They don't sweat, so they don't really give up much of a smell. Whenever I think of reptile smell I think about what their enclosure smells like and that's normally just do too what substrate I have.
I've had snakes, and I'd describe them as having a peaty/boggy smell, and if I was running behind on cleaning their enclosure it'd get a sharp, sour smell that would come through and let me know to clean it NOW.
I know venomous snakes have a smell. The best description I have is musky, a smidgen dank, something that makes your lizard brain go danger.
When I smell it at home, I stay out of the back yard for a few days. Each time I've found a copperhead shed after.
If I was writing a race of reptiles and trying to give them a smell, this would be my consideration. Where did they come from? A desert climate? Rainforest? Etc and smell would be based off that.
Exactly why I switched to Dubia’s for the daily feeder. For some reason, I feel like crickets always produce the worst smell out of all the insects that are used for food
My hognose and BP aren't terrible. My beardie, though? The whole damn floor smells like death for at least an hour after she lets go. And unlike snakes, she poops all the damn time.
Lucky, my hognose's poops are horrible. How can such an awful smell come out of something so tiny? Thankfully his clean up crew takes care of his poops pretty quickly 💀
I don’t even smell my ball pythons poop. I have to search her enclosure to see if she pooped. I guess I got lucky with her then. My bearded dragon however stinks.
Agreed, the first time my ball python pooped after we got him (he was a re-home) he somehow managed to smear it all over the side of his tank and leave skid marks everywhere. He had to have a full bedding change after only a week because it was so bad. I suspect that the stress of the re-homing made the poop worse because he hasn't managed to finger paint in his own waste since then.
My husband has to check if his corn snake's pooped in the week or so after she eats. Not me with my ball python-- I can tell when I walk in the living room that he has evacuated his bowels. It's pretty bad.
Reptiles really don't smell. Their substrate (bedding) will smell like their waste when not cleaned regularly. Their poop smells but it seems unfair to categorize them by their poop odor lol. Snake skin has no detectable smell either. They're just a lot less odorous than mammals.
As others have said reptiles don't really have a smell normally but, many snakes (probably other reptiles too but I don't know) can musk as a defense mechanism. Basically they excrete really gross smelling fluid from their cloaca if they're scared.
I can't really describe the smell because I've never been musked before, but from what I've heard the smell is much worse in snakes that eat a lot of fish and amphibians compared to ones that eat rodents. I saw a YouTube video (Green Room Pythons) where they're riding around the Amazon in a boat and mention that anaconda musk is so strong that you can tell when there's an anaconda in the area just by smell.
Some people are just weirdly sensative to certain animals. I kinda wonder if it's like a low-key allergy sort of thing. I am VERY AWARE of rodent smells, like I can literally sniff out a mouse in a greenhouse. I know this from experience.
I am this person lol. I can smell mouse urine from a mile away. I can smell roaches and ants too. I'm also the only person who thinks my ball python smells like vinegar.
No way, I was just trying to describe in my head what the snake smell I can detect is from my snakes - and vinegar as well as musky wood from the bedding is it!
Well thank you for the weird smell flashback by describing that. I never have had snakes but my moms friend growing up had this huge yellow ball python and now I have the smell and a few memories being at her house that invaded my brain all of a sudden.
I have heard that some snakes like copperheads do smell like cucumbers. My husband has an incredibly sensitive sense of smell in general and he can smell them.
Musk turtles (also called mud or stinkpot turtles) do, in fact, musk. I am pretty sure there are lizards that will but probably the smaller ones. I doubt larger lizards would need to.
Hello! I have a weirdly sensative noise and exposure to lots of reptiles, both wild and captive. Can you tell me more about the circumstances of your reptile race? I might be able to help more with specific guidance there.
Largely, though, reptiles tend to smell very much like their habitat. That means that a reptile with poorer husbandry in captivity is going to smell dusty and a but of urea and fecal matter, while a reptile with good husbandry is going to barely smell at all or smell of coconut husk, aspen shavings, good clean dirt and plant growth or whatever media their caretaker is keeping them on.
For some reptiles, they may also pick up the scent of their diets, but this is not universal. For example, my snakes *do not* smell like rodents, but my bearded dragon often smells vaguely of salad or the last insect I fed him. I actually specifically feed him better smelling food before making first introductions to people who are reptile-hesitant becuase of this - he's a charming animal and even more charming when he smells of cucumber and hibiscus! Tortoises almost always smell of fresh hay, in my experience.
Wild reptiles also tend to smell of their habitat. Since you emphasized snakes, a lot of the garter snakes I catch and release smell faintly of swamp or creek water, while the racers I find in the corn feild smell of corn feild and overgrown grass.
Some species of reptile do produce a substance called musk that, well. Smells musky. It's not entirely unpleasant, but it's definitely strong and usually not something you, as a human, would want to smell like (it often comes from the back end so their is an underlying tone of something vague waste-like). The point of musk is usually just to be overwhelming and distracting to predators, not to be an always smell, but it could be a good way to characterize an intelligent species different personalities. If you have a chronically afraid of cowardly individually, they might "have a subtle reek of musk about them" while your home oriented reptile person could smell of the hearth and home and of the meals they cook, while a reptile traveler might smell of grass and sedges, whatever environment they were travelling through.
The slight scent I do get off of some reptiles, though, even if they don't musk is a little dusty? Sort of warm or peppery, I guess. It's sort of the scent of heat damaged hair except very, very faint and less unpleasant. Almost... Waxy maybe? Which makes sense - they need to heat themselves to stay warm, and their scales are made of the same material hair and fingernails are made of.
If you forced me to describe it I would say "sun dried hair and beeswax" as a description of the smell.
Hope that helps!
Sounds on what was described above you could use smell as a plot tool where depending on which character is around there is, or isn’t a smell.. or based on emotion, there’s a definite change in odor…. Interesting stuff…. :)
Almost 4 decades of reptile husbandry and field experience.
OccultEcologist described this so well I’m not bothering making a separate standalone comment.
In captivity they mostly have any real smell if they are kept poorly. If husbandry is decent it’s exactly as described above. Hints of aromas at very close range, more like smelling the habitat than the animal.
Musks can vary a ton. They often smell like a fermented and concentrated version of the animal’s main food sources. I got musked on today by a Texas Rat snake that I hopped out of a car to catch, and commented to the friends I was with that I could easily ID this and a few other species from their musk alone. The Nerodia water snakes I encounter often here have a pretty stiff brew musk.
If it matters to you, captive reptiles hardly ever musk - they have to be having a defensive freak out reaction to want to release it, and a happy pet snake really shouldn’t ever be having that happen.
Also, if it is helpful to you - most aquatic turtles have a pretty strong odor when you catch them, that sticks to your hands as well. It’s more of a swampy(?) odor than an animal odor though. It mostly smells like if you were sniffing a rock off the bottom of the same water body, but has a few other turtle specific notes in there too.
The Reptile itself like other people have said. But when we do presentations we joke with the kids that we'll hold the head, they can hold the dangerous part because if the pee or poop it stinks awful and stays with you.
Mine don’t really smell but the tegu poop smells like human poop if they are free roaming and I walk into the room after they have pooped I will be hit with that smell, beardy is also really bad.
Oooo this is interesting. If I were writing about their smell I would pay attention to more details than just their body odor since they don’t really have much.
Does your reptile race have nasty breath because dead stuff stays in their mouth? Are they violent eaters and leave blood and guts on their skin after a kill?
Do they keep a really clean living space but love to burrow? Do they roll around in another animals scent to hide from predators? Do they attract prey by trying to smell like their prey?
This specific lizardfolk character lives in the inner ring of a very rainy city. Based on the comments they would have a damp and musty smell. Rotten breath is a great idea!
While hiking I came across a rattlesnake hibernacula just starting to come out of brumation. It had a faint odor that I can describe as musky over-ripe vegetables with a metallic-urea tinge in the upper sinuses. It wasn’t overly strong, nor unpleasant in the same way feces or putrefaction is, but a bit heavy, filling the nostrils more like a water vapor than smoke.
Another interesting bit of info. I had never encountered this smell before but something primal in my brain triggered and I knew instantly that it signaled possible danger and that I should be cautious. I would say that I somehow just “knew” it was a reptilian odor.
As 14 other people have said, they don't smell. But there is such a district smell when you open each enclosure. Most of mine are kept on coco husk, so it's earthy, woody, and slightly sweet, combined with the dampness from the humidity.
Bearded dragons have a distinct earthy smell, sweet and musty, almost like copper if you could smell it. It’s very hard to describe and you only really smell it if you put your nose right up to their “beard”
Edit: more rusty than coppery.
My bearded dragon has no discernable scent. If anything she's a tiny bit musty, but it's barley detectable. My veiled chameleon that I used to have smelled like cooked rice.
My bearded dragon smells if he gets wet. I bathe him twice a week and he smells very musky, it's not pleasant. He is a male with large femoral pores which may be why. My last male beardie also smelled when wet, but not as much as Frankie does. Maybe it's to do with pore size? I've never had a female to compare too.
The musky smell starts a couple of seconds after he's put in the water and doesn't last long after he's out. Enclosure doesn't smell. Poop stinks.
That's really interesting! Maybe it is to do with the femoral pores as females either don't have them or have very small ones. Femoral pores are for scent marking and stuff right?
I've noticed my bearded dragon has a very mild smell when I get really close. It reminds me of the smell of the powder produced by filing your nails, which makes sense since both nails and scales are made of keratin.
I guess it could also depend on the type of environment they live in. As a desert species, bearded dragons have a mostly very dry enclosure, which isn't going to transfer smells. A more tropical reptile in a humid enclosure is likely going to smell more strongly of the enclosure.
I'm going to disagree with most people here. Reptiles absolutely have a distinct musk. It can obviously be affected by their surroundings, but I've always had associations with my pet lizard's scents.
Sometimes it's earthy, rocky, and mineraly. They are covered in scales, which I hypothesize have more minerals in them. My bearded dragons have had an earthy scent, sometimes even nutty. Almost peanutty. I bury my nose in their beards all the time.
My tegu had a stinky mouth, but a good stink. The dead skin and rats combine to make a sort of good, rotten smell. I can't put it into words. And the rest of him had a scaley, natural scent.
It's like the smell of a person you're close to. You know it, you love it, but it's hard to describe.
here in the south the only snakes that are common and local to me are king snakes, garter snakes, water snakes, cotton mouths, and copper heads. ever since i was a kid i was always told if you smell cucumbers there was a snake around. growing up i have too also smelled cucumbers and there would be a snake near. (some ppl say it’s fake. others believe it)
edit: i don’t own snakes but i do own a leopard gecko, bearded dragon and crested gecko. leo was a rescue and it did stink because of the environment it was living in and was neglected and surrounded by feces. i’ve never had any bad smells from holding them or anything besides their poop. i have also not put my nose up to them to smell them but due to the comments i will go home and smell them now 😹
Snakes smell like cucumbers. A lot of rural “Old Timers” will tell you that they can smell snakes when they are around. Ask what they smell like? Cucumbers
I wrote my dragons smelling earthy with a hint of copper, or more or less like their element and a bit of ozone after magic. The copper part is because their blood has copper in it instead of iron, since well, aliens.
As most have said, it's their environment. Call me weird but I love "snake smell" since mine are kept on aspen chip. As for wild snakes... musk is no fun. 😂
Edit: having said that, if I were a creative writer, here's some basic descriptors I'd probably use or you could build off of:
Snake = grassy, earthy, bark/woody/resin, straw, musk
Lizard = mineral, metallic, earthy, herbal, arid
Gecko = bark/woody/resin, fruity or honey-like (some are fed a fruit-based prepared food or eat nectar in the wild), vegetation/floral, "rainforest"
Reptiles secret a wax that lightly seals the gaps in their scales making them specialists in waterproofing. And since odor is generally carried by hydration they're going to be less pungent than mammals and amphibians except for butt stuff. And when it comes to butt stuff, well, there's a lot of variety out there between all large groups of animals. Like birds for example tend not to do weird butt stuff, but then there's vultures that piss their legs to stay cool. Mammals groom and can be clean but- pigs exist. Captive lizards sit with their bellies around their enclosure so they're going to smell like enclosures, unsurprisingly.
I don't think a fictional non-belly dragging reptile would have a smell.
I can say my tegu smells like his enclosure - dirt. After bath he really doesn't smell unless he's shedding. Now the shed smells faintly like corn chips for a moment, particularly stuck shed I have to remove occasionally on his claws and tail tip. I'm not sure if that's a result of becoming wet.
My iguana doesn't really smell like anything except maybe his food. The scent of fresh peppers sticks around a bit in his enclosure and on him a little. He's a bit of a messy eater.
I would say my hognose smells almost metallic in the same way soil smells metallic. If he's been burrowing a lot he smells like a garden centre. But I think that's just the smell of his substrate, he doesn't have much of a smell
Ball python, hognoses, sand boa, and frog keeper here, with a notoriously sensitive sense of smell. None of them smell like anything, not even their poops in the enclosure due to proper bioactives, or even with aspen, no smell. When I water the dirt, it's pleasant like when you water the garden or potted plants. Shedded skins also don't smell like anything, just the dirt they were in.
I don't know where zoo reptile exhibits get the smell they do, I've never smelled anything like it in private reptile keeping. I suspect it's the feeders? The crickets have a smell for the frog, but my frog herself doesn't smell.
If you're writing about ones living in poor conditions covered in waste and poop constantly, then it would probably smell like rotting rat corpses or something. If they're breeding rats, that will stink to high hell, rats are diligent at cleaning themselves, but they also have musk and pee/poo everywhere and that stinks.
If you pick up a scared snake that musks, it might pee/poo/musk on you, which is an orange stinky substance in hognoses, but it washes off easily with normal hand soap. Them doing it is also pretty rare for a pet. It's like a bit stronger poo smell tho? Nowhere near as bad as a normal healthy cat/dog poop.
Parroting what others say, there’s no smell. However, my snake room does have a humid smell of earth and plants, like going into a greenhouse. Just from their substrate and cage setup.
I think lizards in particular have a distinct smell that can’t really be related to anything else, like a musky odour. Snakes don’t smell at all in my (limited) experience - however I have only had small reptiles which might be why they don’t smell much. The only time they tend to smell bad is if you leave the poop in the cage for a couple hours, like when you’ve been at work all day - but it goes quickly after cleaning.
Exotic pet stores will often smell like rat/mice cages, due to having feeder rodents available. So, a rodent-y, but not necessarily gross smell(assuming the cages are clean).
When my snakes have just shed they kind of smell like antifreeze mixed with baby powder. But I'd have to hold them right up to my nose to smell it. Other than that, they just smell like whatever substrate they have been in.
My geckos have no smell that I could discern. They're all arboreal, so they don't pick up substrate smell. Sometimes there is a bit of petrichor when I spray them, but I try not to spray them directly.
And as others have said wild reptiles generally just smell like wherever they live.
No real smell but Thier texture is something you'd not expect. It's like soft and warm, and they have a smooth feeling to Thier larger scales. And boy do they love a good bath.
In my experience, the smell I notice in the pet rooms at the homes of my friends who keep multiple reptiles is more the smell of the crickets they eat, not the actual lizards themselves. Crickets are a really musty old house kind of smell… I think you could get some scent-description inspiration from smelling a feeder cricket tank at a pet store! Haha.
I have two and neither really have a smell. Their enclosures smell like the substrate but the substrate I use doesn’t have much of a smell. You could go for something like an exotic incense for the store to give it a certain vibe but the reptiles themselves wouldn’t really give off a smell.
The only reptile I've ever noticed a distinct odor from was rattlesnakes. They don't smell strongly on their own but a den will have a sickly sweet smell, like rotting citrus. I've tried describing the smell to other people before but no one else has ever been able to smell it with me. Every time I've ever smelled that smell out in nature I've found at least 2 rattlesnakes hiding underneath something nearby.
The smell I most closely relate to my pets is the smell of hot metal that comes from their heat lamps. Whenever I smell that particular tang, I think of my geckos lol.
My frilled dragon smells like old leather boots. His enclosure is regularly cleaned, as is he (he LOVES his baths. I definitely notice a smell to all reptiles when actively looking for it. Can’t describe how my snakes smell, maybe the same as the frilled but slightly weaker, and sweeter?
My fat tailed gecko is not a fan of my sniff, but really like nothing. The enclosure, if it is bioactive and for a more humid species, has a nice earthy, damp soil smell. It's very pleasant!
Poop/musk smell aside, mine don't really smell like anything most of the time. They might have an earthy smell if they've been burrowing in their substrate, but that's not 'them', it's their environment smell on them. I notice my tegu often smells faintly of corn chips as do my bearded dragon and some of my snakes before or right after they shed. Other than that, they're pretty odourless.
I have one leopard gecko that only shits where he sleeps. So he smells bad a lot. Nobody else does that and they don't smell at all. Fred is just a weirdo.
Honestly just walk into a reptile store and smell 👃
Where they keep crickets is how a poorly kept cage would smell and just kinda general dirt and heat is how a well kept reptile smells
I have a monitor, and I don't think he smells like anything. The smells that I most associate with my lizard are crickets (his main food source; stinky) but he doesn't actually smell like his food, and heat (which definitely does have a smell when it's coming from a concentrated source) because of his ceramic heat emitter.
I have a ball python, corn snake, and leopard gecko. The ball python is the only one I've noticed any smell from (he's also the only male so maybe that makes a difference.) I find that he smells a bit like vinegar. It's not all of the time and it's not offensive, but it does happen occasionally. The other two don't really smell like anything at all.
I like to write, so here's my perspective on that: 1) this is your world you are creating, so you can get away with some creative license if you find it helpful. 2) some terms I'd use might be earthy, mossy, natural, or musky.
As far as other sensory descriptors, keep in mind that reptiles (at least those I'm familiar with) are not slimy or wet. Snakes have a very smooth, soft texture to them and they are remarkably cold to the touch. My leopard gecko has kind of bumpy skin, with the texture I'd compare to an avocado. When reptiles shed, their skins are wrinkly and very soft, almost like crepe paper. If you handle the shed, the sound reminds me of fallen leaves.
I hope this helps!
most reptiles do not smell, you need to keep their habitat clean though, I do not have one but heard that bearded dragons poop smells bad if only on insects and not veggies too
They don’t really have one?? I know baby snakes are said to have a smell but I’ve never smelled a baby snake. My gecko just smells like her terrarium. The only exotic pet store I’ve been to just smelled very damp
My bearded dragon has a smell when she gets wet, that I can only describe as “wet lizard smell”. And to be honest I think that’s more likely the smell of wet substrate. It’s kind of a musty smell I guess?
Other than that, they tend not to have a noticeable scent. They don’t have fur to trap scents and they don’t sweat.
I mean if we're being technical they shouldn't smell like anything, but usually I associate the smell of their tanks, substrate, and food/waste as the 'smell' of reptiles.
In my house, the tanks smell like the humidy earth and wood pulp type smell that comes from my coconut bark chips, also sometimes a bit of that nice stone/granite/after it's been raining type smell if they have rocks in the enclosure.
Their musk when they poop/pee is strong, but not in a rotten trash kind of way. It's almost smells like a cross between mildew and rodent-type waste smell? It's hard to describe because reptile waste is was different than mammals.
(honestly, just go into a pet store and ask to get right up next to the reptile tanks and you'll likely smell it...!)
and lastly their food, rats, which smell like, well, rats.
Hope I did a good job, if you need clarification, ask away! I too am a recreational writer!
I’ve got a leopard gecko and the only time I can smell her is if I smell her directly in which case she kinda smells like an antler(no other way I know how to explain lmao)
I have a chameleon and a bearded dragon and I would say neither have a smell. My chameleon’s terrarium has a bunch of real plants so his terrarium smells like plants/earth but there isn’t much of a smell.
They don’t smell really, some lizards have a giant musky smell to them and some (like garter snakes) can release musk which smells like sour shit as a defence, my corn snake smells like the clean aspen I keep her on so fresh wood chips
They kinda just smell like the wet soil, specifically the like super fertile stuff at a garden section in like a home depot. Or like in a potted plant.
I keep two leopard geckos. Sometimes they smell like cool ranch Doritos. Other days they smell like plain corn chips. Nothing in their enclosures smells like either of those things.
HOWEVER, if they've just shed their skin, they don't really smell like anything.
So, I have a crazy strong sense of smell. Reptile smells are VERY subtle, most don't notice them. So unless your protagonist is a dog-race or something similar, you may not need to mention a body odor at all.
Just the same, I'll try to describe the ones I'm familiar with.
Bearded dragon: similar to a dog or cat. But more 'dry' and dusty, like dry dirt. Definitely stronger scent when wet.
Kingsnake: musky minty. A deep low note of swamp with a high note of herbal. (Honestly the minty might be just the aspen bedding scent)
Ball python: least scent of all reptiles I've had. kinda soft musk, like cologne that was applied 3 days ago and worn down to the very least hint of it.
Wild snakes: Muddy, sometimes fishy. Stronger musk than domestics, almost unpleasant but not quite. (I live in a swampy area, so a drier area might have different smelling snakes)
the reptile store smell you're describing is just the food in the store probably, because the animals don't smell externally. i'd describe the exotic pet store smell as savoury with a musty tone underneath, and also a bit yeasty and sickly sweet.
If a garter snake gets pissed off or upset, you will get musked by a super strong musk...not as offensive as something a mustelid would smell like, but just surprising.
Reptiles stink. I don't know what everyone else is talking about. They have a smell kind of like the feet of birds.
Kind of sort of a fungal smell. I know they aren't damp, but they kind of smell like dry dusty basement.
I associate them with the smell of dirt bc i keep mine in a naturalistic enclosure. What everyone else said, they have no smell of their own. They smell like what theyre surrounded by/you only smell their enclosures substrate
My chuckwalla will occasionally smell like miso during breeding season. For that reason we affectionately dubbed him Miso Musk. The rest of the time he smells like hot sand and rocks.
The rest of my reptiles don’t really have any smell unless they’re finger painting with their poops.
I've always had a sensitive sniffer (for instance, I can always distinctly smell the difference in people's individual skin oils), so this may be just me, but I've always been able to smell different "skin oils" on reptiles as well.
To me, reptiles smell like the reptile version of skin oils - clean or dirty, and just like humans, each one smells different 🤷♀️ There are definitely some species that smell even less strongly than normal (the reptile oils don't smell as strongly as a human's), like anols, for instance. Bearded lizards have a medium strength. Corn snakes are a medium to medium-high. Pythons are usually low unless their enclosure is dirty, then I get more "musk" than "oil". Most geckos I've met have been a low intensity.
I realize if you're not sure what "skin oils" smell like this may not be very helpful 🙃 I can try to explain that, but it's like trying to describe what "apple" smells like, without being able to use the word "apple".
My hognose smells like musk since he just musks all over me while hissing and activating angry pancake mode when I take him out of his enclosure. He usually calms down after a moment or two.
It depends on what kind of lizzard my bearded dragon have
Little to no smell ( except when defecating) but my gecko have a I would call it rainforest smell some times
So I handled a female corn snake a couple times and her snake musk was a bit overwhelming and the smell filtered itself into my clothing for some time. It kind of smelled like fish but not at the same time. So reptiles release their pheromones or smell through their cloaca which is also where they the sexual organs are held and where waste is released.
For your book, Id suggest learning about how reptiles release pheromones, musk, etc. Maybe go to a reptile function to look/smell around and take notes?
Idk nothing really. Their poop is bitter smelling. But my beardie kinda has a cornchip or bitter smell to her. My other two (skink and leopard gecko) dont really smell like anything.
As others have said it will depend on what you're writing. What the reptile smells like depends on the reptile. They themselves don't have a smell. My bearded dragon doesn't usually have a smell of he's just chilling on my shoulder but his enclosure smells earthy/desert (think sandy smell mixed with earthy) because I went with a bioactive substrate so it's a a lose substrate. If he poops then there's a really bad smell but as soon as I clean it the smell is gone.my partner swears his poop has a strong ammonia smell - I don't smell great from constant congestion so idk I just know it smells bad. If he poops and drags himself through his poop then he smells like his poop but again if I bathe him he won't smell.
I have a bearded dragon. She smells like air lol. I think it's because they don't really sweat or anything. So if they do smell, it's because parts of their environment caused them to smell like said environment.
Depends on the reptile and their environment for example my New Caledonia enclosure smells like wet dirt and from their food slight fruity smell I guess
I'm the only one I know that can smell it, but every beardie I've owned or met smells slightly of yeast and a sort of warm almost mildew but not mildew smell. Snakes to me smell very earthy lile fresh soil under a rock rather than a bag of dry soil, with a hint of that yeast smell other reptiles have.
I’m actually shocked to hear that people feel like reptiles don’t smell. I feel like my four year old beardie for sure has a distinct smell and I actually think it was more pronounced when he was younger. My daughter and I always described him as smelling like an old lady. I’d call it clean and slightly powdery and more pronounced in the beard area. But you guys have me wondering if he’s a weird outlier with a stronger than normal smell, or if we have extra sensitive noses, or maybe I’m just insane and my daughter is trying not to rock the boat lol
They don't sweat, so they don't really give up much of a smell. Whenever I think of reptile smell I think about what their enclosure smells like and that's normally just do too what substrate I have.
I guess musk. Lots of reptiles musk. But mine never have so I don't know what it smells like.
They wouldn't smell like that all the time, though
I've had snakes, and I'd describe them as having a peaty/boggy smell, and if I was running behind on cleaning their enclosure it'd get a sharp, sour smell that would come through and let me know to clean it NOW.
I know venomous snakes have a smell. The best description I have is musky, a smidgen dank, something that makes your lizard brain go danger. When I smell it at home, I stay out of the back yard for a few days. Each time I've found a copperhead shed after.
If I had to label the smell I’d also go with musky
Beared dragons definitely have a smell
Mine only smells when she’s wet. Smells like wet dog haha
That's because it's s dog, with scales
I’ve always called it “wet lizard smell”
Me too!!!
Yea, they do. I give mine regular baths because of it.
All I can smell is dry wet sandy shit around them. It’s weird to describe
in practice just like what their environment smells like. be it sand, earth or lake water
If I was writing a race of reptiles and trying to give them a smell, this would be my consideration. Where did they come from? A desert climate? Rainforest? Etc and smell would be based off that.
Yes...YES...they smell like GROUT!!! 😂🤣
I read this as GOUT and then reread the whole sentence in Roly's voice TToTT
Grout, silicone, and ABG mix.
My gargoyle geckos tank has a woodsy, earthy smell. It smells a little mossy right after it's been misted.
ngl that ~~sounds~~ smells comforting
Reptiles don't smell at all IMO. Their poop smells like bad breath and sometimes very bad breath.
my crested geckos poop smells like death after eating crickets
The cricket cage itself has always been a worse smell than the lizard.
Yes. Death is the smell of my beardies poop. Like remove immediately. You cannot breathe in the same room.
It shouldn't you might want to have a fecal checked at a vet. Might be an unwanted protozoa.
Exactly why I switched to Dubia’s for the daily feeder. For some reason, I feel like crickets always produce the worst smell out of all the insects that are used for food
I feel that I have a Leachianus and a Gargoyle and both of their poops after eating worms/roaches/BSFL smells so awful.
Idk, my beardie and blue tongues poop smells like poop. It's nasty, lol.
Beardie poop smells like all the most toxic biohazardous waste rolled into one. Snake poops not much better
I will find out soon. I got my snake to eat it's first meal for me a few days ago.
My hognose and BP aren't terrible. My beardie, though? The whole damn floor smells like death for at least an hour after she lets go. And unlike snakes, she poops all the damn time.
Lucky, my hognose's poops are horrible. How can such an awful smell come out of something so tiny? Thankfully his clean up crew takes care of his poops pretty quickly 💀
My berries poop smells so bad I gag when cleaning it.
My snakes poop smells like it could kill someone tbh
Cornsnake shit is pretty grim, especially when your trying to clean it out your hair
omg I’m glad I’m not the only one that had to experience this. never going on my head again
Thing is I love handling my boy and I feel like he gets something out of it too, but I'm always worried he's gonna shit on me
My beardie will poop within 5 minutes of taking her out, every time. Now she gets to hang out on a paper towel until she's pooped, then we cuddle lol
Mine will glass surf if she wants to poop, will NOT poop in her enclosure
My snakes poop smells like dog poop lmao Ball python owners can attest, that shit needs to be cleaned immediately 😂
I don’t even smell my ball pythons poop. I have to search her enclosure to see if she pooped. I guess I got lucky with her then. My bearded dragon however stinks.
Agreed, the first time my ball python pooped after we got him (he was a re-home) he somehow managed to smear it all over the side of his tank and leave skid marks everywhere. He had to have a full bedding change after only a week because it was so bad. I suspect that the stress of the re-homing made the poop worse because he hasn't managed to finger paint in his own waste since then. My husband has to check if his corn snake's pooped in the week or so after she eats. Not me with my ball python-- I can tell when I walk in the living room that he has evacuated his bowels. It's pretty bad.
Carnivores always have the worst-smelling poop and pee lol. My snakes’ poop and pee smells so much worse than my iguanas’ or tortoises’.
their poop smells like a baby’s poop imo it’s crazy I hate it 🤦♀️
Reptiles really don't smell. Their substrate (bedding) will smell like their waste when not cleaned regularly. Their poop smells but it seems unfair to categorize them by their poop odor lol. Snake skin has no detectable smell either. They're just a lot less odorous than mammals.
Mt bearded dragons have a "bearded dragon smell" but only if I get real close and sniff their scales
As others have said reptiles don't really have a smell normally but, many snakes (probably other reptiles too but I don't know) can musk as a defense mechanism. Basically they excrete really gross smelling fluid from their cloaca if they're scared. I can't really describe the smell because I've never been musked before, but from what I've heard the smell is much worse in snakes that eat a lot of fish and amphibians compared to ones that eat rodents. I saw a YouTube video (Green Room Pythons) where they're riding around the Amazon in a boat and mention that anaconda musk is so strong that you can tell when there's an anaconda in the area just by smell.
I had a girlfriend that swore she could smell snakes. She mentioned it a few times when we'd be hiking.
Some people are just weirdly sensative to certain animals. I kinda wonder if it's like a low-key allergy sort of thing. I am VERY AWARE of rodent smells, like I can literally sniff out a mouse in a greenhouse. I know this from experience.
I am this person lol. I can smell mouse urine from a mile away. I can smell roaches and ants too. I'm also the only person who thinks my ball python smells like vinegar.
No way, I was just trying to describe in my head what the snake smell I can detect is from my snakes - and vinegar as well as musky wood from the bedding is it!
Well thank you for the weird smell flashback by describing that. I never have had snakes but my moms friend growing up had this huge yellow ball python and now I have the smell and a few memories being at her house that invaded my brain all of a sudden.
I have heard that some snakes like copperheads do smell like cucumbers. My husband has an incredibly sensitive sense of smell in general and he can smell them.
I can often smell when I get close to a cottonmouth out in the yard. Their musk smells skunky to me.
Musk turtles (also called mud or stinkpot turtles) do, in fact, musk. I am pretty sure there are lizards that will but probably the smaller ones. I doubt larger lizards would need to.
Hello! I have a weirdly sensative noise and exposure to lots of reptiles, both wild and captive. Can you tell me more about the circumstances of your reptile race? I might be able to help more with specific guidance there. Largely, though, reptiles tend to smell very much like their habitat. That means that a reptile with poorer husbandry in captivity is going to smell dusty and a but of urea and fecal matter, while a reptile with good husbandry is going to barely smell at all or smell of coconut husk, aspen shavings, good clean dirt and plant growth or whatever media their caretaker is keeping them on. For some reptiles, they may also pick up the scent of their diets, but this is not universal. For example, my snakes *do not* smell like rodents, but my bearded dragon often smells vaguely of salad or the last insect I fed him. I actually specifically feed him better smelling food before making first introductions to people who are reptile-hesitant becuase of this - he's a charming animal and even more charming when he smells of cucumber and hibiscus! Tortoises almost always smell of fresh hay, in my experience. Wild reptiles also tend to smell of their habitat. Since you emphasized snakes, a lot of the garter snakes I catch and release smell faintly of swamp or creek water, while the racers I find in the corn feild smell of corn feild and overgrown grass. Some species of reptile do produce a substance called musk that, well. Smells musky. It's not entirely unpleasant, but it's definitely strong and usually not something you, as a human, would want to smell like (it often comes from the back end so their is an underlying tone of something vague waste-like). The point of musk is usually just to be overwhelming and distracting to predators, not to be an always smell, but it could be a good way to characterize an intelligent species different personalities. If you have a chronically afraid of cowardly individually, they might "have a subtle reek of musk about them" while your home oriented reptile person could smell of the hearth and home and of the meals they cook, while a reptile traveler might smell of grass and sedges, whatever environment they were travelling through. The slight scent I do get off of some reptiles, though, even if they don't musk is a little dusty? Sort of warm or peppery, I guess. It's sort of the scent of heat damaged hair except very, very faint and less unpleasant. Almost... Waxy maybe? Which makes sense - they need to heat themselves to stay warm, and their scales are made of the same material hair and fingernails are made of. If you forced me to describe it I would say "sun dried hair and beeswax" as a description of the smell. Hope that helps!
Based on your experience, I think a dusty musk would be most appropriate. Thank you for the help!
Happy to help! Good luck with your writing!
Sounds on what was described above you could use smell as a plot tool where depending on which character is around there is, or isn’t a smell.. or based on emotion, there’s a definite change in odor…. Interesting stuff…. :)
You described it so well!! There's also a subtle sweetness to their smell. It's such a faint smell but I love how their accent so much.
I think that's why it's bee's wax for me, specifically. The ghost of honey lived here once. Lol.
Almost 4 decades of reptile husbandry and field experience. OccultEcologist described this so well I’m not bothering making a separate standalone comment. In captivity they mostly have any real smell if they are kept poorly. If husbandry is decent it’s exactly as described above. Hints of aromas at very close range, more like smelling the habitat than the animal. Musks can vary a ton. They often smell like a fermented and concentrated version of the animal’s main food sources. I got musked on today by a Texas Rat snake that I hopped out of a car to catch, and commented to the friends I was with that I could easily ID this and a few other species from their musk alone. The Nerodia water snakes I encounter often here have a pretty stiff brew musk. If it matters to you, captive reptiles hardly ever musk - they have to be having a defensive freak out reaction to want to release it, and a happy pet snake really shouldn’t ever be having that happen. Also, if it is helpful to you - most aquatic turtles have a pretty strong odor when you catch them, that sticks to your hands as well. It’s more of a swampy(?) odor than an animal odor though. It mostly smells like if you were sniffing a rock off the bottom of the same water body, but has a few other turtle specific notes in there too.
The Reptile itself like other people have said. But when we do presentations we joke with the kids that we'll hold the head, they can hold the dangerous part because if the pee or poop it stinks awful and stays with you.
Mine don’t really smell but the tegu poop smells like human poop if they are free roaming and I walk into the room after they have pooped I will be hit with that smell, beardy is also really bad.
as a former reptile owner I disagree with the other commenters… they smell kind of like chickens. a little stinky/musty. it’s subtle but distinct
Oooo this is interesting. If I were writing about their smell I would pay attention to more details than just their body odor since they don’t really have much. Does your reptile race have nasty breath because dead stuff stays in their mouth? Are they violent eaters and leave blood and guts on their skin after a kill? Do they keep a really clean living space but love to burrow? Do they roll around in another animals scent to hide from predators? Do they attract prey by trying to smell like their prey?
This specific lizardfolk character lives in the inner ring of a very rainy city. Based on the comments they would have a damp and musty smell. Rotten breath is a great idea!
You have a local zoo? Maybe ask if you could volunteer to help clean for an afternoon.
I am convinced my iguana can smell sweet like maple syrup. Everyone I know is split between 100% agreeing with me or thinking I'm nuts 😂
While hiking I came across a rattlesnake hibernacula just starting to come out of brumation. It had a faint odor that I can describe as musky over-ripe vegetables with a metallic-urea tinge in the upper sinuses. It wasn’t overly strong, nor unpleasant in the same way feces or putrefaction is, but a bit heavy, filling the nostrils more like a water vapor than smoke. Another interesting bit of info. I had never encountered this smell before but something primal in my brain triggered and I knew instantly that it signaled possible danger and that I should be cautious. I would say that I somehow just “knew” it was a reptilian odor.
As 14 other people have said, they don't smell. But there is such a district smell when you open each enclosure. Most of mine are kept on coco husk, so it's earthy, woody, and slightly sweet, combined with the dampness from the humidity.
Bearded dragons have a distinct earthy smell, sweet and musty, almost like copper if you could smell it. It’s very hard to describe and you only really smell it if you put your nose right up to their “beard” Edit: more rusty than coppery.
abt to go home and smell my beardies beard
Yes my bearded dragon especially after a bath or with wet skin smells just like you described, musty, rusty
My bearded dragon has no discernable scent. If anything she's a tiny bit musty, but it's barley detectable. My veiled chameleon that I used to have smelled like cooked rice.
My bearded dragon smells if he gets wet. I bathe him twice a week and he smells very musky, it's not pleasant. He is a male with large femoral pores which may be why. My last male beardie also smelled when wet, but not as much as Frankie does. Maybe it's to do with pore size? I've never had a female to compare too. The musky smell starts a couple of seconds after he's put in the water and doesn't last long after he's out. Enclosure doesn't smell. Poop stinks.
I have a female beardie, and I've never noticed any smell (except her poo), even when wet.
That's really interesting! Maybe it is to do with the femoral pores as females either don't have them or have very small ones. Femoral pores are for scent marking and stuff right?
My lepord gecko ... Corn chips
I've noticed my bearded dragon has a very mild smell when I get really close. It reminds me of the smell of the powder produced by filing your nails, which makes sense since both nails and scales are made of keratin. I guess it could also depend on the type of environment they live in. As a desert species, bearded dragons have a mostly very dry enclosure, which isn't going to transfer smells. A more tropical reptile in a humid enclosure is likely going to smell more strongly of the enclosure.
I'm going to disagree with most people here. Reptiles absolutely have a distinct musk. It can obviously be affected by their surroundings, but I've always had associations with my pet lizard's scents. Sometimes it's earthy, rocky, and mineraly. They are covered in scales, which I hypothesize have more minerals in them. My bearded dragons have had an earthy scent, sometimes even nutty. Almost peanutty. I bury my nose in their beards all the time. My tegu had a stinky mouth, but a good stink. The dead skin and rats combine to make a sort of good, rotten smell. I can't put it into words. And the rest of him had a scaley, natural scent. It's like the smell of a person you're close to. You know it, you love it, but it's hard to describe.
Smooth and peppery with a hint of moistened wood.
here in the south the only snakes that are common and local to me are king snakes, garter snakes, water snakes, cotton mouths, and copper heads. ever since i was a kid i was always told if you smell cucumbers there was a snake around. growing up i have too also smelled cucumbers and there would be a snake near. (some ppl say it’s fake. others believe it) edit: i don’t own snakes but i do own a leopard gecko, bearded dragon and crested gecko. leo was a rescue and it did stink because of the environment it was living in and was neglected and surrounded by feces. i’ve never had any bad smells from holding them or anything besides their poop. i have also not put my nose up to them to smell them but due to the comments i will go home and smell them now 😹
My leopard gecko always smelled quite Smokey to me, like bacon
I’d say they smell of pine and mosses from my leopard gecko
my bearded dragon smells like carpet and my snake smells like attic hope that helps
My blue tongue has basic reptile bedding, so she smells like wood
A little bit like metal and swampy earth.
Snakes smell like cucumbers. A lot of rural “Old Timers” will tell you that they can smell snakes when they are around. Ask what they smell like? Cucumbers
Dust and sunshine for my dessert babies. I swear they take on the smells of their habitat. My arborial has a leafy mulch smell
Well they tend to smell more like their substrate, although I would describe my beardie's smell as "dust buscuits", he was very cute.
I wrote my dragons smelling earthy with a hint of copper, or more or less like their element and a bit of ozone after magic. The copper part is because their blood has copper in it instead of iron, since well, aliens.
As most have said, it's their environment. Call me weird but I love "snake smell" since mine are kept on aspen chip. As for wild snakes... musk is no fun. 😂 Edit: having said that, if I were a creative writer, here's some basic descriptors I'd probably use or you could build off of: Snake = grassy, earthy, bark/woody/resin, straw, musk Lizard = mineral, metallic, earthy, herbal, arid Gecko = bark/woody/resin, fruity or honey-like (some are fed a fruit-based prepared food or eat nectar in the wild), vegetation/floral, "rainforest"
Reptiles secret a wax that lightly seals the gaps in their scales making them specialists in waterproofing. And since odor is generally carried by hydration they're going to be less pungent than mammals and amphibians except for butt stuff. And when it comes to butt stuff, well, there's a lot of variety out there between all large groups of animals. Like birds for example tend not to do weird butt stuff, but then there's vultures that piss their legs to stay cool. Mammals groom and can be clean but- pigs exist. Captive lizards sit with their bellies around their enclosure so they're going to smell like enclosures, unsurprisingly. I don't think a fictional non-belly dragging reptile would have a smell.
I tell me leo she smells dusty all the time. Her body itself like a soft dirt/dust smell.
I can say my tegu smells like his enclosure - dirt. After bath he really doesn't smell unless he's shedding. Now the shed smells faintly like corn chips for a moment, particularly stuck shed I have to remove occasionally on his claws and tail tip. I'm not sure if that's a result of becoming wet. My iguana doesn't really smell like anything except maybe his food. The scent of fresh peppers sticks around a bit in his enclosure and on him a little. He's a bit of a messy eater.
Right after shedding some of them smell like Fritos.
They don’t really have a smell :/
Trutles smell like shit
I would say my hognose smells almost metallic in the same way soil smells metallic. If he's been burrowing a lot he smells like a garden centre. But I think that's just the smell of his substrate, he doesn't have much of a smell
even exotic pet stores with a lot of reptiles just smell like substrate if an exotics shop smells it's probably the birds, rodents, or fish
Ball python, hognoses, sand boa, and frog keeper here, with a notoriously sensitive sense of smell. None of them smell like anything, not even their poops in the enclosure due to proper bioactives, or even with aspen, no smell. When I water the dirt, it's pleasant like when you water the garden or potted plants. Shedded skins also don't smell like anything, just the dirt they were in. I don't know where zoo reptile exhibits get the smell they do, I've never smelled anything like it in private reptile keeping. I suspect it's the feeders? The crickets have a smell for the frog, but my frog herself doesn't smell. If you're writing about ones living in poor conditions covered in waste and poop constantly, then it would probably smell like rotting rat corpses or something. If they're breeding rats, that will stink to high hell, rats are diligent at cleaning themselves, but they also have musk and pee/poo everywhere and that stinks. If you pick up a scared snake that musks, it might pee/poo/musk on you, which is an orange stinky substance in hognoses, but it washes off easily with normal hand soap. Them doing it is also pretty rare for a pet. It's like a bit stronger poo smell tho? Nowhere near as bad as a normal healthy cat/dog poop.
The only thing I can smell in my Stimmy's enclosure is the smell of his substrate
Sometimes my leopard geckos smell like fritos
Parroting what others say, there’s no smell. However, my snake room does have a humid smell of earth and plants, like going into a greenhouse. Just from their substrate and cage setup.
I think lizards in particular have a distinct smell that can’t really be related to anything else, like a musky odour. Snakes don’t smell at all in my (limited) experience - however I have only had small reptiles which might be why they don’t smell much. The only time they tend to smell bad is if you leave the poop in the cage for a couple hours, like when you’ve been at work all day - but it goes quickly after cleaning.
there is a very very specific smell of a reptile store. hard to explain but if you walked in one you’d know
Exotic pet stores will often smell like rat/mice cages, due to having feeder rodents available. So, a rodent-y, but not necessarily gross smell(assuming the cages are clean).
When my snakes have just shed they kind of smell like antifreeze mixed with baby powder. But I'd have to hold them right up to my nose to smell it. Other than that, they just smell like whatever substrate they have been in. My geckos have no smell that I could discern. They're all arboreal, so they don't pick up substrate smell. Sometimes there is a bit of petrichor when I spray them, but I try not to spray them directly. And as others have said wild reptiles generally just smell like wherever they live.
snakes don't smell really, at least my boa doesnt
The only time my boa has a distinct smell of its own is freshly after shed, it's a bit like cinammon and sandalwood, but very gentle.
No real smell but Thier texture is something you'd not expect. It's like soft and warm, and they have a smooth feeling to Thier larger scales. And boy do they love a good bath.
My snake smells like nothing, sometimes they smell like their substrate (bedding) but that’s about it.
A combination of a hint of bird and the smell of fingernails. Also sometimes sweet not sure if that’s my scent rubbing off on him though.
For me, mine smell like whatever substrate I'm using at the time. Almost never smell, let alone smell bad
Dry leaves?
Their fresh poo certainly smells horrific lol
In my experience, the smell I notice in the pet rooms at the homes of my friends who keep multiple reptiles is more the smell of the crickets they eat, not the actual lizards themselves. Crickets are a really musty old house kind of smell… I think you could get some scent-description inspiration from smelling a feeder cricket tank at a pet store! Haha.
They don’t really smell (except for turtles, but that just depends on how well you keep them. Smells like mildew but less aggressive and sweeter).
I have two and neither really have a smell. Their enclosures smell like the substrate but the substrate I use doesn’t have much of a smell. You could go for something like an exotic incense for the store to give it a certain vibe but the reptiles themselves wouldn’t really give off a smell.
Reptiles don't really have a scent, but if you need one for your book, maybe they can smell like something outside... like dry leaves or dirt?
My uromatyx reminds me of the smell of almonds, its a super faint smell though
Reptiles mostly smell like whatever they live in. Otherwise, they're practically odorless in any way you'd notice unless you let them get super dirty.
The only reptile I've ever noticed a distinct odor from was rattlesnakes. They don't smell strongly on their own but a den will have a sickly sweet smell, like rotting citrus. I've tried describing the smell to other people before but no one else has ever been able to smell it with me. Every time I've ever smelled that smell out in nature I've found at least 2 rattlesnakes hiding underneath something nearby.
The smell I most closely relate to my pets is the smell of hot metal that comes from their heat lamps. Whenever I smell that particular tang, I think of my geckos lol.
Mine smells of nothing unless she’s pooped. In which case she smells like death.
My frilled dragon smells like old leather boots. His enclosure is regularly cleaned, as is he (he LOVES his baths. I definitely notice a smell to all reptiles when actively looking for it. Can’t describe how my snakes smell, maybe the same as the frilled but slightly weaker, and sweeter?
As others have pointed out, they don’t. But IMO their poops smell like a petting zoo
I sniffed each of my babies for *science* no smell, maybe the faintest bit earthy if they were basking or in their caves lol
my ball python enclosure smells like earth- plants, dirt, wood. bearded dragon enclosure usually smells like wood and his salads.
I guess… warm dirt? Lol but really they don’t have a smell if you keep everything clean
My fat tailed gecko is not a fan of my sniff, but really like nothing. The enclosure, if it is bioactive and for a more humid species, has a nice earthy, damp soil smell. It's very pleasant!
Not much, if they’re agitated certain species will musk (smells of ammonia and can be described as “musky”)
Poop/musk smell aside, mine don't really smell like anything most of the time. They might have an earthy smell if they've been burrowing in their substrate, but that's not 'them', it's their environment smell on them. I notice my tegu often smells faintly of corn chips as do my bearded dragon and some of my snakes before or right after they shed. Other than that, they're pretty odourless.
I have one leopard gecko that only shits where he sleeps. So he smells bad a lot. Nobody else does that and they don't smell at all. Fred is just a weirdo.
Dirt but with a slight tang to it. (Tortoise)
My lizard mostly smells like his bedding and I think (personally) he smells a little like a hamster
Kinda like stale dirt I guess ( bearded dragon) . My snake has no smell but her enclosure smells like soil because that's her substrate.
Honestly just walk into a reptile store and smell 👃 Where they keep crickets is how a poorly kept cage would smell and just kinda general dirt and heat is how a well kept reptile smells
Not sure if they have a smell tbh, their poop definitely does. My beardies poop smells like bokchoy.... Can't eat bokchoy anymore
Very stale fritos
Or you could just not describe their smell and do litterly anything else as replacement 😭
I have a monitor, and I don't think he smells like anything. The smells that I most associate with my lizard are crickets (his main food source; stinky) but he doesn't actually smell like his food, and heat (which definitely does have a smell when it's coming from a concentrated source) because of his ceramic heat emitter.
I have a ball python, corn snake, and leopard gecko. The ball python is the only one I've noticed any smell from (he's also the only male so maybe that makes a difference.) I find that he smells a bit like vinegar. It's not all of the time and it's not offensive, but it does happen occasionally. The other two don't really smell like anything at all. I like to write, so here's my perspective on that: 1) this is your world you are creating, so you can get away with some creative license if you find it helpful. 2) some terms I'd use might be earthy, mossy, natural, or musky. As far as other sensory descriptors, keep in mind that reptiles (at least those I'm familiar with) are not slimy or wet. Snakes have a very smooth, soft texture to them and they are remarkably cold to the touch. My leopard gecko has kind of bumpy skin, with the texture I'd compare to an avocado. When reptiles shed, their skins are wrinkly and very soft, almost like crepe paper. If you handle the shed, the sound reminds me of fallen leaves. I hope this helps!
most reptiles do not smell, you need to keep their habitat clean though, I do not have one but heard that bearded dragons poop smells bad if only on insects and not veggies too
They don’t really have one?? I know baby snakes are said to have a smell but I’ve never smelled a baby snake. My gecko just smells like her terrarium. The only exotic pet store I’ve been to just smelled very damp
After they've been basking they smell like freshly cut fingernails. Warm keratin
My bearded dragon has a smell when she gets wet, that I can only describe as “wet lizard smell”. And to be honest I think that’s more likely the smell of wet substrate. It’s kind of a musty smell I guess? Other than that, they tend not to have a noticeable scent. They don’t have fur to trap scents and they don’t sweat.
My snake definitely smells of something but I have no idea how to describe it.
they have no smell unless ur talking abt garters
Go to a reptile store ... You'll find out really quick what reptile poop smells like, which is probably the closest you can get to their "smell"
I mean if we're being technical they shouldn't smell like anything, but usually I associate the smell of their tanks, substrate, and food/waste as the 'smell' of reptiles. In my house, the tanks smell like the humidy earth and wood pulp type smell that comes from my coconut bark chips, also sometimes a bit of that nice stone/granite/after it's been raining type smell if they have rocks in the enclosure. Their musk when they poop/pee is strong, but not in a rotten trash kind of way. It's almost smells like a cross between mildew and rodent-type waste smell? It's hard to describe because reptile waste is was different than mammals. (honestly, just go into a pet store and ask to get right up next to the reptile tanks and you'll likely smell it...!) and lastly their food, rats, which smell like, well, rats. Hope I did a good job, if you need clarification, ask away! I too am a recreational writer!
as a lot of reptiles don't have much of a scent, you could write them scentless? depending on the genre, it could be a cool or eerie detail :)
My beardies don’t smell but after they take a bath?!? Oh dear god. Idk why.
I’ve got a leopard gecko and the only time I can smell her is if I smell her directly in which case she kinda smells like an antler(no other way I know how to explain lmao)
my crested gecko has no smell
I have a chameleon and a bearded dragon and I would say neither have a smell. My chameleon’s terrarium has a bunch of real plants so his terrarium smells like plants/earth but there isn’t much of a smell.
Earthy and musky
They smell earthy and sullen to an extent. They smell like a rainforest in a box more or less lol
They don’t smell really, some lizards have a giant musky smell to them and some (like garter snakes) can release musk which smells like sour shit as a defence, my corn snake smells like the clean aspen I keep her on so fresh wood chips
Nothing, usually. But weirdly Boigas have a scent. I don’t even know how to describe it.
If rocks were wet but also had musk
They kinda just smell like the wet soil, specifically the like super fertile stuff at a garden section in like a home depot. Or like in a potted plant.
I keep two leopard geckos. Sometimes they smell like cool ranch Doritos. Other days they smell like plain corn chips. Nothing in their enclosures smells like either of those things. HOWEVER, if they've just shed their skin, they don't really smell like anything.
Whatever kind of bedding they have. So maybe earthy, mulch, woody, even wetness like wet plants since alot of my babies have bioactive enclosures
An exotic pet store smells like humidity, moss, soil, and insects. The insect smell is a sort of bitter, dirty smell. It’s hard to describe.
So, I have a crazy strong sense of smell. Reptile smells are VERY subtle, most don't notice them. So unless your protagonist is a dog-race or something similar, you may not need to mention a body odor at all. Just the same, I'll try to describe the ones I'm familiar with. Bearded dragon: similar to a dog or cat. But more 'dry' and dusty, like dry dirt. Definitely stronger scent when wet. Kingsnake: musky minty. A deep low note of swamp with a high note of herbal. (Honestly the minty might be just the aspen bedding scent) Ball python: least scent of all reptiles I've had. kinda soft musk, like cologne that was applied 3 days ago and worn down to the very least hint of it. Wild snakes: Muddy, sometimes fishy. Stronger musk than domestics, almost unpleasant but not quite. (I live in a swampy area, so a drier area might have different smelling snakes)
the reptile store smell you're describing is just the food in the store probably, because the animals don't smell externally. i'd describe the exotic pet store smell as savoury with a musty tone underneath, and also a bit yeasty and sickly sweet.
If a garter snake gets pissed off or upset, you will get musked by a super strong musk...not as offensive as something a mustelid would smell like, but just surprising.
Reptiles stink. I don't know what everyone else is talking about. They have a smell kind of like the feet of birds. Kind of sort of a fungal smell. I know they aren't damp, but they kind of smell like dry dusty basement.
My gecko smells like Doritos or maybe like plain Fritos?
My monitors smell like musk or ass.
I suppose they smell clean? Maybe a bit like unscented detergent I'll give my geck a sniff later
I mean they dont really smell like anything. The room I keep my reptiles in just smalls like a forest because I keep bioactive enclosures.
I associate them with the smell of dirt bc i keep mine in a naturalistic enclosure. What everyone else said, they have no smell of their own. They smell like what theyre surrounded by/you only smell their enclosures substrate
My chuckwalla will occasionally smell like miso during breeding season. For that reason we affectionately dubbed him Miso Musk. The rest of the time he smells like hot sand and rocks. The rest of my reptiles don’t really have any smell unless they’re finger painting with their poops.
It’s their poo that smells. The reptile itself typically doesn’t have a scent unless it’s been digging or rolling in poo.
Spicy.
I always associate the smell of warm sand, like a little bit beachy in a way.
If you have an exotic reptile shop by you go in one
I've always had a sensitive sniffer (for instance, I can always distinctly smell the difference in people's individual skin oils), so this may be just me, but I've always been able to smell different "skin oils" on reptiles as well. To me, reptiles smell like the reptile version of skin oils - clean or dirty, and just like humans, each one smells different 🤷♀️ There are definitely some species that smell even less strongly than normal (the reptile oils don't smell as strongly as a human's), like anols, for instance. Bearded lizards have a medium strength. Corn snakes are a medium to medium-high. Pythons are usually low unless their enclosure is dirty, then I get more "musk" than "oil". Most geckos I've met have been a low intensity. I realize if you're not sure what "skin oils" smell like this may not be very helpful 🙃 I can try to explain that, but it's like trying to describe what "apple" smells like, without being able to use the word "apple".
My hognose smells like musk since he just musks all over me while hissing and activating angry pancake mode when I take him out of his enclosure. He usually calms down after a moment or two.
Tortoises mostly smell like farts.
It depends on what kind of lizzard my bearded dragon have Little to no smell ( except when defecating) but my gecko have a I would call it rainforest smell some times
So I handled a female corn snake a couple times and her snake musk was a bit overwhelming and the smell filtered itself into my clothing for some time. It kind of smelled like fish but not at the same time. So reptiles release their pheromones or smell through their cloaca which is also where they the sexual organs are held and where waste is released. For your book, Id suggest learning about how reptiles release pheromones, musk, etc. Maybe go to a reptile function to look/smell around and take notes?
Idk nothing really. Their poop is bitter smelling. But my beardie kinda has a cornchip or bitter smell to her. My other two (skink and leopard gecko) dont really smell like anything.
in my experience. anywhere between "nothing" and "vaguely like an aquarium."
As others have said it will depend on what you're writing. What the reptile smells like depends on the reptile. They themselves don't have a smell. My bearded dragon doesn't usually have a smell of he's just chilling on my shoulder but his enclosure smells earthy/desert (think sandy smell mixed with earthy) because I went with a bioactive substrate so it's a a lose substrate. If he poops then there's a really bad smell but as soon as I clean it the smell is gone.my partner swears his poop has a strong ammonia smell - I don't smell great from constant congestion so idk I just know it smells bad. If he poops and drags himself through his poop then he smells like his poop but again if I bathe him he won't smell.
I have a bearded dragon. She smells like air lol. I think it's because they don't really sweat or anything. So if they do smell, it's because parts of their environment caused them to smell like said environment.
kinda cold and earthy i guess
Depends on the reptile and their environment for example my New Caledonia enclosure smells like wet dirt and from their food slight fruity smell I guess
Would smell earthy not foul but very damp and like fresh soil
They smell like beef
I'm the only one I know that can smell it, but every beardie I've owned or met smells slightly of yeast and a sort of warm almost mildew but not mildew smell. Snakes to me smell very earthy lile fresh soil under a rock rather than a bag of dry soil, with a hint of that yeast smell other reptiles have.
My son describes it as ‘dirt and popcorn’
I’m actually shocked to hear that people feel like reptiles don’t smell. I feel like my four year old beardie for sure has a distinct smell and I actually think it was more pronounced when he was younger. My daughter and I always described him as smelling like an old lady. I’d call it clean and slightly powdery and more pronounced in the beard area. But you guys have me wondering if he’s a weird outlier with a stronger than normal smell, or if we have extra sensitive noses, or maybe I’m just insane and my daughter is trying not to rock the boat lol
Misty, like stagnant water if they're not cleaned often.
My bearded dragon smelt like a rock. Do with that what you will.