Cindy. First, Balls are not desert snakes. Second, desert snakes, all snakes have the same physical requirements for hydration. That is, all snakes seek to stay hydrated.
Snakes is desert areas behaviorally must secure areas where they do not lose hydration. That is, they must find burrows or shelters that maintain a certain level of humidity, here its 50% or higher depending on conditions. Less then that causes them to dehydrate.
They also do not expose themselves to drying air. That is air that is less then 50% So they often are found crawling in the open when its humid, fronts, rains, cool out. Etc.
They also do not move in open areas, if they cannot secure a method to hydrate. That is, if prey is available, they gain water by feeding, if food is not available, they will not expose themselves by activities that cause dehydration. Also individuals that happen to be around water, creeks, washes etc, can rehydrate from drinking water. Even such things are fog allows for desert reptiles to maintain hydration.
Animals from wetlands, non desert species, require aprox the same hydration levels, they just behaviorally control it differently. For instance, staying in open air to dry out. moving to dryer shelters to avoid water blisters, etc. They are trying to maintain about the same levels as desert species, only using the opposite behaviors to get there.
There are some adaptions, like the thickness or structure of the skin. Organs that can withstand greater levels of dehydration. Examples are, the kidneys of desert species have developed to withstand seasonal extreme dry periods with extremely low humidity. Whereas species is a constantly wet or humid enviornment, have no need to adapt to dryness.
The point is, the actual animal requires about same hydration levels.
In captivity, its our task to not allow dehydration to all our captives.
In your case, if your snake are dehydrating that quickly, my bet is, your cages are pourous, screen lids, etc. couple that with indoor or worse yet air conditioned houses, you have extremely low humidity outside of the cage. This causes water lose and is not good or benefitual to any snake.
While non desert species suffer visually and quickly from chronic dehydration, desert species can withstand it slightly longer, they still develop long term chronic disease, like gout, kidney failure,etc.
Simply put, SNAKES hide in secure shelters. They do so for reasons of security and to control hydration. As in, not to lose it.
If every snake was out in open air, we would have a hard time walking, there would be so many of them. But thats not the case. That only occurs during extreme floods. Snakes will be everywhere trying not to drown, that is, avoiding overhydration. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Ball pythons come from monsoonal habatits. that is, they have a wet season and a dry season. I believe the angolan python is a desert adapted relative of the ball python
