Can "hard water" kill a ball python?

A lady was telling me the other day that she moved into a house and the water is extremely hard. She said it has killed a few of her younger snakes. She has switched to bottled spring water. Anyone ever hear of this happening?

I think that water quality can have an effect. where I live they over-chlorinate the water, so I boil tap water and then condition with goldfish water conditioner (cheaply available at pet stores) just to be on the safe side.

Im sure it can if the chemicals the city uses is too strong. We use tap water not a problem but the thought of my snakes dying is motivating me to change somethings. Im thinking a whole house water purifier might be awesome. I believe i saw one when we were at Lowes last.

Many african fish species need hard water. I would imagine the snakes might be use to it? Either way, you can have the water tested for fairly cheap. Are you using well water?

I'ts not me so I don't really know if it's well water or not, all I was told is this person was using tap water that is really hard, so high in calcium? She said she lost a few babie/BP's and thinks it's the water.

You can buy specific reptile water conditioner at some pet stores, but I'm pretty sure its the same as the goldfish stuff....

I would doubt that it was water hardness. Did she have necropsy done to see that it was some sort of chemical build up? Doubtful. I could see an excess of chlorine or some other conditioning having a negative effect, maybe. But chlorine typically evaporates completely out of tap water within 24 hours of not being contained.

I also doubt it is the water. My town has hard water and it has had no effect on any animals baby to adult so far. Her guess about the cause is no help to anyone.

This does keep coming up though. I have had several people say the same thing to me. Either there's some truth or its a really persistent urban myth. Either way, I prefer to take precautions just in case....

I used hard tap water from the 1990's until 2011.
the only reason I switched was to keep hard water scale from building up on the water dishes.
I have a sinaloan milk that I raised from a hatchling in 1995 or 1996 to present with no health problems; she is still going strong.
I now live in a place with softer water and use tap again.

Also note that most cities use chloramine in place of chlorine and it DOES NOT evaporate in 24 hours like chlorine; use conditioner that specifies that it removes chloramine to get rid of it. I would use a conditioner made for reptiles but it probably is the same a fish conditioner. (I worked at a pet shop for 11 years and there are some slight differences in some conditioners in my experience).