Female ball python seeks contact to water bowl

I have a question. I have a 16 month old female ball python. She is about 1000 gramm now. She eats well, sheds well. She did it since I got her a year ago. Since two weeks I have recognized, she has slowed down in eating and at night seems a little bit restless. She lays on the water bowl and seems to be in hunting mode or she sits on the bowl with a few inch in the water or crawls through the water bowl and then slithers around. She is not curled up in the bowl with her whole body. There are no mites etc.... Temperature and humidity is as always. What could this behaviour mean?

She is restless at 11 pm for half an hour to an hour...... Then she goes back into a hide. At daytime she hides all the time.

Mmmm my first thought was mites but you've ruled that out .. second idea was that it's just too warm in the enclosure ...

What kind of thermometer are you using by the way ..,


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Originally Posted by marckitt

She is restless at 11 pm for half an hour to an hour...... Then she goes back into a hide. At daytime she hides all the time.

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That's not unusual for a Royal .... they are nocturnal as you prob realise ..


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https://www.ms-reptilien.de/en/equip...chaltuhr?c=480

I have my hotspots between 84 and 88 degrees. Background temp is between 82 and 84 degrees. Humidity is between 55 and 65%. Soil is Repti Chips. She often squeezes herself between the water bowl and the plastic wall of the rack. After this half an hour she goes back to one of her hides.

I could see her drinking and then slithering through the bowl a bit - 3 inches - to rest her head on the bowl or her hide beneath. Then about 2 or 3 inch of her body hang into the water, the rest is on the bowl or on the soil. When she slithers on - her tail stays in the water for two minutes then she moves on. As said before - she is not curling up her whole body in the water.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by marckitt

https://www.ms-reptilien.de/en/equip...chaltuhr?c=480

I have my hotspots between 84 and 88 degrees. Background temp is between 82 and 84 degrees. Humidity is between 55 and 65%. Soil is Repti Chips. She often squeezes herself between the water bowl and the plastic wall of the rack. After this half an hour she goes back to one of her hides.

I could see her drinking and then slithering through the bowl a bit - 3 inches - to rest her head on the bowl or her hide beneath. Then about 2 or 3 inch of her body hang into the water, the rest is on the bowl or on the soil. When she slithers on - her tail stays in the water for two minutes then she moves on. As said before - she is not curling up her whole body in the water.

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Now I may be totally wrong here but that fancy gadget in your link is new to me but it looks like a thermostat but the readings on thermostats don't always give the ACTUAL temperature of the viv floor where the snake is lying .

The crucial one to my mind is the warmest spot ( usually under the warm hide ) that the snake can lie on .

I use a digital temp gun to take random temps of all the hot / cold spots in all my vivs .. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9b30132426.jpg

These are nice and cheap thermometers - which must have a wired probe .

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3202c228a1.jpg


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I use this gadgets too. I her hide it is about 90 degrees. In the other two hides it is 84 degrees or 83 degrees.

They're all so different...

A couple of mine don't care for higher temps so maybe 83/84 is a little warm for him and he's simply trying to cool down - who knows ..

It's a long shot but you could simply reduce the heat in the cool end somehow and observe his behaviour accordingly..


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

They're all so different...

A couple of mine don't care for higher temps so maybe 83/84 is a little warm for him and he's simply trying to cool down - who knows ..

It's a long shot but you could simply reduce the heat in the cool end somehow and observe his behaviour accordingly..


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agree^^^
My girls like the cool side and like it at 81 max..might be something to try as Zincubus mentioned.


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Some Royals do seem to have an affinity for water. My big one is 55 inches long and I swear is part mermaid. The little guy is about 43 inches long and also seems to enjoy a soak every now and then -- especially when a shed is imminent.

The big bowls in both enclosures are large enough for them to curl into. I have also tried to "hide" the water bowls in my terrariums from common sight by using large "drift-wood" pieces and strategically placed plastic plants (I have one large water bowl and a smaller one in both of my 40 gallon breeders). If they're going to be in the water bowls anyway, I wanted them to feel as secure as possible when they go into "mermaid-mode!" lol

If you've excluded mites and your husbandry is up to par your snake may simply be trying to tell you that another shed is on the way. :-)

<><Peace

Seriously, this is the time of year when female ball pythons seek out cooler temperatures, presumably to aid in ovarian follicle development. Oftentimes, keepers don't/can't provide much of a temp gradient in cages, so you sometimes see behaviors like you mentioned of the female being uncommonly active (because the cage is now too warm) or tightly pressing her body against the coolest side of the cage or wrapped around the (cooler) water bowl.

All my mature females are exhibiting this behavior to a greater or lesser extent right now. I just checked on one which ate a large rat yesterday, and despite feeding, and despite having access to temps in the high 80s F, she has chosen a hide box in the cage @73 degrees F. I have little doubt she'd choose even cooler if such were available. As long as they appear healthy, and there's a good temperature gradient with choice of hiding places, I figure they know what they're doing. :)

As noted above, having a non-contact infrared thermometer can really make it easy to check out the surface temperatures of your snake and various parts of the enclosure. Also, good record keeping lets you know in years to come when to expect this behavior for each animal. If you've definitely ruled out mites, maybe you should consider allowing access to cooler temps or maybe do a night time drop in temperature (I use both techniques).

As others above, I too am wondering what is the temp. of the coolest area of cage floor that's available to her?

And does she have both a cool hide AND a warm hide available? My hunch is she needs a cooler place now & then.

Just reading the first post I would guess he's too hot. Should be easy enough to try at a lower temp to see if the behavior changes. Good luck.