Soaking in waterbowl

[glacey]

Hi

Does anyone else find that their snakes like soaking in their bowls for no apparent reason (Stimson Python)? I dont think its mites as no signs and other stimsons and carpets showing no signs and not going in water.

Thanks in advance

 

[glacey]

and he's not due to shed in the near future at all.

 

[NoOne]

I have a couple of snakes that like to soak after they eat, one is an olive, one is a bredli.

 

[africancichlidau]

My male Coastal likes to do this sometimes also.

 

[Ricko]

my adult male diamond always in the water bowl and he dosent have mites either but none of my 5 stimmy's soak. may be too hot

 

[lutzd]

My diamond has done it on acassions, and my olive is doing it a lot lately. I don't think it's mites either, but I'm going to give the enclosure a spray with Top of Descent just to be on the safe side. Definitely not too hot (around 30C) which is quite mild for an olive, I believe.

 

[glacey]

Shouldn't be too hot - 29 degrees in that enclosure.

But there is a red/brown residue in that waterbowl that the others don't have - almost a slime texture (water changed every few days). Any ideas????

Should Top of Descent be sprayed on the snake directly?

 

[cwarren72]

Two of my Coastals will sit in their bowls and under water for ages for no real reason. I guess it probably lightens the load ? No real reason for it they just seem to like it while other snakes in the same enclosure don't very often?

 

[Rina]

Maybe like us humans, a good soak in the bath tub can help ease the mind and soothe the soul. :wink: Seriously though, if your animals are healthy and displaying normal behaviours and you have eliminated mites or other bities as a potenital problem, just be thankful for the fact that you don't have to walk these guys like you would a dog to amuse them.
Regards Rina

 

[sxereturn]

You'll find larger snakes will take to water a lot. As Col said...it lightens their loads...

 

[basketcase]

nvm

 

[Rina]

What does nvm stand for?
Regards Rina

 

[cwarren72]

Hey J-man what's doin?

 

[Mel]

I'm not in any way trying to negate any of the positive pieces of informaiton given here, or trying to offend anyone, but I would like to say that purely IMHO, I don't think a lot of hobbyists really know what mites are like. Until you've had personal experience with them, it's really hard to know. I'm willing to bet there's a lot of captive pythons out there with mites, whose owners would swear otherwise. Every snake that has ever soaked in my care, has been a new acquisition, and has mites or ticks. I'm not denying in any way that they soak for other reasons, but I'm just saying, the little f***ers are REALLY REALLY hard to see...and they're not always black. Juvenile mites are white. Even harder to see, especially as they're SUPER tiny. If an animal is still soaking on and off consistently after a couple of weeks, I'd be putting plain white paper in the cage as a substrate, and looking for the black dots. Also, check for them in the water bowl.

Mel x

 

[Rina]

Hobbyists on one side and Serious people on the other. :| please. I agree with you totally mel because mites can be absolutely impossible to identify if you really don't know what you are looking for unless you methodically check your snake and it's environment. A snake spending extra time in it's water doesn't neccessarily always mean something bad though is all I was trying to point out.
Regards Rina

 

[cwarren72]

Well no offence Mel but I can ensure you that I don't have mites on any of mine. Not a one but I can tell you that the two that soak all the time have always done it and I have had these two for some years now. Also the others in the cage don't soak much. That's just mine Mel as I said not trying to sound or be rude to you?

 

[Mel]

No offense taken at all. As I said, no doubt some snakes do soak, I just wanted to put out there that I think there's a lot of them that are soaking for a reason.

Mel

 

[NoOne]

I would agree that the first thing to check when snakes soak is for mites.
I've only ever had mites come in on new snakes which go no where near my collection until totally free. They aren't hard to find, when you know what to look for.
But if all is well then it's a normal behavior.

 

[luke]

i have never seen my coastal in the water bowl
GLACEY- red/brown residue is most likely a slopy poo