Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all of you out in forum land. I recently received a 2003 female 100% het for piebald. This animal is eating really well and seems to be doing great, except for one thing. She soaks in her water bowl all the time. What is mean is, she will sit in the water at least 8-12 hours per day and maybe more. Anyways, this seems like it would be a bad thing. I have 12 other ball pythons and none of them do that. Is soaking like that a bad thing? What is causing it? How can I fix it? etc., etc. etc.

HOOPY

Common things that cause snakes to soak are: mites, too high of temperatures, a lack of humidity, undue stress from something, an insufficient hide box. Recheck your husbandry and thoroughly check the snake, it's tank and the tank's contents for mites. That is all I can think of.

Some bp's just soak a lot at times, and it will probably stop. Check for the usual problems that this might be a symptom for (i.e. parasites, humidity levels, temps). If everything checks out, don't worry about it too much.

With her soaking that much, I'd definatly keep a close eye on her for signs of scale rot. It'll show up eventually if she keeps soaking that much.
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-Irish
My Snakes

...too warm/mites are the 2 obvious common things to check for. But occasionally you get a ball that wants to soak. Don't wait for signs of belly rot, however, replace the large bowl with a small bowl for drinking only. SJM

Check for anything wronge like mites and the temps(they may be 2 high) and also if they start 2 soak a lt more than I would personaly put a small bowl in there so that he/she can drink but cannot soak. Thatway they will not get scale rot.

HOPE THIS HELPS