Help! Trying to keep 'em healthy!

I fed my bps 2 nights ago, and then left them alone to digest - checked them tonight, and 2 of them had tipped their water bowls and were laying on wet bedding! :O I cleaned everything up and they are back on clean, dry aspen. Temps are at 88. They look fine, but I am worried that they might get belly rot. Is there anything else I need to do?

Relax, you did what you were supposed to do. They won't get scale rot from wet bedding in that short amount of time.

Slim - thanks! I'm a nervous mommy - don't want BAD things to happen!

Wet bedding happens to all of us - and bowl tippers are in most people's collections! I just finished cleaning 8 bowl tippers this evening! LOL

As Slim said - you did the right thing, cleaning them and getting them on dry bedding as soon as you noticed! :)

I have a problem myself, I am not sure where to post so sorry about that but my young female spider is spending a lot of time in her water bowl. I checked her for mites. I cleaned the tub. I even dropped the temp a little but she is back in the water, I don't know what to do. I have 6 others in the same rack and they are all fine. The temps are at 89 hot and 81 cool. What else should I do?

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Originally Posted by realyblank2002

I have a problem myself, I am not sure where to post so sorry about that but my young female spider is spending a lot of time in her water bowl. I checked her for mites. I cleaned the tub. I even dropped the temp a little but she is back in the water, I don't know what to do. I have 6 others in the same rack and they are all fine. The temps are at 89 hot and 81 cool. What else should I do?

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Do you have hides for her? if so .... i would try and make the water bowl smaller, if possible. she could prefer her water bowl over the hides for the size!

-Ree

She might be getting ready to shed, or she might just feel like it. I have some that just like to take a nice long soak (for no apparent reason) I wouldn't worry about it, just keep an eye on her.

I am lucky if I have only ONE ball that tips their water. I think they like to see how much work they can give me LOL. Just keep an eye on them and they will be fine.

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Originally Posted by realyblank2002

I have a problem myself, I am not sure where to post so sorry about that but my young female spider is spending a lot of time in her water bowl. I checked her for mites. I cleaned the tub. I even dropped the temp a little but she is back in the water, I don't know what to do. I have 6 others in the same rack and they are all fine. The temps are at 89 hot and 81 cool. What else should I do?

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Get some provent-a-mite and spray it down. You can never be to careful. Or she might just like water.

yeah I have two hides one on the warm side and one on the other. I just took her out to give her a once over and noticed her belly a little pink, other than that she looks fine and no evidence of mites on her eyes or vent, should I empty the water??

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Originally Posted by realyblank2002

yeah I have two hides one on the warm side and one on the other. I just took her out to give her a once over and noticed her belly a little pink, other than that she looks fine and no evidence of mites on her eyes or vent, should I empty the water??

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sounds like a pre-shed soak to me the pink belly being the dead give away. if it was scale rot the scales would look rusted and some would be curled up.

As of now, none of mine are bowl tippers, but I also use heavy crock type water bowls. They're the kid they sell as dog water dishes. They seem to work just fine, and only cost $8 or so each. I bought a whole case of them from a local pet store at a discount.

Impending shed most likely. Here's a great link on that....

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=332195#332195

Here's another if the shed doesn't go well....

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...=867552#867552

How's her enclosure humidity?

Slim, Thanks for your input. What I've been using is the large plastic dog bowls from Wally World, that have the openings on the sides (for picking up the bowls). My girls like to use these as hides - they can get right underneath and curl around. Guess I'm going to have to take away their water bowl/hides - no more water bowl gymnastics! They're getting ceramic bowls - thanks again!
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Deb V.

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Originally Posted by GoFride08

Slim, Thanks for your input. What I've been using is the large plastic dog bowls from Wally World, that have the openings on the sides (for picking up the bowls). My girls like to use these as hides - they can get right underneath and curl around. Guess I'm going to have to take away their water bowl/hides - no more water bowl gymnastics! They're getting ceramic bowls - thanks again!
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Deb V.

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You can remove the substrate where the water bowl is, put the bowl on the floor of the cage/tub, and then put the substrate around it again. This is what I do in my corn cage to prevent her from getting under.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by realyblank2002

I have a problem myself, I am not sure where to post so sorry about that but my young female spider is spending a lot of time in her water bowl. I checked her for mites. I cleaned the tub. I even dropped the temp a little but she is back in the water, I don't know what to do. I have 6 others in the same rack and they are all fine. The temps are at 89 hot and 81 cool. What else should I do?

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:hijackd:

DutchHerp, Thanks for noting the hijack - and for the good tip! :D
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Deb V.

You got it. I bought two ceramic bowls at petsmart for like 10 bucks...

Hey sorry about the hijacking but our problems I thought were kind of similar and well thank everyone for there help. It seems she was starting a shed but I have never seen any of my snakes do that.

I am using a water bowl/hide combination as a space saver for all my balls except one. A male het for Albino kept raising up underneath and spilling the water. I got tired of changing the aspen so often and switched him to a plastic hide only and a separate ceramic water bowl.

The ceramic water bowls are harder to tip. I have one that is always making a mess. If he can't tip it, he gets as much of himself as he can into the bowl and displaces the water.
Keep the substrate dry. As soon as you see a spill clean it up and change the substrate.I use newspaper.