Hi there! First post here, although I’ve purchased animals through MM.
That said, we just adopted a 5 3/4 y.o. BP here locally - purchased off MM actually - and the previous owners had warned us the humidity in the tank hadn’t been great and her shed was…well, also not great. Immediately, I made some adjustments (added another hide, added HVAC tape to the top, have a new enclosure coming in), and while the humidity is getting better, it took some trial and error to figure out with this tank. I’m used to having PVCs, not glass, so I was a bit confounded at first.
Anyway, I’m not a huge proponent of bathing herps, but I thought I’d give her a bit of a chance to relax in the bath , which I thought could also help with some of the shed. I posted this video on another forum, and immediately got privately lambasted. Which is fine. I didn’t read all of the documentation on their page, and they’re very anti-baths for sheds.
But because I am a new BP owner, the main point of their critique is that she was stressed, so would someone be able to help enlighten me in what I’m missing? I’m not trying to be petty; far from it. I genuinely am trying to read her body language and know what works and what doesn’t.
This is coming from someone who has tamed a tokay, so I’m definitely down to put in the work. Just trying to be self-aware enough to get the feedback I need.
Hello and welcome!
So I watched a bit of the video- first I want to ask what temp the water was at, that can play a big role in the BP’s comfort.
Secondly it does seem that your BP was not comfortable in the second part of the video, the water looks too deep for a simple shed soak. What I’d recommend is water that does not exceed the halfway point of your snake’s body and to add something the snake can hold on to so they dont feel like they are just floating in open water as this can be quite stressful for some snakes (remember you want your snake to soak, not swim).
Rather than putting your ball python into a bath/tub of water, which can be stressful (think of a creature 150x your size picking you up and dumping you in water), I prefer to just makes sure their humidity is high enough and that they have a big enough bowl to soak in if they need/want to. Obviously there are are ncessary reasons for a bath (scale rot, mites, impaction, etc), but if it’s not medically necessary I tend to avoid it
Both of your replies were incredibly helpful, thank you. Yeah, the overall humidity has taken a few days to get up to where it needs to be, so it was an attempt to try to help with that while I figured things out on my end. Without making any adjustments, when I first got her, it was sitting around 40%, which was really low, so I made sure to add some water to the substrate (it’s currently coconut husk substrate, it’s what she came with) instead of simply misting, and I’ve added HVAC tape to the top. Currently sitting between 78 and 90 at the moment (9pm CST).
But yes, in hindsight, what I perceived to be swimming (and I’ve seen can be enriching), I now see as otherwise.
Swimming can be useful in some situations (egg bound females, impaction) but for the most part, if you’re just soaking it’s always best they be able to have something to hold onto for security.
Another low stress option that is easier than upping the entire enclosure humidity is to offer a humid hide with damp sphagnum moss during shed cycles. That said, 78-90% humidity for sustained periods is going to give you issues with air quality, which could lead to RIs. Here’s some previous advice on humidity levels and sheds from a past thread:
Holy ■■■■, I’m having a heck of a time with this forum tonight. Sorry about that.
So I should be clear: it’s definitely not that high during the day. Only at night. During the day, we’re sitting in that 50-60% range. Which is what I’ve seen elsewhere as being a desirable range, but yeah. Definitely not striving to keep those humidity levels super high all day.
No worries, things around here take some getting used to. I’d say you’re probably just fine, seeing as temperatures and humidity in a natural environment would also fluctuate throughout the day.
My guess is once I start seeing her complaining about humidity on Twitter, that’ll be a bad sign. Then again, that’s part of living in Kansas City: always complaining about the humidity.