A word in my own defense.

Well mike, hate to burst your bubble, but... I too live in Canada, and guess what? the humidity and temps in my Ball room are maintained at a constant 60%rh and 82-83 degrees 24/7/365...even when its -25 ;) Mother nature doesnt determine the conditons in that room...I do ;).....and for what its worth...if your balls are soaking after youve fed them, you're likely feeding too large of a meal ;)

One of my normals females soaks when she is going into shed and my humidity stays at around 70-75%% during a shed cycle. My het albino male also soaks constantly but he is very active and just likes to wet the top of the cool hide and lay there. In that tank, my normal humidity levels are in the 55-60% range. Both measured by an accurite

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

In the "site info" section, there's a thread on the rep system. It says that names are not a part of the rep system in order to avoid "pay backs"...

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Yes Nate. I did see it though I still think that if everyone had to post their names there would be less abuse including 'paybacks'. Just my :2cent:, no arguing intended. :)

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Originally Posted by Uncle Festae

Well mike, hate to burst your bubble, but... I too live in Canada, and guess what? the humidity and temps in my Ball room are maintained at a constant 60%rh and 82-83 degrees 24/7/365...even when its -25 ;) Mother nature doesnt determine the conditons in that room...I do ;).....and for what its worth...if your balls are soaking after youve fed them, you're likely feeding too large of a meal ;)

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I think you missed my point,I was tring to point out that if no hides are in the encloser they may use the water dish as a hide.AS for feeding meals that are to large well thats kind of hard for me,since most of my bps are live feeders and I am in alberta(where it is illeagal to have live rats)I have never seen a mouse that is to big for a bp. It is great that you can control your humidity so well but with the constant weather canges we deal with here it makes it a bit harder here(not imposible just harder).And before you hack on me about not using hides I know a few other breeders that do not.

Thanks for the feedback. I might have overreacted a bit, but the criticism was hurtful.

SPJ You are intitled to your own opinions but why do you have to use words like "never"? Just because you doubt, doesn't mean it's wrong. The world turned out to be round after all.

There are many different opinions and experiences out there. Seems like a few people on this forum buy a snake or read a care sheet and suddenly become seasoned pros. :colbert: I write advice as just that: advice, based on personal experience.

Rick I posted the pics here, post #25:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=38556
Corey Woods diagnosed it and his treatment advice worked. He is one of the biggest Canadian breeders and has 700+ balls. Think he got it wrong?

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Originally Posted by Sadie

Rick I posted the pics here, post #25:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=38556
Corey Woods diagnosed it and his treatment advice worked. He is one of the biggest Canadian breeders and has 700+ balls. Think he got it wrong?

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The link didn't work. I am not saying it is or isn't scale rot, just sharing some knowledge based on my experiances. Scale rot is caused by high humidity, moisture, wet substrate, etc. Scale rot is not normally going to make a snake soak. It's more likely the snake was soaking too much, perhaps because it was too hot, didn't have a hide so felt more secure in the water bowl, had mites, etc. This is obviously speculation based solely on the info in this thread.

Rick

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Originally Posted by Uncle Festae

and for what its worth...if your balls are soaking after youve fed them, you're likely feeding too large of a meal ;)

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I agree 100% ... soaking after a meal is the snakes way of telling you the meal might have been a little too big ... the pressure internally caused by the weight of a large meal is alleviated in the zero buoyancy of water .... also, the heat generated by the digestion of the larger meal can be significant ... water will cools them down .... feels good. :sweeet:

-adam

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Originally Posted by Sadie

I stated that a ball python MAY soak because it is afflicted with scale rot.

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All other things being equal, I would tend to agree based on similar behaviors I've seen with rescues that came in with scale rot and mouth rot.

A very prominent herp vet once told me that when a ball python is in pain or uncomfortable it may seek out something cool to press the area of discomfort against to try and make it feel better .... A burny, itchy case of scale rot sure might feel a lot better soaked in some nice cold water.

I think it's naive for anyone to think that they "know" these animals so well as to use absolutes ... all you need to do is work with these animals in large numbers to quickly learn that no matter what you think you know, these animals WILL humble you. ;)

-adam

my Nag for some reason seems to like to soak in the water bowl so he can make a doodie. sometimes pees in the water bowl as well. then he goes back to his hide, which he also messes in. goofy thing that he is.