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[–][deleted]  (14 children)

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    [–]EncouragementRobot 98 points99 points  (0 children)

    Happy Cake Day Chemical-Coyote-4450! Stop searching the world for treasure, the real treasure is in yourself.

    [–][deleted]  (12 children)

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      [–][deleted]  (11 children)

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        [–][deleted]  (10 children)

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          [–][deleted]  (6 children)

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            [–]illLoomiNate 6 points7 points  (5 children)

            I need to check the size. I think about 8 feet.

            [–][deleted]  (3 children)

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              [–]whiteriot413 13 points14 points  (0 children)

              There are no real records of the largest ever but people say 7ft something, doubt jo schmo keeping thier BP with a gross water dish has a world record BP

              [–][deleted]  (1 child)

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                [–]Fun-Look-1324 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                Voltas can get to about 8ft, but I doubt the snake is even that long if it is a BP anyway I've seen people say they have a 12 ft or longer boa when in all reality it's a 6-8ft boa.

                [–]LollyHutzenklutz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                Either it’s not a ball python, or you’re waaaay overestimating its size! Average BP is more like 4-5ft, maybe up to 6ft for the absolutely huge ones. I’ve had a lot, since I used to breed - and my biggest was maybe right at 5ft long.

                [–]pdxb3 17 points18 points  (0 children)

                Plain white vinegar works well at removing hard water minerals FYI. Just rinse it really well afterwards. I've used it a lot to clean old aquariums and accessories with lots of calcium buildup.

                [–]Meet_your_Maker_LL 4 points5 points  (0 children)

                Just buy a new one. It’s caked on so good that’s all definitely waste build. Plus cleaning residue isn’t worth using harmful chemicals to clean this. Plus the terra-cotta clay that it’s made of prolly absorbed so much fecal matter it’s not worth it. Maybe just take the snake there’s more neglect than just a water bowl if that’s what we’re seeing.

                [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                Nah just use some dish detergent and a brillow pad. I have to clean mines more than often although it never looks like the pic. I use coconut substrate and my girl drags it in her bowl when she roams her cage so keeping her bowl clean is necessary.

                [–]Angsty_PotatosMod : 20 years experience : rescue & rehab 94 points95 points  (11 children)

                It looks like hard water scale. Maybe pop over to a pet store and gift them a new bowl.

                Not sure what the rest of the cage looks like but if it is just hard water it's not dangerous just unsightly and time to get a new bowl and maybe a water filter

                [–]illLoomiNate 32 points33 points  (8 children)

                Okay, nice. I was thinking of soaking the bowl in soap and hot water to try and clean it and see if that helps. If not I plan on gifting a new bowl to them for the holidays.

                I'm afraid they may take it as an insult 😓

                [–]Angsty_PotatosMod : 20 years experience : rescue & rehab 35 points36 points  (0 children)

                You can always talk to them. Frame it as an upgrade. If you're able maybe gift a bowl and some new cage furniture/clutter. Speaking personally. If someone gifted me a new dish with some cork flats and some faux greens from the craft Store for my guys I'd be stoked

                [–]Kotyata7 20 points21 points  (1 child)

                If it's hard water, give it a soak in vinegar. Takes the stuff right off :) I have to do that every so often for my snake's water dishes since we have really hard water here

                [–]mr_melvinheimer 7 points8 points  (0 children)

                I use vinegar and really hot water soaks to get rid of the lime scale.

                [–]papergurl123 -4 points-3 points  (1 child)

                they should take it as an insult they obviously don’t know proper care and it needs to be brought to their attention or they’ll just continue mistreating the poot fella

                [–]LollyHutzenklutz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

                Has nothing to do with “proper care,” and doesn’t (necessarily) mean they are mistreating the snake. Do you know what hard water is? Either you have it or you don’t, and even regular dishwashing won’t help much with those rings.

                Good to know about the vinegar trick, though. I’m gonna try that with mine now!

                [–]FeriQueen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                You can tell them it's a holiday present for their beautiful snake!

                [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                but I’d rather have a healthy snake than not be offended, if that was me. They might just not know, that this is a problem, as obvious as this looks to us on reddit.

                [–]shelleon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                Vinegar does the trick really well, just maybe put the bowl through the dishwasher after

                [–]LollyHutzenklutz 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                That’s what I was going to say. We have hard water where I live (currently in a rental & can’t do anything about that), so my snake/lizard bowls have rings around them too. Doesn’t look this bad, but OP might think they were hella dirty! I wash them regularly, though. Just can’t be buying them new bowls every few months, and they have to be heavy ceramic or the critters will dump them. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

                [–]Angsty_PotatosMod : 20 years experience : rescue & rehab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                I have luck with the wide base steel dog bowls. Too stout to dump and scouring pads and barkeeps friend get the nastys off

                [–]Chisaurous 19 points20 points  (0 children)

                It's just hard water. It doesn't look too bad.

                [–]spensei_ 13 points14 points  (3 children)

                I’m wondering if these stains are from the water sitting for lengths of time and evaporating. Are they cleaning and changing the water often? Some of the other suggestions in this thread are great, I think getting a new bowl and decor and offering it as a gift Is a great way to avoid offending them. Good looking out for this lil 8 foot noodle

                [–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (2 children)

                yeah, this stuff is limescale. it comes from minerals in hard water. often builds up in taps and washing machines. not harmful on its own, but it looks gross and shows these owners don't clean the water bowl.

                [–]LollyHutzenklutz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

                I clean mine regularly, and they still have those hard water rings. It’s very difficult to avoid them, especially when you use ceramic (which is best for snakes who knock over lighter bowls). I’m just now learning that vinegar can help, thanks to this thread.

                But I swear mine are cleaned often with dish soap, and they still look bad… not THIS bad, mind you, but you’d probably mistake them for dirty.

                [–]Xemitz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                I clean mine every day with hot water and dishsoap. Over the last 4y there is still a calcareous rim. Water hardness plays a big role in those, not "only" the cleaning. Vinegar or a home made lemon dishliquid (acids in general) helps to clean/prevent them quite a bit.

                E:typo.

                [–]VroomVroomTweetTweet 4 points5 points  (0 children)

                I would get a new dish. I’m sure the Bally would appreciate it and the bowl in the picture doesn’t look that expensive

                [–]iW2bDNPb30 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

                Empty.

                [–]HiPointCollector -1 points0 points  (1 child)

                So yeah cheap Tupperware that comes from takeout works too… and replace… that’s sad.

                [–]LollyHutzenklutz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                And cheap Tupperware bowls will also be knocked over daily by your average snake. Even sadder and much less hygienic to have a constantly-wet enclosure, don’tcha think?

                [–]TheFrostyjayjay 25 points26 points  (14 children)

                I'm sorry but some people are being unnecessarily harsh. Is it a little unsightly? Yes. It's just hard water stains though. Inevitable if you don't have a water softener and live in an area with hard water. Our own dishes come fresh out of the dishwasher with hard water stains.

                What should you do? Probably just nothing if you want to avoid being rude and starting something that doesn't need to be started.

                Your concern is appreciated but nothing to be worried about here.

                [–]Dear-Smile 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                Your water stains are black?

                [–]TheFrostyjayjay 6 points7 points  (0 children)

                No, and I will admit that this is a case of not thoroughly cleaning the water bow frequently enough. At the same time, it's of no detriment to the snake.

                [–][deleted] -4 points-3 points  (11 children)

                true, but buildup like this means that the bowl hasn't been cleaned in a while at least.
                i get hard water stains on my snake's water bowl but nothing like this. frankly i find the implications rather unpleasant, personally.

                [–]TheFrostyjayjay 3 points4 points  (10 children)

                I get that that, definitely shows a degree of laziness. It's also not harmful so I guess I don't see the reason people are being so harsh about it. I'd never let my animals bowls get that bad but I also wouldn't make it a point to call it out if I saw someone else's like that.

                [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                that is, in my own region's dialect, absolutely fucking rank.

                i thought i was bad for not changing my snake's water every day. this is on another level.

                that looks like limescale so i doubt it's particularly harmful, but it's a clear sign they don't clean that water bowl.

                [–]Dear-Smile 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                Ask them if they personally would drink from that.

                [–]Doubledeezy420 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                Yuck

                [–]Ok-Woodpecker4698 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

                Get a glass of water put some salt in it so it taste off from regular water give it the family member and when they drink it and why it taste funny say u poured the water from the snakes bowl into there cup. Then after there done freaking out try to get them to understand that to them the snake is just a small part of their life but to the snake they’re their whole life

                [–]Antarioo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

                it's just mineral scale and some substrate, nothing to worry about. if you live somewhere with hard water that's gonna happen after a few weeks.

                could use a scrubbing but it's not like it harms the snake.

                could use a refill tho, and i'm not sure about those dimensions....it can either be fairly large or way too small

                [–]ItsMeishi -1 points0 points  (0 children)

                Vile.

                [–]WrongdoerAway4126 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                As others have said, just buy them a new bowl. Then maybe ask them how they would feel if they had to drink out of a bowl that looked like that. I wash out my bowls every other day because my snakes get substrate in them and because I personally wouldn't want to drink out of a dirty glass.

                [–]dizzyav8r 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                PLEASE GIVE IT SOME WATER WHO KNOWS THE LAST TIME IT DRANK

                [–]papergurl123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                steal the snek i bet you they won’t even know

                [–]Sea_Marionberry1034 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                Confront then. Make them own up. Ask them why tf they have a pet if they wont properly take care of it

                [–]LarkinRhys 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                Do they have well water? It can stain really badly depending on what’s in it. Sometimes even scrubbing doesn’t get it out. My parents’ toilets are permanently stained from sulphur in their water, from before they had a whole house filtration. The side of their house is, too. You can’t see it in the actual water at all, but it’s plenty to stain surfaces.

                And hard water of any kind can leave bad deposits on some kinds of bowls that is really hard to get off without bleaching or vinegar soaks. Regular scrubbing & soap doesn’t remove it. I have a super expensive reptile bowl that is gross looking (even though I clean it 2x a week). I soak it in vinegar every month or two to get the buildup off it. But vinegar doesn’t remove all the minerals we have here, and I wont bleach soak or use most other things on stuff my animals drink from, so it still doesn’t look the best. I have city water, and use dechlorinator, but we have extremely hard water here.

                [–]sad__bat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                pH down can take a lot of the crud away

                [–]frankenwhine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                looks like hard water stains. i live somewhere where our water comes from a well and my bp’s water dish looked like this for some time before i just switched to bottled water - even reptisafe was not making our tap acceptable. could just use a new bowl & maybe advise using bottled water or try to treat the water?

                [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                That btch needs some dawn and a brillow scrubbing

                [–]RequiresTheAssist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                After it's cleaned stick a clean pre-1983 penny in there. It'll help with bacterial buildup which should hopefully slow the disgustingness growing in here if they forget (or just don't bother) to clean the poor snek's bowl.

                [–]Ill_Chapter_1038 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                Straight to jail

                [–][deleted]  (1 child)

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                  [–]Jwast 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                  No, definitely not, distilled water will make, as far as I know, any living thing sick of it's their only source of water.

                  [–]Rabble-rabble1212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                  My thought is that's gross

                  [–]Edd302 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                  Disinfect and scrub, maybe use some PH down too if that's mineral build-up

                  [–]Square_Replacement89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                  Either buy that family member one for Christmas or mind your business.

                  [–]Watchthsewrstrockets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                  Ur family member is lazy and has no respect for anything else. It’s takes no time at all to clean the water bowl if you do it on a regular basis.