Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have some questions about dehydration. My blood spends 24 hours a day in his hide except when I get him out. I know they like to spend time in there to feel secure, but he wont leave at all. Not even to drink or soak. I notice that his scales are dimpled a bit and I know he is not over weight. Ive been told by people that he is too skinny. Ive been getting him to put on weight. He eats for me fine. He wont drink though. I have to feed him water with an eye dropper. I have had him for a month and 2 weeks. the first month i let him settle and didnt mess with him much. Lately Ive been handleing him more to get him used to me. I use paper towel for substrate and it keeps the humidity in the 55%-65% rang. I made it higher in his shed and he shed perfect. He has a humid hide with cypress mulch in it. He pooped when i first got him so Im not worried about that. They can go a while with out pooping. Is there any way to get him to drink other than feeding him water with an eye dropper? and what about the dimples in his scales? i hear that is from dehydration. Even when I soak him, he wont drink, he just sits there. Any ideas on how to get him to drink? He litteraly would spend 24/7 in his hide if i wouldnt mess with him.

Snakes don't drink as much as other animals do. You probably won't see him drinking often, but that doesn't mean he's not drinking. I've been keeping snakes for a number of years and I've only caught them drinking a handful of times. Usually if I go in the snake room in the middle of the night for some reason I might see one out getting a drink. If the snake has a source of clean water and access to it, it will drink when it needs to.
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-chris-

i am not an expert but on this forum some time ago i recall a thread which a guy stated that he never saw a blood drink water that was more than 12 hours old. it seemed like some people flamed him if i remember correctly. stating that the bloods live in muddy rice fields and such and sit in stagnant water or something to that effect so they claimed that it wouldnt make sense to see them only drink "fresh" water. well since reading that i have caught my blood drinking, and imagine this, its only right after i introduce new water. mine will drink the "fresh" water everytime i put it in within 20 miutes or so. i have NEVER seen him drink water that was any older than an hour or so. i didnt pay any attention until i read that post some time ago. once i actually paid attention, i found that with MY snake and apparently the other guy who started the threads snake that what he stated was true at least to some extent with SOME bloods. remember that all animals are individuals and some will differ from others but if you try and watch him right after you replace the water you will sooner or later see him drink. if you change it everyday they will more than likely drink almost everyday. the difference i have seen in my blood is not that it defecates more often or any less, but she produces copious amounts of liquid urine. she wont actually pass any feces or urates for very long periods of time. 3 months at least, sometimes more. i worried a lot when i first got her so i soaked her a few times a week and it did benefit the snake and i by givigng us interaction time. she got to trust me and got used to me getting her in and out of her cage frequently but other than that it didnt help her go to the bathroom any more than normal. she only soaked, never drank the water she soaked in. try and change your water as often as possible, i mean its the easiest fastest maintenance there is to do with a snake. simple and quick and beneficial to the animal even if it doesnt seem to be drinking it everyday you change it. it cant hurt. you seem like you want the best for your animal so start by offering fresh water as often as you can and see if that doesnt make a big difference for you. one word though, you will have to change LOTS of newspaper if yours produces as much liquid pee as my girl does.

DJ

Thanks for the info. Ill have to try that out. He did soak and drink the first day i got him. I put him in his cage and after about a half hour he went ot the water dish and was in there for about an hour. since then he's been in his hide. I will try adding fresh water to his dish when he sees it. Thanks again

Your best bet is to take him to a vet if you are that concerned , you didnt say if he wsa wild caught.

No he wasnt wild caught he was captive bred. I replaced his cypress mulch in his hide with moss and it seems to be working better.