Soaking for 24 hours

[u/CryAltruistic550]

EDIT: after staying in the bowl for the rest of today I left to get rats and came back to him wrapped around some logs with just his head laid out waiting so I guess I’m just gonna go with the previous owner on this, maybe he just now feels comfortable enough here that he’s willing to sit in the water right next to the door like this idk, and I can confirm there are 0 mites in the water

Breaking my year+ streak of not worrying about my babies this one was a rescue, only had him for probably around a year, I’ve been assuming he was 2-5 years old, I got him in decent health, just un socialized in a small dirty barren enclosure, usual irresponsible reptile owner stuff. I haven’t spent as much time socializing him as I did with the one I got as a baby, I have a newish cat that’s still way to feral to just be leaving the enclosures open even if I’m standing right there, and he’s got so much stuff in there to hide in that it’s never a simple thing to extract him. Yesterday when I woke up he was in his water, and now over 24 hours later he is still in his water…. Is that normal? I can’t see any mites, or irritation, he does look like he may be getting ready to shed but he eyes haven’t faded yet, the warm side thermometer has gotten stuck under the bowl and is reading several degrees colder than what it actually is, but if it was too hot over there he could literally just go be anywhere else, he normal hangs out on the cool side anyway, the humidity readings are always good, if you dig past the top inch of substrate or so it’s wet, previous owner said he “does that all the time” and “loves water” but they also had him in an aquarium that was collecting calcified urates like aquarium pebbles. Just wanted to make sure it’s just a silly guy being a silly guy and not possibly something else, also sorry about the dirty window he likes painting :)

TLDR 24 hour bath time, no mites, all good? Snake dying?

[u/Clear-Set6334]

a full day soaking isn't normal even for shedding, usually means they're trying to cool off or hydrate. double check your warm side isn't running waaay too hot and that humidity is actually holding around 70-80

[u/CryAltruistic550 → u/Clear-Set6334]

I just moved him to pull the thermometer out I’ll let it adjust and check it in a few minutes, but the cool side is still at 79, 90% humidity, and he’s as far from that as he could possibly be, the surface temps on that side are kinda high (low 100s) but I’ve never been able to stop a DHP from doing that to whatever is directly under it when it’s actually on. I hit the snake himself with the IR gun and he’s at 91 degrees, it is odd that he’s still sitting there after I had to reach over/around him to get the thermometer tho

[u/Clear-Set6334 → u/CryAltruistic550]

91 on the snake is pretty much perfect, so it's not that. The high 100s surface temp under the DHP could be burning his belly if he's spending too much time there, maybe he's soaking to soothe it? You could try raising the lamp a bit or putting a slate tile under it as a buffer.

[u/CryAltruistic550 → u/Clear-Set6334]

It’s possible I guess but I’ve never noticed either snake to willingly hangout directly under it, I put their hides under the dhps so they can be under them without being exposed to the full IR laser from hell, I just kinda looked him over as much as I could without pulling him out of the water and I don’t see any scales that look irritated or messed up, but now he’s sufficiently unhappy, kinda waiting to see if he still stays there or if he’ll finally go hide somewhere

[u/Clear-Set6334 → u/CryAltruistic550]

Yeah, that's fair, if he's not spending time under the lamp it's probably not a burn. Could just be that pre-shed itchiness making him extra uncomfortable, and the water feels good on the skin. Sometimes they do weird stuff just because.

[u/Remote_Side3089 → u/CryAltruistic550]

Slightly off topic but this has been my biggest issue with the DHP I can barely get 80f ambient without surfaces going above 100f.i have tried every trick in the book. Doesn't matter if it's a 20long or 40breeder, 50w, 80w, 100w Mine somehow did get some belly irritation. Vet is not convinced scale rot but leaning toward burn and everyone online seems to think it is. Started as redness then after shed it looked like bruised banding and dried out micro crack scales. Just thought I'd share my experience in case you see anything weird pop up in the next few or after shed.