One of the biggest concerns that people may have when thinking about getting a new snake is:
“Do snakes smell bad?”
This is certainly more the case with exotics such as snakes and reptiles in general. Most people do not want their home to stink. You may also want to know if snakes can be friendly and affectionate.
With that in mind the topic of this post is going to be about if pet snakes smell or if they are a relatively clean pet to own. By the end of it you will have all the answers that you need for most of the snake breeds that are kept as pets!
Do snakes smell bad?
I want to start of with a quick and general answer to the main question. If you have time though I would read the full article as each breed of snake has different smell.
So do snakes smell bad? Snakes in general do not smell bad. If they are looked after well and their enclosure is cleaned regularly they do not emit much odour. However under certain circumstances a snake can give off an odour that is known as a musk. This musk can vary in scent depending on which breed of snake you are dealing with.
If you would like to know what these musk smell like and which breed of snake gives off the worst smelling musk then read along. I will also tell you the best way to keep your snake clean, healthy and stink free.
What causes a pet snake to smell bad?
As I mentioned earlier, snakes are quite a clean pet and unless you are very close to them you will not notice any smell at all.
There are still a couple of ways that your snake could be a little smell though.
Do snakes smell?
Snakes enclosure needs a regular and thorough clean.
Just like with all pets, snakes require attention to their welfare. They need their enclosures to be regularly cleaned to keep them from smelling.
A build up of snake poop will soon make it smell bad. It is highly recommended that you clean out any poop that you see as soon as you spot it. The amount of poop that your snake produces depends upon its diet and feeding intervals, it is just something that you need to keep an eye open for.
As for fully cleaning out a snakes enclosure, this should be done around once a month to keep it clean and fresh.
How to clean out a pet snakes tank.
As mentioned above the snakes vivarium is where you are going to find most of the smell.
Just like every living creature, snakes produce excrement and a type of urine. If this is not regularly cleaned out it can create quite a strong and foul odour, plus it is not great for your snakes health to be left there.
How you clean this up totally depends on which type of bedding you put in your snakes vivarium.
Newspaper or paper towel cleaning.
If you use newspaper or paper towel as bedding on your vivarium floor you will need to replace this as and when you find the snake poop.
This is because the paper will actually absorb and liquids in the poop and as you can probably tell it will start to smell fairly rapidly.
Only the affected area will need to be changed and because this type of bedding is very cheap it should not be to much of a problem.
Wood chip or vegetable husk bedding.
If you use vegetable husk or wood chipping as bedding for your pet snake it is much easier to clean up.
Simply pick out the area where the poop and urine is and replace with fresh bedding. The good thing about this is that it is less wasteful and you will not end up with lots of paper waste. I fully recommend a natural bedding such as this one available on Amazon.
