Water bowls/soaking...

2 questions:

1. I have 2 tubbo male ball pythons, both well over 2000g each. They both keep tipping their water bowls over and creating lakes in their tubs, and I have to keep taking them out, drying it up, and replacing the newspaper. I use those heavyweight crock bowls but obviously my two fat-butts are too strong for them. Any ideas on what I can use that they won't keep dumping over?

2. The smaller of the two keeps trying to continuously soak in his bowl, subsequently dumping it because he was too big for it. I bought him a pink kitty litter box, and now he's soaking in it all the time. I noticed he's starting to get red blotches on his belly where the scales are wrinkling...I do NOT want him to get scale rot, but I can't deter him from soaking and don't know why he's doing it. I tried getting a small bowl that he couldn't remotely fit into...he dumped it. He has no mites (I used a flashlight to look at the newspaper he lives on and dabbed him with tape to see if I could pick any up), and no internal parasites. The humidity in the room is 65% and the warm side of the rack is 90, while the cool side is 82. Any ideas on why he's doing this and how I can get him to stop?

They make water bowls that are bigger at the bottom than at the top. I believe they make them in ceramic, but I know they make aluminum ones with a rubber ring around the bottom. Due to the shape they are much more difficult to turn over.

The soaking one, does he have a hide box? If so and he still prefers to soak rather than use the hide box, then you might try a different type of hide. Perhaps one that he can barely fit into. Offer two of them, one on each end of the cage to offer different temperatures. Chances are he's using the water dish for security and not fo rthe soaking.
If despite everything he insists on soaking then I'd limit his access to the water dish. Put it in for an hour or so per day or every other day. Let him drink then remove it.
Once his skin is completely normal you can start leaving the dish in longer to see if he's broke the habit yet.

Clay is right, the aluminum bowls with the wider bottoms can be found anywhere they sell dog/cat supplies, and they are very hard to tip. Also I agree with him on the fact that your snake is using the bowl as a hide. I believe you should go with the hides that he mentioned on both sides, that will help, and if you want to leave a water bowl in there at all time with the hides try a clear one because it might not give him the same sense of security considering he can see out of it, that might help him leave the water bowl and move to a hide. In my experiences a lot of my animals tend to like the tighter hides than the ones with space around it, which makes sense, added security. Good luck, and keep us posted. -Art-

Even though they're in a black AP rack, all of my ball pythons have those black plastic reptile dens, as they're dark and snug. Unfortunately, my 2 big guys don't fit into them at all, they can only get the first third of their body in there (and the dens are the largest size available). They stopped using them and started laying behind them. I switched to dark cardboard boxes with holes cut in the side that they could fit into, but they don't use those either, they just scoot them around the tub and lay behind them or next to them. Any ideas on something that would make a good hide for these guys that would fit into a 34"x16"x6" tub? Perhaps the kitty litter box I'm letting him use as a water bowl?

I've seen those water bowls you mentioned, I'll pick one up and see how that works. Thanks for the idea!

I use the kitty litter pans you are talking about for hides for my larger bp's, I just turn them upside down and drill a hole in the top (or bottom) of it.



The hole is 2 1/2" I believe and you can rent the bit to drill the holes from a local hardware store.

My guys would need a 5-inch hole, as they're 4 inches in diameter. I seriously can't close my hand around them. Too bad they're not female, they'd give me some HUGE clutches.

I'm going to pop over to Lowe's tonight to see if they could drill the holes for me. They'll probably wonder why I'm drilling holes into pink litter boxes...

You would be surprised what size hole they can get through. My female albino while gravid could fit through that hole!!!! I believe it is the same size hole used on the large Freedom Breeder hides.

LOL! She must have had practice maintaining her girlish figure before getting pregnant. I wish I could have accomplished that...I was a moose.

I use kitty litter pans as hides too. Van Ness has 3 sizes and I use the smaller of the three.
Some of my racks do not have the inside height to allow the hole to be in the top of the hide like that. I take a jigsaw and cut an arch entrance in one end in these cases.
For the younger ones, 200-900 grams, that require a hide I use the black gladware containers.

a pencil type soldering iron works good for cutting holes in plastic,they leave a smooth cut,and usually sell for under $5.


one of the reasons i've never liked black racks is you'll never see a mite on one,i hope the bigger hide will solve your problem.have fun! TWH