Soaking?????

I just got my male bp about a week ago and he is in shed now but he will not soak. i have it set up perfect with the bowl being a nice little hide nice and dark (hes very shy still) and hes very grumpy due to shedding but he refuses to soak and i dont know why should i just mist the tank to bring up the humidity or wait it out and see if he will give in. i cant really do anything in the cage either because he is very snappy right now.

I would bump the humidity up to around 70%, no need for him to soak.:)

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Originally Posted by sg1trogdor

I just got my male bp about a week ago and he is in shed now but he will not soak. i have it set up perfect with the bowl being a nice little hide nice and dark (hes very shy still) and hes very grumpy due to shedding but he refuses to soak and i dont know why should i just mist the tank to bring up the humidity or wait it out and see if he will give in. i cant really do anything in the cage either because he is very snappy right now.

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Healthy BP that are mite free, not overfed and that have proper husbandry will rarely soak.

Your humidity should be 50%-60% at all time and can be bumped to 70% during shedding period.

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Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

Healthy BP that are mite free, not overfed and that have proper husbandry will rarely soak.

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I beg to differ... :colbert:

I thought soaking was kind of a snake-to-snake behavior.

I have to agree with Deborah. The only bp I have that soaks occassionally is my gravid female, otherwise they never soak.

None of our ball pythons have ever soaked either.

I agree with Deborah too, none of mine soak either.

Mine does nightly, he eats every monday with no problem, even when I changed the type of mice i was feeding him. No signs of mites, no signs of shed, is in perfect health, as stated by the herp that sexed him. Warm side temps are 93-96 degrees cool side is 80-83 degrees, and humidity is at 43%, and he still soaks nightly. Even put in really tight hides which are actually the bottoms of flower pots and are hardly any taller then he is. so saying a snake wont soak when its husbandry is correct isnt always true. So I have decided I'm gonna leave him be, change out his water a couple times a day, and just keep a closer on him then normal and make sure he doesnt get any kind of illness.

I would double check your husbandry and try different hides. Soaking nightly is not good, and can lead to belly rot.