I remove water bowls and the main reason is bacteria survive longer in water. These animals dont drink everyday like mammals generally do. Since you only pair for a couple of days its not going to effect them at all. I have been doing this for years. I may mist the enclosure a bit to kick up humidity to mimmick their natural rainy season. As mentioned earlier snakes dont cough or sneeze and sexual contact does not spread RI's(wrong side of the body). When you are pairing males to several females you dont want to find out later that someone was sick and now it has spread to several others. Its a smart safety precaution that I was taught when I first started from successful breeders. You have nothing to loose so why not?