Hello everyone! I'm new, so bare with me while I become accustomed to the new community.

I just have a couple of basic questions for now.

First, I'm wondering how many people here witness their Balls actually submerging themselves in their water dish. When I chose a ball and read up on caging, I saw information everywhere that stated they'd need a water dish large enough to submerge their entire body in. I provided this, of course, but so far, I've yet to see my python in his water. He'll hang out near the dish, or hang from the vines and trees above it, but he never actually gets in the water. I'm concerned because he always has a hard time with his sheds (at least, what in my experience is a hard shed, having kept a kingsnake for the last seven years who always just slithered out of his skin and left it in one big inside-out tube) even though I'm careful to maintain humidity between 50-60%. Today, I finally got tired of the patchy, broken shed skin still stuck to his hide and gave him a warm bath, and of course most of the shed came right off in the water.

My second question is a little more difficult. Does anyone else keep live plants in their terrarium? I wasn't able to find much information on caging balls with live tropical plants, so I went out on a limb and tried it myself. I cut one of those Gladware "tupperware" containers down so it was only about three inches tall, filled it with potting soil, planted my tropical plant in it (purchased at PetCo), then placed it in the cage and used the substrate (I'm using EcoEarth) to completely bury the tupperware and cover the potting soil. I've tried three different plants so far, but the only one I've had luck with is a low cluster-leaf type plant with thick, waxy leaves. The other two plants I tried were tall, spindly things, and Badoo (my python) just uprooted them night after night. The low waxy plant seems to be thriving, however.

That's it for now. Thanx for your time!

- The Green Man