Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have read that Cresteds should not have clorinated water ,and should have distilled water .
But I have also read that distilled water can actually rob nutrients from the body as it passes through.
Further more I know a number of pet owners that do use chlorinated water with no ill effect.What is the actual problem?

Distilled water does not wash away nutrients, it just simply does not have any nutritional value. Distilled water has no nothing, basically it is just wet. As for chlorinated water (I assume tap water) I used it for awhile with no ill effect. Now I supplement tap water with calcium drops found at my local pet store. Either that or I use bottled water. Hope this helps! -Joe
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2.3.6 crested geckos (Speckles, Sandy, Squirt, Sunshine, Soldier and six un-named babies)
0.0.1 Striped Cal. Kingsnake (Snuggles)
1.1.0 Green Iguanas (Sisco,Speedy)
0.1.0 Rose Hair Tanrantula (Sweets)
RIP Star and Sal

i use distilled water to avoid water spots on my cages. it is just cleaner and nice knowing the geckos are getting good drinking water.

There was a disscussion about this topic on Repashy's site. This is a quote taken directly from that thread by Allen.

"Distilled water is a BAD idea.... It can do serious tissue damage if ingested before it can absorb some minerals. From what I understand, it can not just dehydrate, but kill cells on contact"

i meant to say drinking water, not distilled water....

The only thing I noticed with regular tap water was that I got a small amount of "build-up" on the glass of the tanks. I now use a britta filter on my water and the spots have gone away. I use filtered water got try to lessen the amount of harmful things in the drinking water. Bottled water isn't bad either. That's just my two cents.
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-Idiotshot
3.2.4 Crested Geckos (Marty, Skitz, Flip, Houdini, Domino, Tongues, Peep, Chomps, Siren)
2.1 Ball Pythons (Oedipus, Achilles, Tempest)
0.2 Spotted Pythons (Spots, Echo)

Bottled water is sometimes pure tap water itself

Most of the time, depending on where you live, regualr tap water is perfectly fine thanks to the FDA. The chlorine content and the metals will not do any harm to the Rhac.

Distilled water is basically water that has been evaporated, then the condensation created is transfored into tankes which is then placed into the jugs or bottles or wahtever. It's purpose is to remove impurities from the water, such as bacteria.

I never heard of it damaging cells or anything but I guess it could be possible (as anything is), is there anything else Alan said about this? It sounds like very interesting useful information.

I use tap water, its pretty clean where I live.

Thats all that was said pretty much. If you go to his forum and run a search for "Drinking Water" the thread should appear.

from what i have gathered in many a biology lesson, distilled water has a 0 salt content. the cells that line the stomach of a gecko will likely have a salt content close to that of humans. Because of osmotic pressure and the "desire" for the water to have an even salt or other mineral content throughout, it will rapidly fill the cells and damage or burst them(the most likely event) , if u want to observer this yourself u can do it with your own blood and a microscope. i am also sure you can find more of this information on the net somewhere. The only reason it is a risk with small reptile vs humans is simply thier size and inability to compensate on a scale that our bodies can. also we have a great deal of stomach acid and other materials in our stomach that balance out the mineral and salt content in distilled water that a small lizard might not have.(?) I do know that even with humans if you were to drink an excessive amount of any water, particularly distilled it flushes vital minerals out of the system causeing damage, note that i said EXCESSIVE amount.

anyways... sorry to nerd u all to death.
BTW i use drinking water. seems to work fine!

Andrew Ellis

learned a lot, thanks

n/p

about a month ago i inadvertantly recommended to someone who was stressed about hard water as a water source for their lizards to buy distilled. The problems that could be associated with it for some reason did not come to mind at the time, i just wanted to say that i have observed my mistake and i believe that what we have currently discussed seems more appropriate. AKA use drinking water, and not distilled. sorry for any misunderstandings (and my lack of attention) if anyone other than me even noticed.

Andrew Ellis