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.

Aye, if I caught my BP soaking it would be out of the norm for him.

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Originally Posted by 8b8ll

Aye, if I caught my BP soaking it would be out of the norm for him.

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Mine has done it since the day I got him, so for him its normal.

I have tried different hides, boosting the humidity, he doesnt care, he likes to go for a nightly soak. even had the humidity in the low 70's the other night and he stil came out of his hide and went right for the water dish. Trying a new water dish also had no effect on him.

Some on here say some snakes just like to soak, some dont. Same goes for some saying temps need to be 94-96 on the warm and others saying it needs to be 92-94 and 96 is too hot. Along with some saying humidity needs to be 40-50% and others saying 30-40% is fine. All depends on whose posting.