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i was just curious if it is normal for a tangerine honduran to just sit int he waater. he will just lay in the water and poke his lil head out. im not worried, just curious.

I wonder if that's normal too. I've read that if a snake is in it's water bowl to much it's either to hot in the enclosure or it's trying to rid its self of mites or sheding. I have a '03 tangerine honduran also and all he does is hide 24/7.
In fact I've never seen any of my snakes in their water bowls.
I have 2 corns, a milk an a jungle carpet python.

which leads me to another question, how can you tell if a snake has mites?

They are little tiny pin head size bugs. My jungle carpet had them and they are a pain to get rid of. I saw them crawling on her. Fortunately I caught them in time and got rid of them early. I've read most snakes with mites will soak or rub around their cage trying to get rid of them. There is a very good web site about mites called.....www.vpi.com. Just go down to the "War against Mites" and it will tell you about them.

i looked closer int he water bowl and saw little black dots floating and some sunk, does this mean that she has mites? my mom tried telling me that if i put her in listerine it would help, is this true? is there a way to cure them at home without going to a vet? any help would be greatly appriciated, also should i move him out of the room with my other reptiles (corn snake and tegu)?

>i looked closer int he water bowl and saw little black dots floating and some sunk, does this mean that she has mites? my mom tried telling me that if i put her in listerine it would help, is this true? is there a way to cure them at home without going to a vet? any help would be greatly appriciated, also should i move him out of the room with my other reptiles (corn snake and tegu)?>

Chances are those are mites. YES, I would move him away from your other reptiles since they can spread.(By the way what is a 'tegu'?) I don't know about putting him in some listerine. Seems to me that can be harmful. When my jungle carpet had mites this is what I did. I moved her to another room away from my corns and milk. I bought some Prevent-O-Mite at a local pet store that sold the stuff. Torn apart her entire cage. Threw out her substrate and the piece of cork bark she had as a hide. I think the mites came from the cork bark.I washed out her cage with bleach water, then I sprayed down her tank with Prevent-O-Mite. If you use Prevent O Mite you have to let the enclosure air out real good. Then I just used newspaper for substrate till I was sure she didn't have anymore mites.(I think I used newspaper till the next time she shed, which was a couple weeks later.) When doing all this I had my snake soaking in cooking oil. The oil will get under the scales to drown the mites. Then I rinsed her with luke warm water and picked off all the mites I could fine. You want to esp look up under the chin area.
That web site that talked about the War against Mites had other methods for getting rid of the mites. This is the way I did it. If the mites are not to many you should be able to rid them yourself without going to a vet. If it's a bad infestation you may need to go to the Vet.
I was fortunate and got rid of them the first go around. But if you have alot then you have to treat everything again since their are probably mite eggs. I don't think Prevent-o-mite kills the eggs.
Hopefully someone else will jump in here and tell you more about how to get rid of mites. There are other ways that may be easier but I always like to do everything above and beyond to make sure I got rid of them good. So far I haven't seen any more mites and it's been months.
Good Luck.

i did the exact thing except i didnt use the cooking oil, i will try that tomarrow. a tegu is a monitor-like-lizard they get about 3-4 feet long (depending on species) ill post a picture if youd like (or go into the tegu forum and look there at some of the others)

Interesting you mentioned Listerine. Years ago I bought a baby boa and soon discovered I had a mite problem. There were no reptile medications on the market back then. Someone in a pet shop informed me of using Listerine as a treatment. Isolate the snake and sterilize the cage. Make sure the snake has had a good drink, then soak in a solution of one tablespoon Listerine per gallon of water. You may have to repeat the process once or twice. It worked for me, the boa lived to a ripe old age, mite free.