Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My tiger ratsnakes poop stinks a lot more than my pythons. How you guys manage the smell, any tips?

I am thinking using cat litter sand as substrate instead of newspapers, what do you think? Will it work to rid the odor?

I use aspen and spot clean often for my tigers. No way around it. They poop ALOT and it stinks. They're awesome snakes though!

Whatever you do do NOT use cat litter. Use aspen bedding, or newspaper, and DO NOT use cedar bedding either. This wood contains an oil that is very unhealthy fo snakes and some other reptiles.

Like the other poster mentioned, there is no getting around it, other than cleaning the enclosure often, and maybe getting an air purifier. These can work VERY well too in keeping down the smell.

Colubrid poop is simply more liquidy and smellier than Python, or boa poop, simple as that, and colubrids defecate far more often as well. After a meal, it only takes 2 to 3 days at best, vs 10 to 12 days for a boid type snake. The boids feces is also much firmer than colubrids. It's just the way they naturally are.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

I agree with Doug on most of it but there is another thing that can be done that works well.
I'll start by saying that I use aspen bedding as well. It clumps up the waste like cat litter but I usually get to it the same day and spot remove it as needed. If they deficate in the water bowls thats cleaned immeadiately as there can be begger problems from that than the smell.
I always keep my tanks clean still there were days like the ones that come 3-4 days after feeding my collection (a number that hovers around 30) when they all go.
That could be overpowering until it was all cleaned and then repeating again for the few days that followed.
You might remember me posting on this topic in a search for air purifiers to combat the problem and I found that most keepers just delt with the smell.
I did too, but that was until my father while on a visit commented that he could smell it in the rest of the house.
Not good.
I asked around and my local pet store had one that seemed to be working. Its a Therapure air purifier with a UV lamp that kills airborne germs and viruses. It has a permanant hepa filter that can be cleaned and it does not produce ozone.
I got it at Walmart which has two sizes. One for small to medium rooms for $79 and the one I bought for medium to large rooms for $99.
My reptile room is 10'x12' with a utility space of 4'x6' off to the side under the stairs.
I wouldn't call that a large or medium room but we're not dealing with your average stink here and being only $20 more it made sense.
It had its own odd smell the first few days and this went away with use. It does a remarkable job controling the odor. I only run it now for the days that follow a feeding on medium. If I run it on the other days its on low and the days that preceed feeding its turned off.
On the realy bad days you can still smell the snakes waste when you enter the room but nothing like what it was.
More importantly nothing makes it out of the room to the rest of the house.
Mike.