why is he bathing for so long?

my BP has been in his water bowl for the past 2 days now. i fed him yesterday. he gets out for a few minutes then he goes back in

Mites or incorrect temperatures...

Ball Pythons dont soak for other reasons.

First check those temps. 82-84 on the cool, 92-94 on the hot. If all is right there, check for mites. Change his substrate to white paper towel. They wont be hard to see. red or black tiny bugs.

ball pythons also soak sometimes because they've had a big meal. i guess its a way of relieving pressure from their stomachs when they float. was his meal yesterday nice and big?

A big meal? Or an excessively large meal? My BPs eat appropriate size meals weekly and NEVER soak.

his temps should be correct, on his warm hide its usually 93F, humid is 50%, and the cool side is about 80F(during the day) i dont have any other way of heating the cool side during the night, i only have a day lamp. when he pooped i didnt see any kind of bugs in it, but i might change to paper towels just in case and ill have to get a night bulb too!

his meals wasnt big, i don think i fed him something a little bigger then a hopper and he ate is really easily. the hopper was about the same width as my BP's mid section

i just remember reading on this site that alexrls said the only time monty ever soaked was when it had a big meal and Adam said that was another reason they soak.

Temps sound ok. Does he have hides on both sides? You should be able to see the mites pretty easily.

ball pythons will also curl up in their water bowl if inappropriate hides are provided....what kinda hides do you have in the enclosure?

Sorry forgot that one Daniel. That is the direction I was heading in with the last post. :)

i think it might be mites!
well he is out of his water bowl and back into his hide. but in his water bowl there are about 6 little black spots, they werent theere before so could they be mites? i didnt get a good look but i think they were mites

here is a picture of what it looked like before, now i have the bowl in the middle and another hide on the left side, ill try to get a pic of him inside his hide
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../snaketank.jpg