Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of 16 or so inch sumo bloods one of them lays in the water bowl most of the time, is this normal, I know in the wild they lay in the water to ambush prey and it kind of looks like that may be what hes doing, because he holds his head kind of high. I have already checked for mites numorous parinoid times and they are mite free on a newspaper substrate, do any of the the other people here that keep bloods have experiance with them spending a great deal of time in the water bowl? they have a screen top breeder tank with a sheet of perferated polycarbonate the screen to hold the humidity. Could they need more humidity?
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Ricky

lots of everything im not gonna list it

I've read lots posts on here and in other forums where other peoples' bloods do the same as yours does, laying in the water dish most of the time.

My blood is a little longer than yours are, and she does the opposite. She burrows down in her substrate every chance she gets so that just her nose is pointed out. I think that may be a natural behavior too. She doesn't seem to do it to hide, because she's never bitey or mean. I think she just likes to burrow.

Seems like every animal is different. One thing I have noticed with mine is that bumping up the humidity a little traps the heat inside the tank better, which seems to give her a stronger feeding response. Otherwise, she's not an aggressive feeder. Other people say their bloods feed like crazy, no matter when, what they're feeding or what the time of day is.

You never mentioned if you are keeping them together or separate. I will assume they are in separate cages. It appears they will soak for a couple reasons:
1. preparation for shedding
2. too dry cage
3. security
4. extreme cage temperatures

Number 1 & 3 appear to be the most common even if you have a hide box, they will seak comfort in the water bowl if the temperature is cooler. Most pythons I place the hide box on or over the heat source, but with STP & Bloods, I reverse it with the water source over/under the heat source. They like it better from what I have observed.
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I have been keeping bloods for a few years now and have come to the conclusion that spending days in the water bowl or buried in the substrate are just what these snakes do. It is perfectly natural for them so long as the water is clean and there is no sign of discolored skin or blisters your snake should be fine. A lot of snakes do this right before shedding or if the temp is too hot so you might want to check on those two things to rule them out. Good luck