Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is 'musking'? Do all snakes do it or are some species more apt to?

I think they all CAN, but some species do it a lot more than others. It also varies between individuals. It's sort of interesting to notice how all the different species smell. I'm pretty sure the glands they use to musk are also the glands they use to produce chemical messages to other snakes.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Musk is a defensive secretion emitted from a snake's cloaca. It's usually accompianied by waste matter for maximum gross-out effect. It can smell like anything from burnt popcorn to licorice. It tends to stay on your hands even after a decent washing, so you'll know it if you smell it.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

i didn't think boids could musk??

i've only heard of this traite in colubrids
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Girlfriend: Your room smells like reptiles!
Me: Are you saying that my Balls smell?

I have a javelin sand boa nicknamed 'Stinky', so that's at least one! I have to admit that neither of my pythons do it, and almost all of my colubrids do at some point.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

thats what lead me to belive that boids couldn't do it
i've nver even heard of one doing it

and i've been musked a thousand times by various garters, corns kings and milks....................but never a python or a boa

I guess you have living proof
the one the only "stinky!!!"
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Girlfriend: Your room smells like reptiles!
Me: Are you saying that my Balls smell?

Pretty fitting, I don't even know what subspecies she is, and she's the world's only musking boa.
(sandboas are hard to tell apart)
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Get musked by an Anaconda and then tell me they don't musk! LOL!
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Haha bigger the snake the stinkier the musk!!!

I bet it could dump a gallon LOL
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Girlfriend: Your room smells like reptiles!
Me: Are you saying that my Balls smell?

and a half digested deer!