What's in your water?

[hellosugaree]

Originally Posted by Terranaut

You use distilled so the heat element doesn't get covered in scale.
Hydrating the air is not the same as the snake.

Yes. I will add that distilled water will not hurt your snake. It just might not be sufficient to sustain them as a sole source of water for drinking due to lack of minerals. This is my speculation.

[hellosugaree]

Originally Posted by Trollbie

But isn't chlorine (and potential other chemicals) still a concern?

It probably wont instantly kill your snake but I'm sure its not good for them. Levels of chemicals safe for humans might be harmful to other animals like snakes. Plenty of people, including myself, use tap water with no problems but that doesn't mean it is optimal. Also regarding the snakes drinking from puddles comment: this is true, but if you pull a snake from the wild, chances are it has parasites or other nasties. Plus the environment, diet, and everything is totally different for captive snakes vs wild snakes. You'll also note that most wild snakes do not survive to be adults. Because snakes get eaten in the wild does that mean we should feed 95% of our hatchlings to our dogs? True snakes can often tolerate poor conditions with some luck, but that doesn't by any means mean it is optimal. Captive husbandry is a different game all together. That being said, tap water is probably okay unless you live somewhere with particularly terrible water.

[mykee]

Exactly Sir.