smelly snake

[drache]

there must be individual differences in smelliness of snakes
I've never thought of any of my snakes as particularly smelly
their poop smells like - well - snake poop of course
today I learned something new
I was handling my recently acquired king on the couch, when the smell occurred, starting out like normal snake poop smell, alerting me to the fact that the snake had pooped - thankfully on the floor
I had forgotten though, that his last meal had been huge
when the real load of poop came, it had an odour of a quality and magnitude that was quite beyond anything I've ever experienced in any reptile poop or goat buck in rut
could it be the rat pinks?
or maybe the meal was a bit too big (he was ravenous after shedding)
now he has an odour that I'd like to call "kennel smell"
I think I need to wash him

[adamanteus]

I've experienced that 'kennel smell' before, from rodent eaters... especially Pituophis.

[Sid]

I often have the same pleasure you just experienced with my adult Corn snake, Rhea. Thinking about soaking the rats with prefume

[drache]

okay
it's pretty appalling, but I can handle it
washing didn't really do much
but rubbing him down with snake oil made him smell better

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

ive noticed that my maritimes smell worse than my pugets i dont know why that is though

[GarterGuy]

Yeh Rhea, every now and then my PI King takes a "mega-dump" and it is something beyond the smell of snake poop.....too the point where it stinks up the entire house. Think it might just be a bacteria in the gut that gets a little "frisky" sometimes or even that there's a quantity of musk mixed in or something. Not sure, but sometimes it smells very nasty!

[tikichick]

I thought snake poop was the worst until I got hedgehogs

That's one of the things I like about iguanas; they only eat veggies, and their poop has no odor at all, and their "skin" smells good (which is good cause they each get a goodnight peck on the top of their little green heads)

[Lori P]

Oh, send pics of your hedgehogs!! They are sooooo cuuuuute!!!

[Zephyr]

Garters strike me as having no smell unless they're musking you. They seem like pretty clean snakes... At least compared to water snakes...

[drache]

I've never noticed any body odour on my garters
not on my kings either - only on the ones that eat rat
can rat smell really be that much different from mouse?
I know some of my snakes will not go near rat
now I wonder though whether my larger garters who may get rat, will start smelling that way