Question about water dish and leaving for the weekend

On Friday in the evening I will be leaving for a conference and returning Sunday in the afternoon and I am extremely worried about leaving my ball. he has an RI and I've been giving him the shots but he's also very restless. He keeps tipping the water dish and I don't know if I should take it out while I'm gone or what else I can do since I have no one to check in on him. I've always had water there for him but I've heard that some people have taken it out? That just seems bad to do but I don't know what else to do. Anyone know of a way to prepare for this? I've had him for over a year and this will be the first time I've left for more than a day. I'm very nervous.


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To tell you honestly, nothing will happen to your BP if you leave the water out for the weekend. If you're still very concerned, you can get a sturdier water bowl. Some people use dog bowls (which is probably the cheapest version).

Just to let you know, Ball Pythons get most of their moisture from their meal. That doesn't mean that they don't need water but your BP will be fine without the water bowl for a couple of days.

I would change the water bowl. You need one that can not be tipped. I use the wide bottom ceramic dog bowls. They are a good weight, easy to clean, and hard to tip.

If it were me I would change it out before you leave. I don't like to leave my collection without every thing they may need.

Get a dog bowl from the dollar store. They don't tip, easy to clean(plastic), come in a few colors, 2 sizes, and cost a dollar... + tax.

You need a new dish. I probably overpaid for mine as I bought them from pet shops but in the long run, paying more once and not having the deal with tipped dishes for 25 years is well worth it. I use the Zoo Med large dish for my ball python and an Exo Terra X-large dish for my BCI. Neither of them have tipped em and my BCI gal gets rough with her stuff but she has never pushed her water dish. The Exo Terra ones are a beast of a water bowl. Nice and heavy and wide.

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Originally Posted by Viol8r

Get a dog bowl from the dollar store. They don't tip, easy to clean(plastic), come in a few colors, 2 sizes, and cost a dollar... + tax.

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X2 on the dollar store, but I bought the glass heart shaped candy dish that is about 2" deep. Never have had one tip yet because the bottom is flat, the walls are straight and the overall shape is irregular which doesn't allow tipping.

So I went to petsmart and bought the large zoo med one. I looked at the dog dishes but none seemed heavy enough compared to the zoo and the zoo med is wider it could help my humidity. Hope he doesn't knock this over since it holds a lot of water.

Thank you all for your replies. I feel this new dish might work !


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by rlditmars

X2 on the dollar store, but I bought the glass heart shaped candy dish that is about 2" deep. Never have had one tip yet because the bottom is flat, the walls are straight and the overall shape is irregular which doesn't allow tipping.

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These work. You can also get the melamine pet dishes, I've never had a snake tip one of those either. They are wider than the sides than the top.

I would definitely make the switch before you leave, you don't want a BP with an RI sitting in a sopping wet enclosure all weekend if he dumps his bowl.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rlditmars

X2 on the dollar store, but I bought the glass heart shaped candy dish that is about 2" deep. Never have had one tip yet because the bottom is flat, the walls are straight and the overall shape is irregular which doesn't allow tipping.

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Mine are the plastic ones. Haven't had one tip yet. I have both sizes to accommodate the size difference in my group. Another nice thing about these are you can put a cut out in it, turn it over and use it as a hide.

I'd be pretty impressed if your snake could tip over the Zoo Med one since the base is wider than the top.