Excessive Soaking??

[Pancake's Momma]

So my sweet noodle child Pancake has been soaking a lot in her water dish the last few days. I haven't really seen her come out except yesterday when I picked her up to hold her. She did this about 2 months ago when I first got her, but it was because she was readying to shed. This time however, she is showing no signs of shedding soon, (pink belly, blue eyes, ect.). I've also checked for other reasons why she might do this. Her temps seem fine tho (85 high and 80 low), as well as her humidity (65-50), she also has plenty of hiding places, and I have checked thoroughly for mites, though I have found none.

Before she started hanging out in her water dish, she would pretty much always be either in her hide, or around her water dish being pressed between it and the glass and curling over to her plant and heat lamp.

I have no idea why she would be soaking now, but she seems pretty chill in her dish. It's fairly large, and she has lots of room to soak, move around, and so on. Sometimes she has her head up and resting on the rim, while at other times she is completely submerged, only putting her head up every few minutes to breathe. A lot of the time tho she will only have her nose and/or the rest of her head just barely poking out. And again, I have checked for mites, but she seems completely clean.

Oh, not sure if this effects anything but she is about 5 years old and almost exactly 3 ft long. She is also a very picky eater, and it's been about 2 months since she's eaten but she's not eating the rats I've supplied her. I don't think she's loosing weight however, so I'm not too worries about that. On that note, she seems to be perfectly healthy with no problems to speak of. There are no other snakes in the house (two crested geckos tho, also perfectly healthy), but we do have two cats and a kitten. None of them can get to her cage however, and I have never observed them interacting with her (or attempting to) when she's in her cage.

If you need, I can supply pics.

[ScottS]

My snake was doing a lot of soaking a few months ago. I looked for mites, but took me a few weeks before I spotted some. They are not easy to see if you don't know what you are looking for. One tip, look at her heat sensing pits straight on. If one or more are black instead of pink, there is a mite in there. They like to hide in those pits. Also look for small particles on the bottom of the water dish.

[Pancake's Momma]

Thank you for the suggestion, however the pit sensors were one of the first places I checked on her, and they are all nice and pink. Her water dish is also mite-free thus far.

[Zincubus]

A neat way of checking for mites is to give them a good wipe down with some clean , white kitchen paper roll . It will clearly show any of the little beggars up if they've been wiped off the snake ...


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[Godzilla78]

Almost surely mites. My ballnpython actually succeeded in killing all her mites and the eggs by doing exactly what you describe, submerging her whole body with only nostrils showing. I only helped by doing a full cleaning of the tank every day until she finally stopped soaking and all the mites were eradicated.

i never actually saw any mites on her, they are difficult to see and hide well. but I kept seeing them dead in her water bowl every night I cleaned it. They looked like poppy seeds.

[Godzilla78]

Also while she was killing the mites , I used only newspaper as substrate and cleaned the tank daily, with disinfectant, then rinsed all the disinfectant out before putting the water bowl and fresh newspaper and python back in.

[SDA]

I remember my mite experience. 3 weeks in the laundry room in quarantine while I eradicated the buggers in the tank. Those were the days. Mites are not that bad of a catastrophe as stress inducing problems go. The main thing is time, patience and persistence. Also remember, when you get a new snake... quarantine, quarantine, and did I mention quarantine?

Prevent a mite and Natural Chemistry Reptile Relief are the go to 1 - 2 punch to knock out mites.