Ball python excessive soaking; help?

[dbuchanan31]

I just got a new ball python and a couple weeks ago and she was in a glass tank and I was having humidity problems so I moved her into one of the DIY plastic tubs (34x16x6) two nights ago and she's been soaking in her water bowl every time I open the cage and I've never seen her do that in the cage before so I'm wondering if it's too big. She also just finished shedding a couple days ago and I had to help her shed since the humidity was too low in the glass tank and I fed her today and she ate just fine and went back to her water bowl. She's about a year old; I don't know her exact length. Should I move her back into her old cage or should I give her a couple days to acclimate? I'm new to this stuff

[Coopers Constrictors]

Check your temps and leave her be. It could be that she is still recovering from the humidity issue. She may have also became very dehydrated and is just doing her thing to get back in shape. Also, make sure she has a nice hide in there.

[dbuchanan31]

Thanks! She has two hides on each side (one of them I moved from her other cage which she used constantly and she hasn't touched it now in her new cage) and her temps look good so I'll take your advice and give her some time. How long should I wait before I should worry?

[Sita]

The two main reasons for soaking are too high of temperature and mites. If you are certain the warm side is about 90, using either an infrared temp gun or a digital thermometer probe, NOT an analog dial thermometer, then switch the substrate to paper towels for a week and look for an tiny "pepper" bits on it. You can also see them in the water bowl sometimes as they drown and fall off. Make sure you wait two days after feeding before handling through.

If her new cage is a lot bigger than the old one, and it has just the two hides and the water bowl, add some clutter to make it seem smaller for now. You can use more hides, crumpled up newspaper, decorative vines (make sure they don't have any rings or sharp bits), etc. Even though she's a year, she may still be feeling insecure from the extra space.

I would give her at least a week to settle in after changing things. Soaking in and of itself is not going to hurt her, but you need to figure out why she's doing it, as those things are stresses to her.

[TexanLady]

Yeah, I was going to suggest she might have mites. You can't always see them, and you can pick them up from any reptile and bring them home by accident. Do you have a temp gun to double check your temps? Your thermometer might be broken.

[dbuchanan31]

Thanks for all your help everyone! It turned out that she did have mites so I got some of the Zoo med Mite off and soaked her in a diluted Bedadine solution and cleaned and disinfected her old cage with bleach and rinsed it out and then I just put her back in there. I haven't seen any crawling mites since then but I'm thinking about buying that Provent A Mite online. I just ended up tossing the old plastic tub where the mites were and salvaged the heat pad and thermostat from it. Does anyone know where she could have gotten mites from? I don't have any other reptiles and haven't handled any other reptiles since owning her so any advice on what I can do to stop this from happening again would be appreciated.

You guys are all awesome; thanks for your help

[Sita]

If you've purchased anything from a store that has snakes, that's a way to get them. If their snakes have mites, they can crawl around the store and get on the merchandise. I'm assuming you probably bought her food from a pet store? Rats can have their own species of mites, which actually don't affect snakes, but they CAN carry snake mites if someone touches a snake, then touches the rat.

I haven't seen anyone use that Mite Off stuff with success. I personally use the RID lice bedding spray from Walmart to treat cages. I wash the cage with soap and bleach and rinse several times, then spray a very light mist all over, not enough to actually form droplets. I let dry, then rinse the cage with clean water (no soap or anything) and dry with paper towels. Then I wash the snake with dish soap and dry them off with paper towels. I've had two snakes with very heavy mite infestations, and doing the cage once a week and washing the snake every other day took care of it. One of the snakes it took about 3 weeks to be certain they were gone; with the other, I think it was only 2 weeks.