Strictly speaking, ball pythons only, does anyone NOT use a water bowl or use one during only certain times of the year?
I'm asking this for a couple of reasons...
1. Most of mine ALWAYS tip their bowls and flood their tubs. If they can't flip them they must plunge their bodies into them so the water just archimedes itself right out of the bowl. Now, this usually isn't a problem because i usually can change them the same day. Now that i'm up into the double digits though, sometimes i have to skip a day and i feel bad leaving them on the wet paper. I know a lot of BIG breeders only clean once a week so i know the snake is gunna be fine, but still, they're my pets and i like to keep them happy.
2. I rarely see my snakes drink. Year round the room stays between 70-80 degrees. The last time i saw one drink was when i pulled my cinny off her eggs and put her into a fresh tub. I had kept the tub really humid for her too to lay the eggs. I'm assuming laying just took a lot out of her.
3. I feed f/t. For god knows what reason some of them love to drag their rats into their water bowls. Sometimes after they do this they just don't wanna eat it afterwards. That leaves me with a nasty mess to clean up and a wasted rat. Also, if they happen to flood their tubs on feeding day, some of them won't eat if their tub is all wet, which means another wasted rat.
4. I've seen people on here before mention that balls get most of the moisture they need from their food. This makes sense because people are also always saying they spend a majority of their time in rodent burrows/termite mounds and moving to new ones to look for food. So for a majority of the time, when in the burrows, they wouldn't have access to any water, correct?
I was thinking what if you only kept a water dish in their tub while they were going through a shed cycle? That's really the main time when higher humidity is most important to them. Semi-recently i've expanded into the world of tarantulas and learned a lot. Like balls, T's get a lot of their moisture from their prey. With that said, some species still need additional moisture so I provide them with a water dish. But on the flip side, some species don't need any water dish and get all the moisture they need from their food. Comparing that to bps, i'm just thinking maybe they're a species of snake that doesn't need a water dish. Does anyone know of other species of snake that are commonly kept without a water dish because the snakes simply don't need it?
I'd like to also add that i'm NOT asking this because i'm trying to cut corners or be lazy or neglect my snakes in any way. (Notice i posted this in the ADVANCED husbandry section lol). I just wanna know if anyones tried keeping their balls without water dishes and how it's worked out for them.
Reply With Quote