Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently acquired this 13' or so male silver from some friends of mine here in Arkansas. Pretty good deal I'd say for one coastal carpet and a baby cobra. He is a very nice snake, not flighty, not inclined to sling feces or musk, and he's has yet to ever take a defensive stance.

I do have one question though for the retic gods out there. I originally had a medium cat pan for a water dish in his enclosure, and he really wanted in there so he ended up making a huge mess trying. I had a large, shallow plastic tub sitting around, so I put it in there and filled it about halfway with water. That was about 5 days ago now, and he has yet to leave the water. I've checked him over completely, tip to tip, there are no mites, he isn't about to shed, and his enclosure has 65% relative humidity (and that's the lowest measurement I've taken on it yet). So, just curious, do some of your other keepers out there ever have snakes that just absolutely do not want to leave the water dish? I don't think this is any reason to be alarmed, unless I start noticing water blisters popping up or something. Anyway, just curious to see what you all have to say. And now for the pictures...

Here's one a bit closer. The lighting wasn't that great at this time of day, around 6 or 7 pm, so the shadowing obscures his color a little.

He might just be hiding in his new cage. Does he have any other hides? I'm assuming becauses of his size that he has no other hide boxes or anything of the sort, so this might be his way to feel more secure in his new surroundings. Perhaps he's going into a shed and this visible signs just aren't there yet... Either way, just give him some time and see what happens.
~brian

He actually does have a hide that he has used once. Of course today I pulled him out to show to some friends and lo and behold, cloudy eyes. So he was getting ready to go into a shed cycle, he just hadn't done it fully yet. I'll post more when he finishes.
-Chance

Here's one a bit closer, trying to really show off his silver. Unfortunately, the light still wasn't working in my favor.