Reasons for soaking?

[skaplan86]

So from my reading I have found that there are a few reasons a BP would be soaking in its water dish and for the most part they are all bad. Well I came in yesterday and saw my BP sittin in his water dish. In fact there was very little water left in it because he managed to fit most of himself in it. I took him out, inspected him for mites and whatnot and didn't see much. I had him out for probably about 20 minutes while i did some reading and he behaved normally. Put him back in and he went into his hide and slept. He came out at night, when I woke up he was back in his hide. I just now came home and he is back in his water dish.

There are 2 spots on his belly that have a little bit of a pink tint. Not like getting ready to shed or scale rot (we have been through that before). They are just a little rosy.

My ideas as to reasons...

1. temp- its too warm so they get in their water to cool off. My temps are pretty good 93 under the substrate directly under the RHP (on the thermostat). Surface temp is showing up in the upper 80s (with IR therm).

2. mites- he is on aspen shavings. I took him out and looked to the best of my ability and didn't see any mites. What exactly do they look like? Where would they be? Lots of them or maybe just 1 or 2?

3. stuck shed- none

Thanks!

[Spaniard]

Not sure if this will help you or not but another reason they sometimes hang out in the water bowl is to relieve tension after a big meal. Did your snake recently eat?

Also keep in mind that they sometimes just feel like it. If your husbandry is good and the behavior doesn't persist for man than 2-3 days then I wouldn't worry about it. However if the snakes remains in the water bowl day after day I might treat the enclosure with PAM just in case.

[skaplan86]

He ate a week ago today. Was handled twice this past weekend. I had him out a few minutes ago to do another inspection and didn't see anything different. Less than 15 minutes later he is back in his water dish.

I took a spare analog thermometer and stuck it to the top of his warm hide we he spends most of his time. I know its probably not the most accurate of things but its a way to get some sort of ambient temp reading. Its showing around 87 which even with a 5 degree margin of error is too warm. I will try increasing the airflow through the cage a little bit to see if that will help.

I also unburried the temp probe for the acurite and put it kinda in the air near his warm hides

[skaplan86]

bump... was hoping for a little more feedback...

He is still soaking himself most of today... this is a 3rd day now... He is due for a full substrate change this weekend so I will probably PAM everything when I do a thorough cleaning. I have been keeping tabs on making sure I'm not seeing any sort of scale rot or mites (even though I don't know exactly what they look like)...

Thanks