Tips on Soaking for Water-Haters

[bbkaren]

Hi, my young burm is in the process of preparing to shed (cloudy eyes etc) and since we're humidity-challenged until recently, I'd like to help him along by soaking.

Problem is he hates it (as does his adopted brother, our rescue ball python). In the tub he poops in the water (which I know is fine) and then tries to climb out. He's miserable the whole time and so am I. I've gotten a large flat bin (blanket box) with a plastic lid I'll put holes in for ventilation.

1. I understand we soak for about an hour once we see they're going into shed--is that an hour a day? A week? And it's just in tepid, lukewarm water, not very warm right?

2. Soaking is important, I assume--important enough to keep them in that bin for an hour with the lid on (yes with holes) even though they hate it and beg to come out?

3. Once they poop in the water, I always take them out just because of the gross-ness. Should I clean the bin and put them back in for the rest of the time? I feel bad but I know it's important--we have yet to have a "pretty" shed.

thanks for any info!

[Zoe]

Hi,
You don't need to soak them before a shed. It's stressfull and unnecessary. You should only soak if your snake has problem shedding, as in there are piece of skin stuck on him. In which case, put him in shallow water (the height of his body) with a rock for him the rest his head on. The water should be luke warm.

There is, however, another option! Put him in a small rubbermaid with layers of warm, soaked papertowel on the bottom. That will help his skin come off!

Of course, keep the rubbermaid closed and have some holes in it.

To help the snake have a good shed, just spray the tank a couple times a day until he sheds to keep the humidity up!

GL!
Zoe

[bbkaren]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. The only two sheds since we got him the burm have come off first in about inch-size pieces, then in about 8 larger pieces, respectively, so I guess we're improving--as for the ball, he was a mess to begin with so it can only improve from there.

We've recently gotten ultrasonic foggers for our snakes which are activated for about an hour a couple of times a day and keep the humidity at about 50% pretty steadily (of course it's higher while the thing is fogging). We've got the foggers in little "cages" to protect the snakes from getting zapped (not really a shock, but it's really uncomfortable in the "line of fire" on these things.) the one that works best seems to be a plastic little strawberry carton that has all those slits cut out of it--lets the fog come out but keeps the fogger from splashing around too much. They add a neat effect and prevent us from wearing our fingers out squeezing the mister bottle--although we still have to "stir" the substrate each day.

Incidentally, how long do you leave substrate in before changing it? We use cypress mulch and grab out the fistfull around any poop/urate that we find but can't imagine it's good for more than a few weeks before bacteria start to grow in there--any guidelines?

Anyway, thanks for the advice and we'll see how the shed goes this time!

[samael]

spray 2 times a day until it sheds.

[Zoe]

The length of time I'd leave the substrate in a tank would depends on the humidity. For example, in moderate humidity it would take longer for mold and bacteria to grow. However, with high humidity, it would take less time!
Also, if you have good ventilation, it takes more time for bacteria to grow.
I would change it monthly if you have high humidity and low ventilation, and once every two or three months if you have lower humidity and good ventilation.

Zoe

[Lisa]

An alternative to soaking is to use a wet pillowcase. And like zoe said, you don't always need to soak, actually if you make sure that the snake has a waterbowl big enough to fit them they will soak on their own.

[bbkaren]

Tried the wet pillowcase idea with the ball, seemed reasonable since they don't mind hanging in their bags for a bit...

I put him in the pillowcase in a shallow tub with just a puddle of water to keep the case wet. Then I put the top of the cage down so the heater would keep him warm. It was weird, but he moved around a lot and I thought he was hating it--but then when I went to let him out he refused, and when I pulled him out into his tank he kept trying to climb back into the pillow case.

Yes, I think he's definitely got mental issues. (He's also the one who thrusts himself into a diagonal "arrow" and stares into space as if he sees something in that spot on the wall--for hours! Poor thing...)

[marisa]

My ball python doesn't like being soaked and I have the same soaking setup as you. So now I just fold a towel that ends up being a bit over the water line, a little towel island. That way my ball can sit there if he does infact hate swimming, but still be constantly wet for a soak. Works for me. But like others mentioned its not needed unless there is an issue. I don't soak him every shed and all have gone fine so far. IMHO

Marisa