Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a few snakes that love to submerge themselves in their water bowl and all of the water ends up damping the aspen. now its pretty damp not just a little that dries up. i dont know what to do i cant keep changing there bedding everyday. i dont really know why they are constantly in there water bowl they do not have mites or anything. i guess what im getting at is that with the aspen being pretty damp wont that be unhealthy for my snakes? thanks !!

I have a male like that so I have to fill his bowl up only half way. Take it to a sink and fill the bowl up. Then put the whole snake in and let the water overflow. Then pull out the snake and put a mark on the outside of the bowl to the water line. Then only fill the water to the mark or lower.

Two suggestions.
First you could use cypress mulch for substrate as moisture will not bother it (the biggest advantage of cypress as a substrate).
As an alternative, or in addition to cypress mulch, buy some squat deli containers with lids that come pre-punched with 1 inch holes in the middle of the lid (approx. 20 cents apiece). You can get these from Superior enterprises or directly from fabri-kal. These disposable deli containers can be put in an appropriately sized piece of PVC pipe/conduit to make it harder for the snake to tip over. The lid with the small hole in the top prevents the snake from trying to lay in his water - as they can just stick their head in to drink.
Grant

thanks for your reply but for one i dont want to change bedding cause they might go off feed. and secondly the water doesnt actually tip over when he puts his body in there thats when it all comes out.

>>thanks for your reply but for one i dont want to change bedding cause they might go off feed. and secondly the water doesnt actually tip over when he puts his body in there thats when it all comes out.

They'll be fine with a switch in bedding. I swapped mine from paper towel to aspen to bark ( I love bark ) and they ate like pigs. I recommend bark as a substrate.

Also, the idea in the first reply to your post was absolutely brilliant. That's probably your best bet.

And also, I thought one was never supposed to use Cypress bedding for reptiles (or small animals) because the fumes did terrible things?
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1.1 normal ball pythons (Cindy and Darwin)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
2.1 betta fishes (Vicious, Killer, and Butters)
3.1 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
2.25 chickens (Jacques the rooster and his harem)

but what I really want is more ball pythons!

There are only a few reasons I know of for a snake to consistantly soak in water. One is mites (or other external parasites), two: shedding, or lack of humidity, or three, the cage is too warm and the snake is trying to cool down.

With this in mind, double check for mites. Usually you will see pepper like things floating in the water dish or lying at the bottom after the snake as soaked in it for awhile. If you see some or are not sure, get a can of Prevent a Mite and spray the enclosure, removing snake and water dish before spraying of course. Let it dry completely. Put the snake back in and the water dish. Repeat in another month or two, for a couple months (do this with all your snakes, if one manages to get mites, they tend to migrate into other cages anyway so might as well treat all at the same time).

Check your temperatures (cool and hot end) and humidity levels. If these are correct, get another therometer (digital thermometer with probe and hydrometer) just in case what you have no isn't accurate anymore. If already have digital thermometers, switch batteries. Low batteries may make them inaccurate but certainly doesn't hurt to buy a new thermometer to double check.

Lastly, reduce the size of your water dish so your snake can't actually coil up inside of it. This will help discourage insistant soaking and spillage into the cage.
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PHLdyPayne

Put a pie pan under the water bowl to catch the spillover .