# Boas > Tree Boas >  SI boa holding breath underwater?

## weirdbuglady

Thought I would make a separate thread for this question about my solomon island boa...

She spends a lot of time, especially the evenings, in her water dish. I sometimes see her drinking, and other times her head is just dunked in the water, for what appear to be decently long periods of time (several minutes).

Does anyone know how long a small snake (22") should be able to hold its breath underwater and if it's not good that she seems to forget to pick her head up out of the water? I just get worried sometimes when she lays there for so long. And I'm not sure how smart she is   :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## qiksilver

long time, well longer than I'd like them to.  My rainbows and my vipers all sit underwater for extended periods.  My trees only soak every so often, but they'll surprise you with their lung capacity.  I'll go with a guess of 20 minutes, and that's fairly conservative I'd say, rainbow boas have been timed at staying under about 40 minutes in captivity.

She doesn't need to be smart, her instincts won't allow her to kill herself unless she's totally whacked out, or has no energy, but it's usually nothing to worry about.

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## weirdbuglady

Thanks for the reassurance... I had no idea some snakes could hold their breath for so long!

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## darkdreamer

I wish I could hold my breath that long, That would be uber....

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## kojack8389

My bp does the same thing. I haven't ever had a snake before, he's my first, and he spends almost ALL his time in the water, sometimes completely submerged. I just want to make sure he's not stressed and trying to kill himself or something... :Confused:  He seems to really enjoy being in the water though

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## Monty

i would check for mites if your bp is constantly soaking

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## kojack8389

I have recently, actually. I couldn't see anything around his eyes or on his body. He looked pretty normal from what I could tell. Are mites pretty noticeable?

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## dr del

Hi,

Did you check in the waterbowl for little black dots when you cleaned it? Also check in the heatpits and the little fold under his chin.  :Good Job:  


dr del

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## Hardwikk

It mite have mites (sorry, I had to do that) or be in the shedding process. I sort of see that with Charon (my hissing Hogger) except he holds his breath under the sand (crushed English walnut shells actually) instead of the water dish. He seems to stay under there for hours (maybe he takes a breath every once in a while when I'm not looking). I can tell he's holding his breath because when I pick him up from under the sand he doesn't hiss at me until he has reached the surface, and he needs to breathe to hiss, right? 

P.S. Charon is less than half the size of your boa, as you can see in my sig.

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## CraigC

> My bp does the same thing. I haven't ever had a snake before, he's my first, and he spends almost ALL his time in the water, sometimes completely submerged. I just want to make sure he's not stressed and trying to kill himself or something... He seems to really enjoy being in the water though


You do realize you replied to a thread from July of last year.  :Smile: 

Craig

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## Monty

its ok to hash out old posts and hogs are known for burying themselves so i would worry to much about that mites on the other hand if they are bad youll see them crawling around on your hands after handleing if not i would check where dr. del was suggesting

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## kojack8389

lol yes I did, but I was hoping that someone would still answer my question. It worked  :Smile:  and to answer your question earlier, yes there is sorta black stuff in the water bowl almost every time i clean it...I didn't think anything of it.

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## kojack8389

> i would check for mites if your bp is constantly soaking


Would it matter if I treated Kojack (my snake) for mites even if he didn't have them just to be sure?

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## Hardwikk

> its ok to hash out old posts and hogs are known for burying themselves so i would worry to much about that mites on the other hand if they are bad youll see them crawling around on your hands after handleing if not i would check where dr. del was suggesting


Yes, many people know that Hoggers burrow but *no one* knows that "Pig Faces" (I love that nickname  :Very Happy: ) stay under gapless substrate for hours unless they('ve) keep/kept them or unless they've read this thread.

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## Monty

i would honestly treat all the snakes you own and after you clean out each enclouser make sure you wash yourself really well move onto the next cage and just repeat the process of cleaning thier cage and then you cage then you.  yea you might wwind up looking like a prune but its for the sake of the snakes

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