Constant bathing.....
 

I have ran into a situation that I have not dealt with before. I have a 5 foot female BCC housed in a large 6x2x5H enclosure. This past Friday I acquired a nice 6 foot female that I had to put into this enclosure along with the BCC as a temporary housing solution while I was finishing her new cage. Both females get along as they will share a single hide box even though there are several others to choose from. However, if my Female BCC is not in the hide box she is in the water bowl. She will stay there for an hour or two and then leave only to come back a few hours later. I know both of these animals and prior owners quite well and don't believe that internal parasites are the issues. Neither of the prior owners had acquired any new animals in many months. I probably will have a fecal done just to rule it out. However, what other options would there be? I have a hot spot of 93 degrees, ambient temps of 83 and the hide box that they use is right at 80 degree's. Any thoughts would be appreciated. She had only used the water dish in the past to deficate but never to soak in. Just unusual behavior that started once this new female was added.

I should have the new enclosure done in the next few days so maybe that will alleviate the issue but never the less wanted to get other opionions.

Griz
Bob Woodard

Bob,

I would be a bit more concerned about external parasites, specifically mites. In a snake that suddenly starts soaking a lot who was not soaking before this should at least be considered.

Mites were the first thing I thought of too. Even if you know the owners of the people you got the newer snake from, it just happens sometimes. If their snake had mites, and shared them with yours....

I actually already checked for mites and see none. Prior to placing the new female in with my existing one I quarantined her for a day and visually examined both the bag she arrived in but also her as well. I saw nothing in the way of mites/parasites nor do I see any now. The other thing I failed to mention is that in the past 1.5 weeks my BCC female has excremented/urated 3 times with only one meal given and everytime she deposited it in the water. Not too unusual I know just trying to give all of the pieces of the puzzle.

Bob Woodard

Sometimes mites can be hard to see. Look carefully in the water bowl. They look like specks of pepper. And change the substrate to paper towels or white paper for a day or two just to be safe. You would see them much more easily that way. The other thing may be the humidity which I imagine is hard to maintain in a 5 foot high cage. Did you recently turn on the air conditioning? If so, that could be drying out the air.

I will do the paper towel thing this evening. She was once again in her bowl when I went home for lunch. I am keeping them in a seperate room in my finished basement that I built just for them. My humidity gauge in their enclosure is right at 60%. Humidity has been very easy to maintain in this particular room.

Bob Woodard

Bob,
Don't rule out other possibilities.
Is it possible that the new female came into contact with something either prior to or during the shipping process that is acting as an irritant to your existing animal? You stated that they have been in close contact with each other inside the hide box. This might explain why she is moving back and forth from the hide to the water.

Also, double check your thermometers. Is it possible that they are malfunctioning and with the warmer weather upon us, it is warmer within they're enclosure then your equipment is reporting?

After checking the equipment, I would suggest a soak in some tepid soapy water for both girls. Even if there is nothing on them, it won't do any harm and it will help you to rule out one possibility. It will also help you to notice any mites as the soapy water is reasonably effective in drowning them.

Good luck.

Well, here's the update. I got home around 4:30 pm and it's now 10:30 pm and she has not left the water even once. I changed out her newspaper to paper towel and examined the newspaper. I did see a few small black specks that were loose however there was zero movement of any kind from them. Having never dealt with mites not sure if movement is possible to see or not. I am taking tomorrow morning off of work to do the tepid soap bath and see if that helps. I am also ordering the powder to use for the mites just in case she does have them. My therm is right on the money so it's not a temp issue. I would think though that the other female that she is in with right now would be going for the water too but she is not. She's staying in the hide for the most part. Just rather perplexed by this.

Bob Woodard

Brief update - I changed out her papers to paper towels and there are no specks anywhere to be found. By the same token, she did not soak in the water bowl at all yesterday. I reckon I will simply keep an eye on her for a few more days and cross my fingers that it was something simple that took care of itself!

Bob

That's good to hear. It may have been just the fact of having a new cagemate and being territorial over the water bowl.