Odd behavior from my female adult BP... any ideas?

[WitchyWmn42]

My female adult BP has been spending an excessive (I think) amount of time soaking in her water dish for the past two weeks and not wanting to be handled. She even attempted to bite my fiance through the screen top of her tank last week when he was next to her tank turning on the air conditioner.

She is eating a medium sized frozen/thawed rat once a week (and gets more cranky if we go longer than 10 days without feeding her, the piggy!) and has defecated twice in the month or so that I have had her.

Tank temp is 80 degrees F, humidity is 46%. Her habitat has a halved clay garden pot as a hide, her water dish, and coconut fiber substrate. Heater is an under-tank mat at about 1/3 point of her tank. Tank is a 50 gallon glass tank with a sliding mesh screen on top. Her tank is in my bedroom, so it's not in a heavily trafficked area of the house. In the evenings when the ambient temperature of the room cools down, I put a towel over 3/4 of the top to keep the heat inside so that it doesn't drop below 75 at the coolest.

I've checked her for mites, and haven't seen any evidence of those pesky buggers. A few of her scales seemed to be loose, so I was thinking maybe she was getting ready for a shed cycle, but haven't seen any other evidence of her going into a shed. (Her belly is still cream colored, her scales don't look dull, and her eyes haven't gone grey.)

The not wanting to be handled at all part is what's concerning me the most, as well as disappointing me. For the first few days she had no problem with me handling her, but she's been acting this way since the first time we fed her after we bought her. (Two or three days after we bought her, actually, because the store we bought her from feeds their reptiles on Sunday evenings and we picked her up on Sunday afternoon, her first feeding here was the Tuesday evening after we got her.)

Every site I've looked on for answers has said mites are the only reason that a BP will spend that much time soaking, and since I've already ruled that out I'm getting rather frustrated with the lack of answers. I would really like to get her used to being handled again, but I don't want to stress her out by pushing it when she is obviously not wanting the attention.

Any ideas/suggestions/help you guys can offer would be much appreciated! She's my first reptile, I've done YEARS of research before I ever bought her to prepare for her, and I'm stumped! She's getting a household reputation for being "cranky".

[Johan]

How are you measurings temps? What are the temps on the warm side? You either have an overheated snake or mites. I suspect mites as they are very hard to see. Check your water bowl for black or brown specs. The baby ones are literally sand sized. They also hide under scales. They like the eyes and the fold around the neck. Good luck

[WitchyWmn42]

How are you measurings temps? What are the temps on the warm side? You either have an overheated snake or mites. I suspect mites as they are very hard to see. Check your water bowl for black or brown specs. The baby ones are literally sand sized. They also hide under scales. They like the eyes and the fold around the neck. Good luck

I've got a ZooMed thermometer/humidity gauge that sticks to the inside glass of the tank.

In the water changes I haven't seen ANY specks floating in the water. I did manage to get her out and be handled once since she's started acting wonky, and looked her over really well around the eyes, heat vents, close to the folds of her mouth, etc. Haven't seen anything. She really enjoyed having a tablespoon of vegetable oil added to her water dish (she completely submerged a couple of times for a few seconds), and it made her slippery and shiny for a day afterwards, but I would hate to treat more aggressively for mites if it isn't mites.

The undertank mat is just outside of her hide, so that she has a warm spot, a medium warmth spot, and a cool end to the tank.

My only other guess was that the once a week feeding was too much for an adult (she's almost 3 feet long ...) even if she was accustomed to it, and is just soaking after feedings to make her skin feel better. Kind of like people unbuttoning their pants after they overindulge, you know? Especially when I read about BP's only defecating once every month or so and mine has already done so twice since I got her. She gets even more aggressive when we go past the 7 day schedule, so I've been wary of extending the time between feedings.

Thanks!

[Johan]

I've got a ZooMed thermometer/humidity gauge that sticks to the inside glass of the tank.

In the water changes I haven't seen ANY specks floating in the water. I did manage to get her out and be handled once since she's started acting wonky, and looked her over really well around the eyes, heat vents, close to the folds of her mouth, etc. Haven't seen anything. She really enjoyed having a tablespoon of vegetable oil added to her water dish (she completely submerged a couple of times for a few seconds), and it made her slippery and shiny for a day afterwards, but I would hate to treat more aggressively for mites if it isn't mites.

The undertank mat is just outside of her hide, so that she has a warm spot, a medium warmth spot, and a cool end to the tank.

My only other guess was that the once a week feeding was too much for an adult (she's almost 3 feet long ...) even if she was accustomed to it, and is just soaking after feedings to make her skin feel better. Kind of like people unbuttoning their pants after they overindulge, you know? Especially when I read about BP's only defecating once every month or so and mine has already done so twice since I got her. She gets even more aggressive when we go past the 7 day schedule, so I've been wary of extending the time between feedings.

Thanks!

Hi again. I think your overheating her. You need to be measuring the temps above your UTH. Your ball can come in direct contact with it and it is likely dangerously hot. Those stick on things are useless garbage. It is important to use a probe thermometer or a temp gun. For a basic setup id suggest the one hide over the UTH at a temp roughly around 90-92. The other cooler side should be around 80 on the subtrate. Have a probe thermometer on each side. The thermostat should regulate the UTH. Hope this helps, GL

[ballpythonluvr]

I've got a ZooMed thermometer/humidity gauge that sticks to the inside glass of the tank.

In the water changes I haven't seen ANY specks floating in the water. I did manage to get her out and be handled once since she's started acting wonky, and looked her over really well around the eyes, heat vents, close to the folds of her mouth, etc. Haven't seen anything. She really enjoyed having a tablespoon of vegetable oil added to her water dish (she completely submerged a couple of times for a few seconds), and it made her slippery and shiny for a day afterwards, but I would hate to treat more aggressively for mites if it isn't mites.

The undertank mat is just outside of her hide, so that she has a warm spot, a medium warmth spot, and a cool end to the tank.

My only other guess was that the once a week feeding was too much for an adult (she's almost 3 feet long ...) even if she was accustomed to it, and is just soaking after feedings to make her skin feel better. Kind of like people unbuttoning their pants after they overindulge, you know? Especially when I read about BP's only defecating once every month or so and mine has already done so twice since I got her. She gets even more aggressive when we go past the 7 day schedule, so I've been wary of extending the time between feedings.

Thanks!

What kind of prey are you offering, mice or rats? There is no need to add vegetable oil to her water. This will acutally do more harm then good.

[TessadasExotics]

Nothing wrong with a Ball Python soaking.

[Johan]

Nothing wrong with a Ball Python soaking.

Not a problem once in a while, but something is likely up if it is a constant behavior

[snakesRkewl]

Vegetable oil in the water would not be needed or wanted

Is the heat pad plugged into a thermostat?

You cannot measure the temperature of a heat pad with a stick on the glass thermometer.
You need a probed thermometer so you know what the temperature is directly on the heat pad where the snake lays.

Soaking can be for numerous reasons, an up coming shed, too hot of a tank, stress from having a bad hide, mites, cooling off while growing follicles, and for just plain no reason at all.

The key is to go through the list of possibilities and nail it down.
Getting a thermometer that will read the heat pad temperature would be a great start.

*I have several breeding females eating voraciously(will bite for food) and wrapping water bowls and soaking, they are breeding though*

[corgigirl9]

I agree with the need for change in the temp readings and need for thermostat. I am a bit confused as far as not wanting to aggressively treat for mites. PAM or Provent-a-mite (not the cooking spray) can be treatment for mites but like the title says it also prevents mites. Its a quick, easy way to stop mites if you got them or prevent them if you dont. Either way I wouldnt consider it aggressive, although if it is mites and you dont treat them... they may get out of hand a require aggressive treatment.