir Island Rats
San Luis Potosi Kings
Axanthic Desert Kings
White Oak Gray Rats
Corns

Coming Soon:

Western Green Rats
Pale Milks

where did you get those racks??

I got the adult rack from Brian Hahn at ARS Caging, and the hatchling rack from Jason Hess at Jason's Jungle. Both have website links on the front page of kingsnake.com under businesses.
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Species kept:

Nuevo Leon Kings
Kunasir Island Rats
San Luis Potosi Kings
Axanthic Desert Kings
White Oak Gray Rats
Corns

Coming Soon:

Western Green Rats
Pale Milks

I keep water bowls in my cages at all times and I use bottled spring or drinking water.

For baby snakes, I use these certain heavy jar-type small bowls for their cages I buy at The Container Store. For my adults, I use either the plastic crock type containers found in many pet stores and my bigger adults, being pits mostly, I use heavy water bowls from Reptiletubs.com.

I used to fill my bowls up pretty full but would notice more spills, caused a lot of the times from simply just putting the cage back in the rack, so I fill them up halfway or a tiny bit more and I hardly ever get any spills.
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Genesis 1:1

The main reason I don't keep water in with the snakes 24/7 (whether it is disposable cups or not) is the bowls cause problems if left in all week. Snakes get flagellates and transfer deseases through water bowls more than any other method.

I learned this method of once a week waterfrom the late Lloyd Lemke and stuck with it. The only times I leave water in is with gravid females and neonates. The neonates i use disposable dishes that fit into the trays and can't be turned over.

I don't have a pic with the water bowls in the neonate cages but this is the type of tray I use for my hatchlings. It is long and narrow. I use disposable cups that squeeze into the sides perfectly so that the snakes can't overturn them.

Off topic but how is is for a big brooks king egg..?:

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"Yeah ya told me, and ya wrote it down too. But how the hell am I supposed to remember!"

I leave water in all the time but dedicate over 60 hours a week to the snakes, and yes, I am constantly cleaning Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com

I use these ziplock food storage containers and cut a hole in the top. The top keeps water from sloshing out and spilling.

I always make water available.
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11.14 L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
2.3 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
1.1 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus nasicus (W Hognose)
4.2.14 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

I use dog and cat water bowl, the plastic sunken in types with holes in the bottom that the snake can also use as a hide. I prefer the snake defficating in the water, as I find it easyer to clean out the bowl, than to replace the news paper.

I have always just used a large plastic container, 10"x3"x3", only for one large adult and i have never had any spills and never had him defacate in the water, he tends to choose near enough the same spot every time, under an arched climbing branch on the warm side of his tank, i replace his water daily and spot clean the tank while doing this.