Retic questions?

[Ballchris]

Ok i have a good sized tub that no one in the house uses, I was gonna clean it up really nice and disinfect for lord voldemort, I was wondering how deep, the temp of the water, and how long should i allow my snake to swim I have been doing some reading on the matter but can find nothing on the questions just that they like to swim in the wild. and iv seen pics of people letting there retics and burms swim I think the big guy would enjoy a nice dip.

so How deep should the water be
how warm
and how long should I allow him to swim?

thank you very much in advance.

[Tsubaki]

Retics do not like to be forced to swim, provide a large enough waterbowl and they might use it. However my experience is, if the snake is comfortable in its surroundings, it is very likely to never take a swim. Out of all the retics i have had, only one loved being in water. And still mostly during shed or the heat of summer. I once had 2 (adult) rescues with skin problems that Had to take baths, oh the horror... and my poor bathroom!! Anyway if you're set on giving him a bath i can't stop you, the water should be luke warm. Not warm. And the bath shouldn't be so deep that they have to swim to keep their head above water.

[Ballchris]

Im not dead set on putting him in a bath lol, Hes going into blue and I was gonna let him swim for a bit to help. thanks as always tsubaki. his husbandry his perfect even though he rarely comes out of his hide. when Iv got him out handling him he loves it extremely tame, but I got him out yesterday and noticed his eyes were cloudy, so I though about the bath maybe could help him.

[reptiledude987]

If your husbandry is good a bath shouldnt be needed for him to shed. typically when they swim in the wild its to evade a predator not just for the fun of swimming.

[Tsubaki]

No problem, :D a single bath before shedding wouldn't help much either. It's the humidity that's the biggest help.

[Ballchris]

ok thanks guys. i keep his humidity around 65 to 70% as per jay brewers (owner of prehistoric pets) and some other care sheets his ambient temps stays around 78 to 80 during the day and his and dip to 75 during the night no lower. hot side is 88 to 92.

I am raisng his humidity to 80% for shedding. any other tips on husbandry for this big uy would be great I am always up for advise.

[Tsubaki]

Don't give them anything they can topple basically, and if your windows have a low base or if its a glass tub... Make sure the rocks are heavy enough that they cant slam them into the glass when having a fit (Experienced that, not fun, never expected that snake to be able to 'throw' that rock) And don't secure anything in the tub that they can hold on to, or you gonna have a wrestling match on your hands if he decided 'today's the day i'm not coming out' -> which is also coincidently very often the day they decided to smear everything (including themselves) with poop. So it becomes a poopwrestle, and you will have to shower after winning.

[millertime89]

As long as they have a constant water supply and humidity is decent then a bath isn't necessary for shedding. I've got one snake that is picky and won't drink water more than a day or two old so I change her's more frequently than the rest, but the others are good on a weekly water change schedule. 70% is adequate even for shedding and there's no need to raise it. Your temps sound good too. Most tropical snakes seem to prefer an average of about 82F so that's what I shoot for. This is based off of tests done by the curator of the Reptile Gardens in SD who found that most tropical snakes thermoregulate to about 82F.

[SoPhilly]

Don't give them anything they can topple basically, and if your windows have a low base or if its a glass tub... Make sure the rocks are heavy enough that they cant slam them into the glass when having a fit (Experienced that, not fun, never expected that snake to be able to 'throw' that rock) And don't secure anything in the tub that they can hold on to, or you gonna have a wrestling match on your hands if he decided 'today's the day i'm not coming out' -> which is also coincidently very often the day they decided to smear everything (including themselves) with poop. So it becomes a poopwrestle, and you will have to shower after winning.

OMFG: Poopwrestle! ...I'm dying laughing.

"Sorry, I was in the shower and didn't hear the phone ring - I had to Poopwrestle my Python just now."

[Ballchris]

Don't give them anything they can topple basically, and if your windows have a low base or if its a glass tub... Make sure the rocks are heavy enough that they cant slam them into the glass when having a fit (Experienced that, not fun, never expected that snake to be able to 'throw' that rock) And don't secure anything in the tub that they can hold on to, or you gonna have a wrestling match on your hands if he decided 'today's the day i'm not coming out' -> which is also coincidently very often the day they decided to smear everything (including themselves) with poop. So it becomes a poopwrestle, and you will have to shower after winning.


so im guessing you have had to "POOPWRESTLE" one of your giants PLEASE share the story would love to hear it. I cant even imagine that match lol. today was the first time he's pooped since he's been home, he came out of his hide just to poop and boy was it huge for such a little guy, then he was like "well i feel better back to sleep", crawled back into his hide went back to sleep, JUst like ole dad i guess. and he would even touch it had his body bent the whole way back into his hide never touched it guess i just have a clean boy lol.

[Tsubaki]

Well i'm glad you all like how i once had to wrestle with a giant covered in poop.. It wasn't that much fun when it was happening though! One of my adult female Bali yellowheads which was about 15foot. Pooped all over her tub (She saved up about 3 rabbits worth of poops, she had ballpython sized poops) She then proceeded to topple the 35 liter waterbowl, and lay down in.. Well you guessed it. A puddle of poop. All nicely mixed and mushy with chunky ground coconut, so about as gross as it can possibly be. This was when i still lived at home, a few months before i got my own place. My mom, called me, to come home IMMEDIATELY. Because the whole house was stinking up. So i came home .. It was not a pretty sight and the whole room stunk like there was no tomorrow. Tried to get her out with the hook, but she was slippery as an eel and literally splashed around. This was a low tub so my face had to be in front of the opening, i was dodging poop splatter. After a few tries to get her out with the hook i gave up, she just slipped right of in a second. So i tried to get her out by hand. She was so icky and slippery, and the stink was so horrid i almost hurled. Eventually got a hold of her, she was so annoyed that she started spraying pee and other goodness around the room. And she was really hard to not let slip, wrestling me to get away. I ended up being covered in, poop.. Finally managed to get her in a plastic tub, so i could rinse her of. Even before i rinsed her off i swear i was dirtier than she was. Cleaned the tub rinsed off snake, put her back. And took a well needed shower, but i swear i could smell it on me for days.. Even though that was probably just between my ears.

Btw i was not alone working with this snake, my mom was nearby the entire time in case of emergency.. But she was like 'well have fun with that, i aint touching that if i don't have to!' -do not handle snakes this size alone.

[Ballchris]

Well i'm glad you all like how i once had to wrestle with a giant covered in poop.. It wasn't that much fun when it was happening though! One of my adult female Bali yellowheads which was about 15foot. Pooped all over her tub (She saved up about 3 rabbits worth of poops, she had ballpython sized poops) She then proceeded to topple the 35 liter waterbowl, and lay down in.. Well you guessed it. A puddle of poop. All nicely mixed and mushy with chunky ground coconut, so about as gross as it can possibly be. This was when i still lived at home, a few months before i got my own place. My mom, called me, to come home IMMEDIATELY. Because the whole house was stinking up. So i came home .. It was not a pretty sight and the whole room stunk like there was no tomorrow. Tried to get her out with the hook, but she was slippery as an eel and literally splashed around. This was a low tub so my face had to be in front of the opening, i was dodging poop splatter. After a few tries to get her out with the hook i gave up, she just slipped right of in a second. So i tried to get her out by hand. She was so icky and slippery, and the stink was so horrid i almost hurled. Eventually got a hold of her, she was so annoyed that she started spraying pee and other goodness around the room. And she was really hard to not let slip, wrestling me to get away. I ended up being covered in, poop.. Finally managed to get her in a plastic tub, so i could rinse her of. Even before i rinsed her off i swear i was dirtier than she was. Cleaned the tub rinsed off snake, put her back. And took a well needed shower, but i swear i could smell it on me for days.. Even though that was probably just between my ears.

Btw i was not alone working with this snake, my mom was nearby the entire time in case of emergency.. But she was like 'well have fun with that, i aint touching that if i don't have to!' -do not handle snakes this size alone.

Im sorry but i laughed harder than I should have, glad you got it cleaned and yourself.I hope i never have to go through this but if i do ill just have to remember i love him he is my baby.

[JWFugle]

I have a large tub in my cage for my retic and she will be in there quite often, especially after i feed her. and when i change the water and put warm water(85F, ish) in there she will sit in there till the water goes cold.

she might be just one of those odd balls

[psow]

My retic had a rubber bin that had room temp water she was in the bin all the time. Especially at shed time. Unfortunately I don't have her any more. After a car accident I haven't handled her in a while, like 6 months. Then one night after cleaning out her enclosure I messed up and did not latch the door. She got out. I picked her up as normal and she totally raked my wrist. Slashing me open to the artery tendons muscle and nerves
. It was bad. But ya she could squish all 15 ft of herself into this plastic storage bin full of water.