Soaking

[littleindiangirl]

Heyo, just trying to get some feedback on how often your bloods or short-tails soak.
As most know, I have 2 sumatran short-tails, and both have been provided with a water bowl large enough to soak in. Onyx my little juvi, soaks at least once every 5 days or so, and Jade my yearling has only been caught soaking in the middle of the night/ early morning, so I have no idea how often she soaks. Both of their humidity is constant at 60-65%. Ambient is around 80-85ish F, and both are provided a hot spot of 88-91. (my room dips to around 68F at night)

Just want to know if anyone notices' their bloods soaking.

[littleindiangirl]

I was going to post the same question over at Bloodpythons.net, buuuuuut, I have yet to be "approved."

[Kara]

Par for the course with blood/short-tailed pythons. They do tend to spend more time soaking than other species.

How big are your enclosures?

[littleindiangirl]

Well jade is in a 32 qt tub in a rack, she has a bowl 8"in diameter and one of those small hides. She's on newspaper.
And onyx is the young one, (sorry, 12 qt tub) he has a deli cup water dish in a pvc holder and a small hide. It's actually the top to those "rock" hides. He's on newspaper and in a rack.

[Kara]

You may want to consider lowering the hot spot on the 12-qt tub...it can be difficult to offer a defined thermal gradient in such a small enclosure, and bloods do tend to prefer cooler temps.

[2kdime]

I've got my big guy in a ve175 tub. Temps and humidity are spot on. And I've only caught him soaking 1 time. I catch him drinking every so often.

But soaking. Only once. He's always hiding. No soaks after food either.

[littleindiangirl]

You may want to consider lowering the hot spot on the 12-qt tub...it can be difficult to offer a defined thermal gradient in such a small enclosure, and bloods do tend to prefer cooler temps.

I just checked in on him last night and he was soaking again. We are going to re-work the rack this weekend as see if we can't get him off of a hot spot. Thanks Kara!

[Krazy99CL]

try to keep the humidity up about 70ish. I was gone all day till 6pm humidity was about 55...saw mines soaking. I would suggest raising it up a tad bit higher and see if yours still soak...good luck...

[littleindiangirl]

I've gotten my babies tub back under control, I neglected to check the 'Hi' temps that the accurite records and his highest temp was at 93F! Sooo, I got him off the hot spot and have given him a full length of tape set at 85F. It tends toward the cool end in his rack, and ambient is at 80-82, with the back end belly temps towards the 85-86 mark. Even with him having the tape along the length of the tub, it is still warmer in the back. I dont want to lower it too much where it would dip into the high 70's. It gets really cold in my room at night.

Oh yea, we bought a humidifier for the room to raise it close to 50%, and his has bumped up to 65-68% I do have tape over some of the holes to control it better to.