How necessary is a soaking dish?

It seems to be recommended on all the care sheets, but it also seems a lot of breeders, or at least people who simply keep a lot of snakes in racks, only have a small dish for drinking water. If my snake has no shedding issues and I don't see any signs of mites, is there any reason to bother with a large soaking dish?

The reason I ask is because I swapped a smaller dish back into the cage after my snake seemed to stress a bit about finding a quick way around the larger one. He would always decide to slither right over it and fall in somewhat, and didn't seem to happy about taking the dip. Wasn't too deep, either. Rather than place it better, I decided to remove it altogether, for now at least.

a bigger water dish i believe can increase the humidity and keep it stable, and is there if your ball decides he wants to just soak or something im not sure but i always keep 2 water bowls one thats a nice decorated one, and then just a water dish large enough for him to fit inside of it :)

sometimes after my snake poops he will drag his tail into one water bowl not the other.. which is also good for me

hope this helps.. but this is my personal choice :)

Nope! A dish big enough to soak in is not required. Ball pythons will usually only soak if they have mites. Some snakes will soak prior to a shed, but I have never seen any of mine soak. As long as your humidity is good (50-70%) then you will be fine having a smaller bowl.

I'm not sure why all the "pet shop" care sheets insist on a bowl big enough to soak in. I suppose some species do soak, but ball pythons don't really.

personaly i dont give them a soak dish because when they are shedding i raise humidity in the tubs and they dont try to soak

A dish large enough for the snake to get into is strongly recommended in most cases for a few reasons. One, it allows the snake to soak if it desires (such as to relieve itself of mites, or prior to shedding), and two, it also provides more surface area for evaporation - meaning higher humidity within the cage.

Many breeders use smaller dishes because it's easier to keep them clean, which can become more important than providing a large soaking area, or simply because there's not a ton of space in the tub, and a larger bowl just doesn't fit, or takes up too much room.

If it's at all possible, provide the snake with a bowl large enough to soak in. If not, one that is large enough for it to easily find and drink from is satisfactory.

-Jen

Soaking dishes are not necessary. The average ball won't soak unless there are shedding issues or mites. Of course, there are exception, but in general they just need a water dish.

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Contrary to what many people believe the water dish does not need to be big enough for them to soak in, Ball Pythons very rarely soak.

I do not provide large dish to any of my animals.

Its nice to have one but its not essential. My BP hates water and does prity much anything to avoid getting wet

I've never had bowls large enough to soak in, simply because my humidity stays at the higher end of the comfortable spectrum in the tubs and I don't believe it's necessary. The two or three times I've had to soak my balls in the bathtub it was due to them being covered in some fresh snake poo that I didn't want all over my nice clean tubs :P

I've never used large water bowls either, and even when my bps were small enough to fit in their bowls, I never saw them soak or try to soak. If you have the room and don't mind cleaning it, I don't see anything wrong with having one, but, as others have said, as long as your humidity is correct, a huge water bowl is not necessary.