Retic soaking issue

monitorguy69 · 02-05-14, 07:00 PM

ive already posted this on another forum, so if youre seeing this twice im not a spammer, just looking for lots of opinions haha.

cliffs at bottom if there are too many words for you!

hey guys, just needed some advice. i have a 3 month old female retic who has been pounding food, very lively, inquisitive, flickering tongue, great feeding response, ect. but this morning i found her in her water bowl soaking. this was unusual because last time i tried to soak her she hated it and kept trying to slither away even though it was in a very small tub with a small amount of water. temps 90 - 94 hot side, 77 - 74 cool side, humidity always 65% - 75%. just fed last night, a bigger meal than usual, instead of 1 small rat which is getting too small for her, i added in a rat pup with the small rat. eats every 5 days, or however long it takes before there is no visible lump + an extra day or two.

No ball pythons, boas, or other retics ive owned have ever done this so i'm just trying to figure out whether its a concern. she hasnt moved from the bowl for about 13 hours now, over the course which ive lowered temps to 88 - 90 and 73 - 76. she is on eco earth which i use for smaller enclosures, as paper only seems to work for me in custom enclosures i build with low ventilation to keep the humidity up, which i was waiting until she was atleast 6 - 7 ft to build. just now i inspected her, she was very cold from the water but no mucus, no wheezing, no gaping mouth, no whistle, no small black dots indicating mites, no mites in water, water was clean, no abnormalities on the stomach, nothing suspicious. last night when feeding she took a mouthful of eco earth which i didnt worry about too much, so i guess impaction/disgestion could be a possibility? also used an old set of tongs, washed thoroughly, which ive never used with her before. after i took her out of water bowl and inspected her, i put her back in and she curled up under the hot side (under tank heat pad + 40 watt red heat lamp, combined ambient air temp of 90 - 92).

very soon after, she went straight back to water bowl and is now still sitting in it. she is handled maybe once every 5 days and only for brief periods. she shed only 2 weeks ago, and she never soaked during the process. thats about as specific as i can think of, if anyone has ever had this experience please share! sorry for all the reading

cliffs
-3 month old female retic hates soaking, refuses to soak/never soaks
-see her soaking this morning
-in there for 10+ hours without going to hot side, water is cold
-no abnormalities
-why is it doing this/is it a concern

MrGetLifted · 02-05-14, 09:39 PM

Maybe she’s getting ready to shed and the humidity is a bit low? i see you use a heat lamp and those do tend to suck out the humidity imo.
I’m no expert, just throwing ideas out,

BC Arboreals · 02-05-14, 11:23 PM

Hello,

There are 2 things I can think of. Number 1 is Mites. Check for little flecks that look like pepper in the bottom of the water dish she is soaking in. I find that they do like to soak but it sounds like your female doesn't soak at all so this cold be why she is soaking so much, because she is irritated by them and trying to drown them. check her over for mites they should be easy to see on a smaller snake.

Second thing is its too dry and she needs humidity, Lights dry out the enclosure, and the vents needed to use heat lights usually let out lots of humidity also.

Just my thoughts. Hope you can figure it out. Some snakes just like to soak. I had many boas and pythons that loved soaking in the tub or there water bowls.

Hope I helped a bit.

Teal · 02-06-14, 01:40 AM

Random question - what hide areas does she have?

I ask, because my male retic curled up in his water bowl (which he barely fit in) and I could not find a logical explanation for it (no mites, humidity fine, etc). Finally, I deduced my way down to trying one last thing - smaller hides. He did not touch the sides of his previous hides when he curled in them, but once I switched them out for hides he filled up I never saw him in his water bowl again! It could be a weird coincidence of sorts... but I thought I'd share, just in case (:

**Tsubaki** · 02-06-14, 09:52 AM

I used to have one female who just loved to soak, no humidity mite or temperature issues and enough hides. ( Could raise the humidity to whatever level i liked, she stayed in her pool! Basically lived in that thing) But such a sudden change is odd, like said before i think she might have mites if nothing else is off.

monitorguy69 · 02-06-14, 03:58 PM

thanks for the replies, just found mites today. i guess yesterday they werent very noticable but today i saw one crawling on her, so now ill be searching best ways to get rid of them. i just have no clue how she got them though, so now she is on only paper, and everything completely wiped down.

**Tsubaki** · 02-07-14, 04:23 AM

Have you been in contact with someone else's reptiles? Or maybe in a store? She is only 3 months you said, if you have had her for about 2 months (i don't know, just assume that if you have not bred her herself) She could have had 1 or 2 mites on her, it takes a while until there are enough mites for her to be annoying enough to soak, and for you to notice.