Spring Water

[Masked Gecko]

I've been set for the past few years that spring water would be the best choice for drinking water for your reptiles, after some more research last night I read that spring water might not be as good as I thought. Is spring water ok?

 

[LilBlue]

From what I've read, the only benefit to spring water is avoiding the calcium build up that can come from tap water. Also, bottled water can be treated with reverse osmosis, and softeners, making it higher in sodium. Going to lose out on good minerals with filtered water(bottled water never quenches my thirst).I may be off on that but if my memory serves me right I'm not lol. I used filtered water from the fridge when I first got my chams, but switched back over to tap water for convenience. I never noticed a difference in my chams. I did read that some people claimed to see a difference in their reptiles when they switched between the two water sources.

 

[junglefries]

The problem with spring water is it's only available during the spring. I use tap water, and leave it under the sink with the lid off for 24hrs. Let's the chlorine evaporate.

 

[Masked Gecko]

The problem with spring water is it's only available during the spring. I use tap water, and leave it under the sink with the lid off for 24hrs. Let's the chlorine evaporate.

Lol, I'll give it a try thanks.

 

[Carlton]

From what I've read, the only benefit to spring water is avoiding the calcium build up that can come from tap water. Also, bottled water can be treated with reverse osmosis, and softeners, making it higher in sodium. Going to lose out on good minerals with filtered water(bottled water never quenches my thirst).I may be off on that but if my memory serves me right I'm not lol. I used filtered water from the fridge when I first got my chams, but switched back over to tap water for convenience. I never noticed a difference in my chams. I did read that some people claimed to see a difference in their reptiles when they switched between the two water sources.

"Spring" water is a vague term as is "bottled" water, and what's in it depends on the bottler and the source. It isn't necessarily missing calcium or other naturally occurring minerals. Because some naturally occurring minerals make water taste better to most people, it may not mean much...just that it came out of the ground rather than out of a reservoir or river.

RO filtered water still has some mineral content...its just not as high as might come out of the tap in an area that has "hard" water. Again, this really depends on the source water.

Distilled or demineralized water IS free of calcium, minerals, and organics because it is basically condensed steam. It may not be the best for long term use as the primary water source unless the creature drinking it gets supplements from other sources.

If you use a house water softener it can add a bit of sodium but that will depend on the softener settings. Supposedly it isn't all that much. RO filters will remove this.

There are many types of water filters but each is designed to remove specific ingredients. You'd have to read the box to determine what any of them will deal with. For example, removing certain tastes, heavy metals, lead, microorganisms, certain chemicals, phosphates, etc. Removing things like chloramines are a different story.

I have used RO filtered water for all my sensitive pets and have seen no issues at all. I have my own unfiltered well and its super hard and full of iron. To avoid hard water deposits on everything and remove that irony taste, RO water is perfect.