Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is an odd question but I just wanted to hear opinions. My reptile room is down the hall from my bedroom. It seems that when my large Pitts go to the bathroom it stinks up the whole upstairs. I do clean them the day they go to the bathroom, and never leave it overnight and I use newspaper. Are there any safe room freshners you use, plug-ins, etc etc..

Thanks,
Bill

First...killer northern pine!!

I use newspaper as well, and I clean up the same day as my big pits present to me the biggest piles of crap I see anywhere. One mess can smell up the whole room, I hear ya on that!

One thing I do that does help with overall cleanliness and maybe helps with getting the smell outta there quicker, is that when I clean cages, and any trace of snake poop has been on the cage floor or corners of the plastic boxes they live in, I take a measuring cup with a pointed spout, fill it up with water, boil it in the microwave for about 2 minutes, and then pour it in a cheap .99 cent plastic spray bottle. I then set the spray bottle nozzle on STREAM, not SPRAY, and then squirt every where on the cage where any poop has been and wipe it all up with paper towels, once most or all of the poop was at first wiped up or removed. Not only does this melt all the poop or excess off, I think it also helps with the smell, as I have noticed that the room smells much cleaner quicker than when I did not use the boiling water sprayed in the cage before.

Anyways..my two cents.

Take care!!!

Billy
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Genesis 1:1

Yes, I know the problem well.
Surely - a tidy terrarium is the first to have! Everyone knows it.

A part of my feeding items are chicks - and sometimes I loose my last friends in my family.
Mainly I work with a window fan - but the outlet is in a public area...

I worked with an electric air cleaner with charcoal - but the results were only minimal. Wasted money!

I worked with an electric air washer - quite good results. But the chemicals are not really cheap. All 2-3 days you have to refill the water, all 10-14 days a complete clean of the washing box. The humidity in the room increased a little bit. Maybe good for the snakes - but too for mites. Since I had a mite problem in last years I stopped the regulary airwashing.

An other good method is surely an air ionisator. I own no ionisator but this will be my next aquisition. Smelling particles are electric bound to dust and fall down (sorry, my technical english has (too) some hiatuses)

By the way, I speak about the piles of 100 halfgrown and adult Pituophis.

All the best

Bernd
www.pinesnake.de

Try aspen or, even better, cell-sorb. Particulate substrates dry out the feces, which greatly decreases odors. Further, they facilitate immediate spot-cleaning. My room's odor level dropped dramatically as soon as I switched from newspaper to aspen.
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Thanks again..I may just end up using some type of litter if that helps the smell..I am allergic to aspen and other wood products..never heard of cell-absorb..I will check it out.
I also feed chicks on ocassion but the smell from the chicks and rats are one in the same in my opinion
Pics are a pair of yearling Northerns-

Thanks,
Bill

No question the pits produce a particularly foul smelling aftermath- I know when one of my pits have gone by just going in the vicinity of my office... my pythons on the other hand, I actually have to check in on them.

However, I agree with Brad 100%. If it weren't for the shredded aspen, my wife would've been harping on me about it from day day 1.

Another option you might want to check out is coconut fiber or cypress mulch. Both are messier than the aspen, but absorb the material and odor much better than the newspaper...

//Todd

I use mainly gravel made of pressed straw - for the cat tiolet.
The same you can buy here in Germany as terrarium gravel, but then more expensive. It works good in humidity absorption and in smell control. Gravel items clump a little bit when gettig wet or get contact with the feces. In water it falls apart - so no danger for my snakes.
But sometimes the snakes are "better" and the surface of the excrements are big enough to produce smell.

Bernd

pinesnake.de

I use healthy habitat, its a little exspensive but its a pretty good odor control product, non-toxic to the snakes.

I use newspaper so after I pick that up I just spray healthy habitat all over the bottom of the cage and wipe it up with paper towels.

Smells gone within half an hour most of the time, you have to make sure you get all of the poop. The stuff doesent smell great but it smells better than snake poo.

Wow Todd!
I had the exact opposite affect with the smell and the use of either newspaper or aspen. When I used aspen, the smell was much worse. That is cool though that aspen worked out better for you. When I switched to newspaper and paper towels, it was like it almost completely went away. My wife freaked out and was so happy when I made the switch.

How your splendies doing??
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Genesis 1:1

It is funny that two of you brought up your wives, as the reason I started this thread is because of my Wife. Her exact words were "What died in there" and you need to do something about that. This was only from one snake going. Hate to see if everyone goes on the same day

Yup- sounds like your wife is my wife's long lost twin!

Like I said, if it weren't for the aspen, I wouldn't hear the end of it, and I certainly wouldn't have 20 snakes in my office, for SURE!

Back when I was a kid, we didn't know anything other than newspaper, and our experience was it didn't do JACK for the odors!

But, like I said, the pits, particularly my pines emit ungodly odors when they go!

//Todd

Huh- strange.

My splendidas are doing great! The little het axanthic is a runt, though- he won't grow! Also- both him and his axanthic sister STILL refuse F/T- only live!

How's that SCREAMER of yours doing that I like so much?

//Todd

She is doing great as well!! A little small for her age, due to her being a picky second clutch baby at first, but she is doing well.

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Genesis 1:1

Nicest Splendida I've seen Billy!

Yup.

It was THAT splendida that Billy posted a LONG time ago that did it for me... I have 3 now, and can't get enough of his- she's a SMOKER!!!

//Todd

n/p
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I am so not lesdysxic!

0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.1 Eastern Kingsnakes

.
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Genesis 1:1

I used to use newspaper for my gopher, but I had the same problem. As well as the fact that the snake is so active that the newspaper ends up all crumpled and all over the place. Then I started using a layer of newspaper with several layers of paper towels over it and that worked out better. Right now, I have him on aspen though and so far I am very happy with it. I guess you should just try a few different bedding options and see what works best for your snake(s) and your snake room. Another thing that may help is some sort of air purifier, like an Ionic Breeze (or generic equivilent) as well as a fan in the room. Sometimes the fan will help to make the small less concentrated to one area, but other times, it just blows the smell around and spreads it... guess it depends on how bad the smell is!

LOVE your Pine snake on the original post btw! BEAUTIFUL!
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Ball Python
Great Basin Gopher snake
California Kingsnake
Corn Snake
Western Hognose

I too am allergic to aspen and yes feeding chicks make the poo smell worse. But try "carefresh bedding" I LOVE it is a little more expensive but works awesome it the only bedding I will use.
Take Care
Chris
Link

Thanks Guys!
I've decided to give careFresh a try again, I used it in the past but I don't remember how effective it was since I did not have Pitts back in the day, just high-end corns and Garter Snakes. The only negative I hear about careFresh is that it can dry your snakes out..I never had it happen but just what I heard from others.
Thanks for the comment about the Northerns, they are definitely one of my favorites right next to the Sonoran Gophers

If your worried about the snakes getting dried out then just switch to a large surface area water dish in the enclosure. Alternatively or in addition you can add a moss box hide so that they can retreat in there for rehydrating or shedding.

Sean.
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1.1 BRB
1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
0.1 Silver TPRS
1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
0.1 Reeve's Turtle
0.2 Amstaff's
1.0 Pudytat

Their metabolism is way too fast for me. Sucks cause there are so many great ones. I'd love to have a wide variety of pits, kings and rats, but they're just too disgusting to be able to seriously keep. I've learned to admire them from a distance and appreciate my balls a lot more.

LOL! THAT is funny!
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Todd Hughes