Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We've been having Santa Ana winds here the last few days and it's been really dry. I moved all of the water dishes for my quarantined snakes over their heat to help keep the humidity up in the tubs. This morning I found this girl all curled up in her water dish. That's a 700 gram girl crammed into a 4 x 4 water dish. Should I mover her into a bigger one or let her be?

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Tosha

3.7.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.1.0 Siberian Husky (Kita)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

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Jay A. Martin

I'd give her a bigger bowl so as she can soak herself properly. Or take her out her viv and give her a soak/bath for an hour or so.

Ball Pythons like the security of a tight fitting hide or area to feel safe in. In FL, I rarely see a BP in the water bowl. I'm not sure about the humidity in CA so I can't say she's feeling dry. But she does not have to be completely covered to enjoy the benefits of the water. The BP is not an anaconda
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Jay A. Martin

Jay is right, BP's love the security of tight fitting areas. She should be fine in that waterbowl. I would only be worried about it tipping over....
The Santa Ana's are a real pain to work with. That dry air from the desert just kills all the humidity in my snakeroom even if the room humidifier is on high. To top it off, my snakes won't breed during them either.

Rob Dempsey

Well - she came out yesterday afternoon (around superbowl time must be a Pats fan) and I changed the water and she's back in today. Her tub is at 90 degrees hot and 84/6 cool and 70% humidity so I'm guessing she's not dry but just doing a little hot tubin' (the waters fairly warm since it's sitting over the heat). How long should I let her soak before I get concerned I don't want her developing any scale rot or RI? As you can tell I'm one of those overly concerned mothers. My old ball used to soak for short times, never more than a couple of hours and none of my new ones go near the water except for an occasional drink.
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Tosha

3.7.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.1.0 Siberian Husky (Kita)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

Water over the heat tape? It could just be that this is the warmest spot she can find. Once the water is uniformly heated, it covers more of her body than just laying on the heated floor?

Never had one soak more than a few hours so I'm not sure about scale rot. I would imagine she would know best though.
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Jay A. Martin

Thanks Jay, Thats kinda what I thought, she (obviously) doesn't have mites or look like she's going to shed so I stuck a digital therm/hygro meter in her tub yesterday to get accurate measurement and everything seems to be great. So I figured she may just enjoy the warm water?! Just worrying over nothing I guess.
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Tosha

3.7.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.1.0 Siberian Husky (Kita)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer