Soaking?

My bp has started soaking randomly over the past two weeks - I've caught him twice - once was over thanksgiving and he only had about 4 inches of body in the bowl (which is too small for him anyway). This morning he was trying to cram all of himself into it. He's 7 years old and I have never seen this behavior before.

His temps are constant 80 cool hide, 88 hot hide, ambient 79-80. Humidity is a bit unstable this time of the year, about 65-70% right after I wet down his sponges and it drops over 1-2 days. I refresh them with warm water when his humidity gets to about 50%. His hot side drops a little faster.

I just had his yearly check up, no health issues at all, fecal was negative. I haven't seen any signs of mites (though I'm not terrified that is why he is soaking), but he is a cinny mojo so his belly is crisp white and I would think I'd see mites easily, I didn't see anything near his eyes or heat pits.

I do have a new snake that I've had for about two months, but he is in a separate room under strict QT. He is done last at night and I wash my hands with medical grade disinfectant. They share nothing - not even the same sink for washing dishes. No signs of mites on that one either (a 20g rat snake). Just feeling a little panicked. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds like you've covered all the bases- I'd guess it's just the occasional lower humidity, typical in winter when our home heat lowers the humidity. It could also be an impending shed?

Is this your first rat snake? Hope you share more when you get a chance.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crowfingers

My bp has started soaking randomly over the past two weeks - I've caught him twice - once was over thanksgiving and he only had about 4 inches of body in the bowl (which is too small for him anyway). This morning he was trying to cram all of himself into it. He's 7 years old and I have never seen this behavior before.

His temps are constant 80 cool hide, 88 hot hide, ambient 79-80. Humidity is a bit unstable this time of the year, about 65-70% right after I wet down his sponges and it drops over 1-2 days. I refresh them with warm water when his humidity gets to about 50%. His hot side drops a little faster.

I just had his yearly check up, no health issues at all, fecal was negative. I haven't seen any signs of mites (though I'm not terrified that is why he is soaking), but he is a cinny mojo so his belly is crisp white and I would think I'd see mites easily, I didn't see anything near his eyes or heat pits.

I do have a new snake that I've had for about two months, but he is in a separate room under strict QT. He is done last at night and I wash my hands with medical grade disinfectant. They share nothing - not even the same sink for washing dishes. No signs of mites on that one either (a 20g rat snake). Just feeling a little panicked. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

---

With no signs of illness or injury and having double checked your husbandry parameters, I say you accept the fact that you can't explain every odd behavior and just enjoy your snake.

If your temps are spot on, as you say, who knows. I doubt it's something from the rat snake. It sounds like you are following proper quarantine procedure.

Sometimes snakes do weird things. Could be an impending shed, or humidity differences or even temp felt a little too hot for your BP. Not that it is, but with different humidity levels, time of year, etc. your BP just might feel like a soak.

Keep us posted if you find anything else unusual, but I've seen snakes do weirder things and be absolutely fine.

Thanks for all the replies <3

I just get worried when one of my pets does something out of the ordinary. When he was at the vet for his annual (two weeks ago) I even made sure he was the only reptile on the schedule that day, it was my day off so that I didn't have to keep him there with me for 12 hours, and none of the staff working that day have reptiles either. I'm maybe a little over protective of my noodles...

Hopefully its just a phase and he's just being strange.

----------
The rat snake is a regular baby eastern black rat that had the misfortune of getting stuck inside the back of my fridge around the first part of October - (also the reason for a very strict QT). I couldn't figure out why my cats were so interested in the fridge for a week or so, then I pulled it out and looked - thinking a mouse might be in the insulation, but nope - rat snake lol. He was wedged between the plastic frame and some sort of metal sheet that made an L in the bottom corner. There was poop in there and he was kinda dehydrated looking like he'd been there for a while, so I got him out and set him up in a hospital tank. He drank immediately and I fed him a tiny pinky 24 hours later. He was 10 whole grams. I figured he needed some extra TLC before being forced to brumate, so he's staying until spring. Already got him up to 20g, on a feeding every 5 days schedule.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2/IMG_3418.JPG

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/450442571596955653/1049905231783268382/IMG_3418.JPG

He's now got an arcadia uvb strip light and more live plants as well. It's actually been really fun decorating a cage with live plants that can't be crushed and water bowls that can't be flipped lol. He is also much more motion-aware than the bp. It's kinda wild to think how different colubrids are from pythons - he almost seems smarter because he's so aware of everything:rofl:

....I hope that come spring when he's back in the wild he doesn't expect mice to just appear from the sky....

Oh, he's so cute! And yes, that's what I love most about rat snakes- they're very aware. Are you feeding him live? (You should, if he's going back outside in the spring.) I'm glad you found him in time, & before your cats did any damage. :gj:

BTW, I'm glad I'm not the only one that worries about what one of my snakes might catch while at a vet's office. Most likely your snake is just slow at going into his next shed? Probably nothing to worry about.

It has been a few months since his last shed. And I know he's put on weight so he should be about due...he fasted last year from mid-November to mid-April and lost about 200g. He's gained everything back plus some extra and is now 1673g. Fingers crossed lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Are you feeding him live? (You should, if he's going back outside in the spring.)

---

I'm feeding live (99% of the time) - I have a friend that raises feeders for her own collection, but there has been a time or two when she didn't have and of the smaller pinkies. As fast as he's growing it shouldn't be too long before that won't matter as much. I have f/t as back up too. Luckily he's never even hesitated to eat and does not seem picky as to if it's live or not :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crowfingers

I'm feeding live (99% of the time) - I have a friend that raises feeders for her own collection, but there has been a time or two when she didn't have and of the smaller pinkies. As fast as he's growing it shouldn't be too long before that won't matter as much. I have f/t as back up too. Luckily he's never even hesitated to eat and does not seem picky as to if it's live or not :P

---

Rat snakes are pretty smart about accepting f/t prey, but he just needs to stay in practice (with live prey) if he's going to be wild again, so he doesn't get hurt. (Are you sure you'll be able to part with him? LOL)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Rat snakes are pretty smart about accepting f/t prey, but he just needs to stay in practice (with live prey) if he's going to be wild again, so he doesn't get hurt. (Are you sure you'll be able to part with him? LOL)

---

I have raised and rehabbed a ton of snakes (and other creatures), never kept one though lol - even if they are one of my favorite species...though I will admit that it crossed my mind. But if I were to keep him, then I'd be out of room for more cages...and I really want to BTS in the next few years

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crowfingers

...I really want to BTS in the next few years

---

"BTS"? Back to school?