Question about soaking

[smasharama13]

Well, I'm fairly new to BP's, and have a question about soaking.

I know you should soak if you find mites. Is there also a general rule of thumb that you should soak/bath your BP? If there is, how often should this be done? Also what should the temp be (I've heard lukewarm but what is lukewarm, 80 deg)?

Also I've heard to soak during a shed, but when exactly should I do that? I've already increased the humidity to about 75% for the shedding process, but I want to make sure there aren't any problems.

Your experienced opinions would be appreciated.

[digcolnagos]

I don't think soaking is necessary, although I have heard some snakes like it. I don't have experience with mites, but have read plenty of posts on this site that say if it has mites, soaking alone won't do the trick. As for helping it shed, in my experience, bumping the humidity to 60-70 percent as soon as the eyes get funky has resulted in a perfect shed every time. If it's soaking on its own, check the eyes--I've caught mine in its water dish a couple times and sure enough, it was shed time.

[rabernet]

I personally only soak if one has a bad shed (I only have one girl that consistently needs help with her shed - she's just not a good shedder).


I don't soak for any other reason. The one time I had mites on a pet store rescue, I did not soak, I treated the enclosure with Provent-A-Mite and then preventatively treated the rest of the snakes' enclosures.

However, I do believe that some people will give their snakes an overnight soak to hydrade them before shipping, if they are selling them.