Snake Bath

Hey!

My bp is my first reptile, so I wanted to consult others on one of her bath habits. When I put Pidge in the bath, she gets suuuuuper nervous and start swimming and acting crazily. When I put my hand in, she wraps herself around me and immediately becomes calm. It's not an issue of her not liking the water, she just wants to hold on. Should I get her something that I can put in the bath with her, or should I continue using my hand?

A second habit she has, is she rubs her face against the wall of the bath. My mom thinks it's because she can see her own reflection on the bin, but I'm not convinced. She went to the vet not too long ago and they said she was perfectly healthy. Should I just get a different and less opaque bin?

Thanks!
Chris

Your bp doesn't need baths and would likely much prefer if you'd just skip it. Baths are basically limited to an option if they have stuck shed, are constipated, or covered in their own poop. You can provide a bowl big enough to soak in. Some individuals will do so occasionally, many won't. I've had to bathe mine twice in the last year and a half. He was not pleased either time.

Bathing or soaking is very stressful. She was probably freaking out more than anything.

I regularly break with common suggestions and do bathe my reptiles, so unlike many I have seen the various behaviors illicited by baths.

First off, bathing is stressful. Ball pythons, in particular, do not enjoy the experience. Some monitor species love it, but often treat it as a means of escaping you. Ball pythons do not enjoy it, they treat it as a way to escape you, and then cannot escape the bath, they then cling to you because you are one of the only stable surfaces they can escape drowning from.

Water temperature matters A LOT. If the temperature feels like a hot tub, the water can quickly kill your snake. If it feels warm, it's still probably too warm. If you temp it to 80 degrees, you're probably fine on temps. I already know what 74-80 degrees feels like from my Mangrove Monitor's swimming area, but unless you have a lot of experience of what the right temperature feels like, temp it. Keep it on the low to medium side of BP ambient temps. If it's hot spot temperature it's too high.

A snake in too high of temperatures will freak out very quickly and try to escape to save its life.

Depth matters a lot. If your snake is floating in the water, it's too high. In fact if you want to force swimming, too deep is how it is done. You really don't want the water ever sbove 3/4ths the snake's depth. If it is, the snake will swim and probably panic.

What you want to see if your snake is in the water is for it to travel around without freaking out. To do that you need comfortable temperatures and not too deep of water.

Now, bathes can be used as a means to get your snake to poop, to clean poop off your snake, to wash your snake because you need to treat something like scale rot or a cut, as exercise (bad decision for BPs), or to help with shedding.

It is advised by the forum as a whole, as well as myself, to NOT bathe your snake.

Edit: Temperatures are degrees F, just so you aren't putting a snake in 80C -_-

just don't bathe the snake unless absolutely needed for something like a stuck shed or as stated above cleaning the animal off due to injury/infection.

Stop bathing it. There's no reason to and you are stressing it out. A wet washcloth or pillowcase would work great if needed although in a decade I've needed to wash or scrub my ball python zero times.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No need to bathe your BP. Some snakes don't mind the occasional swim, but BPs generally do NOT enjoy it.

As for her behavior when you put her in the water, she probably hates it and latches on to you to feel secure. or...
the water temp is uncomfortable for her and she wraps around your arm for whatever comfortable temps she can find.
My guess is it's a combination of the two.

Just to play Devils Advocate here - I'm kinda unconvinced about a few of the supposed concerns raised in the above posts ...

As I've mentioned a few times elsewhere , here in the uk giving your Royal / Ball python a short , shallow soak in 82F water is seen as acceptable - as long as it's just a very , very occasionally dip , to either loosen a stubborn shed / eye caps or to rehydrate if the snake is showing obvious signs of dehydration .

If you put your snake in an empty tub it's gonna try to endlessly to get out of every corner so that's not trying to escape drowning is it ?? Plus there are so many accounts of snakes clearly loving to swim in baths and the others who chose to soak endlessly in their water bowls .... also can't they hold their breath under water for about 30 minutes or something ??!??




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I don't really see much in the way of people saying it's not acceptable when you want to fix a stuck shed or need to help a dehydrated snake. Just that it sounds like these baths are recreational and the vast majority of BPs aren't into that and it sounds like her snake is among the majority. Thus the best route is for her to just stop putting her snake in the bath and give it a big enough waterbowl if she really wants.

I actually do give my garter snakes occasional baths for exercise (~1/month or less). However, they are semi-aquatic naturally, so I feel it's a different proposition. One likes it(Zato), one ranges from indifferent to slightly displeased (Hazama), and one seems to range from slightly displeased to very displeased (Relius). I actually did so yesterday while I cleaned and Relius actually had to be taken out after a minute because he was distinctly unhappy. Zato kind of floats around calmly and Hazama mostly sits on what I put in there for them to rest on, but will climb on hands when he's more displeased about the bath.

Ball pythons just aren't really into swimming as a species. I feel like it's a bit like bathing a cat - a very few like it, but 90%+ are just going to be upset so you really should have a good reason to do it.

LOL. Everyone knows what I think. I think Deb said it best. It is not an anaconda. A ball python's idea of recreation is laying around with an occasional tongue flick.

Like someone said, be careful of the temperature if you do need to bathe them for some reason. I use one of those glass thermometers they sell for pet fish to monitor the temperature during my bearded dragon's baths. If you guess, you could guess wrong and either overheat or chill your reptile. The thermometers sell for only a dollar or two, and are pretty accurate. I highly recommend getting and using one just in case you ever need to give your snake a bath (stuck shed or whatever).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

LOL. Everyone knows what I think. I think Deb said it best. It is not an anaconda. A ball python's idea of recreation is laying around with an occasional tongue flick.

---

In the evening they actually love climbing IF they have branches in their vivs .

Mine's never seemed to be much into climbing except occasionally when he's hungry (and incessantly this month because he wants to mate - he's finally settling back down). Admittedly, he's currently outgrown the hanging perch I made him but he does still climb on his suction cup plants right now. He'll have a T8 w/shelf soon. I personally feel it's good to provide them as many species appropriate enrichment options as possible, even if they never use it, which is why a big enough water bowl to swim in is definitely nice if it's an option.

There are some very cool videos out there of snakes getting their food out of a puzzle box and similar things. I've been working periodically with my ball python on him getting his food out of an open cardboard box (like a tunnel), making him work harder for it in other ways, etc. He really does show improvement as I work with him on it even if he'd rather that the food come directly to his face.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zincubus

In the evening they actually love climbing IF they have branches in their vivs .

---

My younger males and animals less than 1000 grams will do a little exploring at night if they have not just eaten. The majority of the animals I have are 2000+ gram females that do not voluntary move any more than it takes to get a rat. They will shake their tails at the boys though if they are wanting company. They kind of remind me of the giant woman on Squidbillies.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zincubus

Just to play Devils Advocate here - I'm kinda unconvinced about a few of the supposed concerns raised in the above posts ...

As I've mentioned a few times elsewhere , here in the uk giving your Royal / Ball python a short , shallow soak in 82F water is seen as acceptable - as long as it's just a very , very occasionally dip , to either loosen a stubborn shed / eye caps or to rehydrate if the snake is showing obvious signs of dehydration .

Plus there are so many accounts of snakes clearly loving to swim in baths and the others who chose to soak endlessly in their water bowls .... also can't they hold their breath under water for about 30 minutes or something ??!??


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

---

If the snake is in poor condition from bad husbandry, I don't see how tossing it in a bath is a good answer. The issue can be dealt with without a soak and ultimately by fixing the root of the problem. Is there any evidence of ball pythons going for a swim in the wild? Where are these ball pythons that clearly love baths and how are you determining their emotional state? I've seen my ball hide in his water dish only when there was no good hide at the pet store and when there were mites, two occasions where there was clear stressors behind it. Never otherwise.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GoingPostal

If the snake is in poor condition from bad husbandry, I don't see how tossing it in a bath is a good answer. The issue can be dealt with without a soak and ultimately by fixing the root of the problem. Is there any evidence of ball pythons going for a swim in the wild? Where are these ball pythons that clearly love baths and how are you determining their emotional state? I've seen my ball hide in his water dish only when there was no good hide at the pet store and when there were mites, two occasions where there was clear stressors behind it. Never otherwise.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

---

To be fair , nobody suggested 'tossing' anything . I actually said a very , very occasional soak in shallow water ...

I also never specified Ball pythons I said 'snakes' choose to soak in their water bowls .... as it happens there are a few royals photographed soaking in this very forum today .


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for all the comments. I guess I miss understood when the guy said to bathe her. When I got her she had a retained eye cap, which was probably why he recommended bathing.

Thanks so much!!! I'll rarely ever bathe her from now on.

Soaking for retained shed is different from bathing. You don't even have to submerge the snake in water, you can get a damp towel or pillow case and let her slither through it for a bit until it becomes soft enough to remove.

Bathing/soaking seems to have become as controversial as live/ft.

Hey, again, I straight up have my snakes swim about once a month or so, right about when they should be pooping. I also have my other reptiles swim. And my female rats when all their babies have been removed, before I reintroduce the male. Honestly only the bugs are free of the swimming.

I do this to break up poops, avoid any shedding issues (which honestly isn't necessary because for the years leading up to this I had no shedding issues), and to make them exercise a little bit. Usually the forced swimming stops a couple minutes after they calm down. I spend the whole time with them to make sure they are fine during it.

But, I still don't recommend it to others. In this case I know what I am doing wrong and I make sure it doesn't go horribly south. Honestly with my savannah monitor it helped us get closer, and the BPs don't mind much, even though it may be stressful, they tend to just sit there breathing and staring, or try to swim out (with little haste)