Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Howdy again and just tell me if I'm thinking about this too much.
If RO water gives you just simple pure water, stripped of minerals, bacteria stats, and some ions (de-ionizing beds are included) you have a good base to make healthy animal water if you added supplimental minerals (for bigger teeth).
Is anybody out there supplimenting their store bought distilled/RO water with minerals to provide the electrolytes?

All this comes from an observation that a snake with diarreah may recover faster with pedialyte or a balanced solution vs RO. Does tap water containing chlorine and the usual anti-bacterial chemicals further distress a sick snake?
sigh....
Once again, thanx....Jeff

Well first of all, if the snake doesn't drink the water in the first three hours or so, the chlorine, I believe ammonia, and maybe some other things evaporate out of the water. So, I don't believe that would cause any harm to a sick snake. Now if there are other impurities/bacteria in the water I suppose. In the wild who knows what there ingesting in the water they drink, and they seem to do ok.

On another note, every now and again, usually for a snake that may not be doing so well, or wont eat for some reason, I will add some repcal/herptivite to the water dish before putting water in it. Mainly because I don't use tap water. Typically though I sprinkle the repcal on the mice.