Bath time?

[The Golem]

Read a story today about a snake that was stolen and returned and it included this:

http://www.bendbulletin.com/localsta...-media-outcry#

Apple was returned in good shape, Jensen assured her, and all the python needed was an hourlong warm water soak to calm down a bit.

I'm relatively new to this and only have one snake so:
Is it common to do this? Does it really calm down a BP?

[Caspian]

In my own, albeit brief, experience, all that a warm water bath does is stress them out badly and mess up their shedding.

That snake seems awfully small for a 2-year-old female... my girl looks about that size, and she's not even a year old yet. Maybe the guy's just really, really big, and it's perspective.

[Coluber42]

Maybe she was chilled, if she'd been in a box on the doorstep and who knows where before that. When I brought my current snake home the first time, he was on the chilly side despite my best efforts at keeping him warm on the trip, and the first thing he did when I put him into his new enclosure was take a soak in his water dish (which I'd just filled with warm-ish water). I haven't seen him soaking since.

[The Golem]

Thanks for the replies. Follow up question: do you use bigger water bowl as the snake grows? Should the water dish be big enough for the snake to fit in so it could soak or submerge?

[ArvadaLanee]

I'm new to ball pythons, so I am just telling you what I've read here, but I have read that it isn't normal for them to be soaking all the time in their water dish, and can be an indication that something is wrong. I do know that snakes will often soak if they have mites. I think there is a section about this in the FAQ section that tells you the other things it might indicate.

I wonder if the warm bath thing could have been partly because of dehydration? I thought I remembered someone from my corn snake forum talking about soaking a corn snake after a bad shipping experience, because the snake was very dehydrated. I could be way off, though.

[Sonny1318]

Just like sooner or later a snake will stop feeding for a while. I like to provide a large enough bowl for a dip. Because sooner or later they might want too. Most people on here breed, so a larger water bowl means a larger work load. There's research out there proving they're not as one dimensional as some want you to think.

[LittleTreeGuy]

The whole story sounds shady to me. I understand wanting let people hold snakes... they're fascinating. But If this guy truly had the snakes best interest in mind, I don't think he'd be letting that many people just randomly hold snakes all the time. That's strike one for me. He makes it sound like he's got a decent amount of snakes/reptiles in his "store". None of them had locks? nope... strike two for me. An hour-long soak to calm down his snake? Nada... Strike three for me.

If the snake was dehydrated, soaking does little for BP's in regard to rehydration. Even if it was cold, soaking it isn't the best method to warm it up. If anything, he should have put it back into quarantine away from the rest of his collection and maybe just bump his humidity up a tad. I'm sure all that snake wanted was a warm hide and to be left alone.

Maybe not... I don't know... I'm still a rookie at snake keeping... less than a year under my belt, but I like to think all of the research, reading, and talking to those who have done it right (and sometimes wrong over the years) has taught me something.

[Snoopyslim]

I'm no expert but my opinion I don't think it's necessary to give your snake a bath unless of the following reasons:

1. It has a plugged cloaca and you need it to pass a bowel movement (rare).
2. It's an absolute mess (climbed in and all through feces). Even in this case I would probably try to wipe her down before I put her in a tub.

I find that if Valentine is stressed the best thing I can do is leave her alone until she relaxes not man handle her into a bath lol