my ball python spends a lot of time in his water dish. Today I came home from work and he was completely submerged (head and all). I watched him for a while but when he didnt come up for air for a while i got nervous and took him out of the water. He was very lethargic afterwards. My question is is this normal behavior? Can ball pythons stay underwater for long periods of time? Or is my snake suicidal?
Is he shedding? That doesn't sound normal to me, but I am new to snake ownership. Our Bp is usually just in and out of his bowl.
he does have a couple of mites, i have just recently treated his cage for them, so they may be dead. But he has gotten mites twice now and he never really spent much time in the water, he just goes in , washes them off, then gets out. He just finished shedding so i Know that is not it. I have had him for about 3 months now.
Mites are a real pain to get rid of. And one of the biggest indicators is prolonged soaking. Particularly when they dunk their heads for long periods. It usually means they have mites in their eyes and their pits as well as just on their body. Treating for mites is a long process. You can't treat just once or twice. You have to treat everything multiple times over a month or longer if needed. The enclosure (inside and out) the stand the enclosure is on. Everything inside the enclosure (water dishes, hides, limbs, etc), the snake. EVERYTHING.
Mites can be tricky to get rid of. If you don't clean both the snake and cage thoroughly at the same time, you'll essentially have a vicious cycle of mites...the ones on your snake will drop off and lay eggs in your clean tank, or fresh mite hatchlings will hop on board your clean snake. My ball spent a lot of time in his water dish when I first got him, and I attribute it fully to the few mites that I found on him. Everything came out of the cage, it was scrubbed and disinfected, and I put mite powder in every crevice because that's where they can lay eggs. The snake got a good bath, a trip to the vet, and a small strip of mite repellent (looks like a stick of gum) was on top of the screen lid for 36 hours. I can't recall the name of the strip but someone here will know....the important thing is DON'T put it anywhere the snake can come in contact with it, and don't use it for more than 48 hours or so. Never a single mite since, and he has never crawled back into his water dish.
id just like to thank everyone for their input, i am new to the site and am actually quite impressed with the community aspect of it as well as the knowledge floating around. As far as my ball python (Scallywag), i treated for mites the following way: I let the snake soak in a Betadine-water mix fro about 20 minutes while i cleaned out the cage. I discarded the old substrate, washed the inside of the tank with a mild bleach solution, rinsed it out, then washed it again with straight water. Then i took the snake out of the Betadine and put him in a straight water bath. All of the cage fixtures were first submerged in hot water for about 30 minutes, then sprayed down with Permanone. I then sprayed the indside of the tank with Permanone, put in new substrate, and sprayed that down with Permanone. Finally, i put the fixtures back in, and sprayed the whole setup down with Permanone again. I let it air out for a little over an hour, took the snake out of the bath, sprayed him with Mite-Off, and put him back in the cage. I also sprayed the table the cage is on, the couch next to it, and the carpet around it with Permanone. Havent seen any mites yet, but its only been a few hours. Fingers crossed.
LMAO.... it sounds like you did the same thing that I did the one time I had mites I took in a WC ATB and after about two weeks it started showing mites. I blasted the cage, and everything within a 10' radius with Permanone. Luckily the cage and snake were in quarntine and no other herps where near it. I havent seen a mite since then and that was two years ago When you treat with Permanone you do not have to strip the cage... all you have to do is remove the snake and waterbowl, treat the cage with everything else in it, let it air out, then put the snake back in. That is one of the advatages of the Permanone treatement, nothing has to be sprated directly on the snake. As it moves thru the cage the residue from the Permanone will kill any mites that come in contact with it. Your method should be fine though you still have the residual Permanone in there to kill off any eggs and straggling mites. Oh and welcome to Reptile Rooms
