Who doesn't use a water bowl?

My big girl has one of those big exo terra naturalistic bowls, so no tipping there. The little one is using a Pyrex bowl, since she is too small to tip as of yet.

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I have quiet a few tippers myself, and it seems as if a generous portion of the ones who don't tip drag the papertowel into the bowl. What I've found is that any container must have straight sides or should have side expanding outward from the top so they are wider at the base. And the wider and shallower the better. I also quit filling more than about half full.

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Originally Posted by Darkbird

What I've found is that any container must have straight sides or should have side expanding outward from the top so they are wider at the base. And the wider and shallower the better. I also quit filling more than about half full.

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Target has plastic dog bowls for about $3 that are a good bit wider at the top than the base. The way they're designed you can also cut a hole in the side so it does double-duty as a hide. I've got BP's up to 1200 grams that stuff themselves under these bowls, and without spilling a drop of water.

Sometimes when I'm cleaning I pull the water bowls first and clean the snakes, then I clean the rats, and by the time I get back to the snakes and the bowls are clean there is no chance I'm putting my hand in there. They smell the rats from cleaning and all go into feeding mode.


When I go back to put the bowls in a few days later, it is EXTREMELY common for me to see 80% or more of the snakes go directly to drink from their bowls for a while. This happens every time. I have a picture on my phone of every single snake in a rack with their head tipped into the bowl drinking.


The area of Africa that they live is NOT a desert. They definitely need water available.

I can tell you from experience that Ball Pythons do need water. I have a friend that was getting in to breeding BP's and he had about 10 of them. After about a year he stopped taking much care of them. He still fed them regularly but every time I went over there all the water bowls were empty some of them for a month or more. Sometimes the snakes were visibly dehydrated sometimes not. A couple of them ended up dyeing from it. I always ended up cleaning and filling them and they would go right for the water within minutes of me filling the bowls. I know that they can go quite awhile without water but they do need to drink even when they are eating regularly. He has since gotten rid of all his pets and I have told him never to get anymore.

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Originally Posted by kameo37

Well, I'm certainly no expert, but here goes...
I don't know about the tipping thing, but how about taking the water bowl out before feeding? That way at least you won't have a wasted rat.

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lol so true!

The only thing I could think of is to like hot glue the bowl in place but that would make cleaning harder and I move my bowl closer to the heat for shedding.

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I'd like to think any captive animal would have constant access to fresh water! Mine like to drink. They really do take after their mami! :gj:

We use a separate container for feeding, so we don't have the issue with either of our bps putting their prey in the water. We have ceramic water dishes that they can't tip, but they do get in to go "swim", so we just make sure that there isn't enough water in the dish to overflow when they play.