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Q: Water dish for burrowing boa?
Posted By:

Red Dirt Reptiles

In Relation To:

Morpheus

So my Dumeril's boa LOVES to burrow. I've recently moved him from a tub to a large tank filled ~1/3 full of aspen/cypress mulch mix. But here's the conundrum. Every water dish I put in there ends up toppled over. I've tried small dishes, large dishes, even cat litter boxes. It's getting to the point where I'm considering not having a water dish at all but instead soaking him once a week. I'd rather he have access to water when he wants it but I can't have his substrate being soaked all the time. Any ideas are appreciated!


Points: 150
Topics: Caging , Water
Tags: Burrowing, Dumerils, Waterbowls
Species: Boas > Large Boas > Acrantophis dumerili
Administrative: Show/Hide

Member Comment 11/17/2013 11:41:32 AM

Sonja K. Reptiles

Have you tried the heavy ceramic dog bowls?

 
Member Comment 11/17/2013 1:15:58 PM

aSnakeLovinBabe
^that. Get one of those super heavy FLAT BOTTOMED round bowls made of heavy ceramic. They are often tan on the outside with blue on the inside. When you go to put the bowl in, take your hand and shove all of the bedding to the side and set the bowl down onto the cage floor instead of ontop of the bedding. Then shove the bedding back around the dish. I actually do this with every water bowl!
 
Member Comment 11/17/2013 1:54:01 PM

SnakeMama

I do that with my young blood python for the same reason :)

 
Member Comment 11/17/2013 2:42:02 PM

bwaffa

Agree with the above.  Caged animals should ALWAYS have free access to clean water.

 
Author Comment 11/17/2013 3:22:15 PM

Red Dirt Reptiles

I haven't tried a ceramic bowl yet. It's feeding day today so I won't mess with it until Tuesday but I'll give that a go. I can't put the water dish on the bottom of the cage however. It's a 40 gallon tank 1/3 full of substrate - about 6 inches or so of substrate. I definitely want him to have access to water but I'm worried about his humidity getting too high or the substrate getting moldy. What I've been doing is just leaving a small amount of water in his dish. That way he has SOME water but when he tips it over, it's not too bad. 

 
Member Comment 11/17/2013 3:29:52 PM

Sonja K. Reptiles

Why such deep substrate?

He looks to be an adult? 

 
Author Comment 11/17/2013 3:35:55 PM

Red Dirt Reptiles

He's always loved to burrow. He's just weird that way. Even if I keep him on newspaper, he buries himself underneath it. That boy is like a kid in a ball pit when he's got stuff to dig through. And yes, he's an adult. About 6 years old.

 
Author Comment 11/17/2013 3:41:43 PM

Red Dirt Reptiles

So to answer the question as to why the substrate is so deep: Because he uses it. If he only "swam" through 2-3 inches, that would be all he got. But he makes use of all of it, sometimes sitting near the top, sometimes the middle, and sometimes the bottom. He'd probably make use of more but I figure 6 inches is deep enough.

 
Member Comment 11/17/2013 3:55:31 PM

Sonja K. Reptiles

Does he have a hide as well?

 
Author Comment 11/17/2013 4:05:01 PM

Red Dirt Reptiles

Yup. A ginormous hollowed out piece of driftwood. He uses it too sometimes but mostly just climbs on it. And now that I'm really looking at it, it's probably closer to 4 inches of substrate. It's 6 inches when it's fresh and fluffy but it looks like it's settled closer to 4 inches.

 
Author Comment 11/17/2013 4:12:12 PM

Red Dirt Reptiles

Sorry for picture hugeness. Just took this shot. Of course he's not buried NOW. He's gotta make me look bad. He's probably out because he smells food. But this is his set up currently. There's a UTH under the log hide.

 
Accepted Answer 11/17/2013 4:37:44 PM

Sonja K. Reptiles

Basically, sometimes finding the right size hide can make a big difference - at least that's what worked for me. You said you had tried a kitty litter pan... what dimesions is that? In my adult female's cage I used the largest kitty litter pan I could find and turned it into a hide. My male, since he's larger, I am using a tinted greenish 28 quart sweater box size. Both use inside the hide and also rest on top. Perhaps with a switch to a different hide, you could go with less depth of substrate, and then the ceramic dish can be place on the bottom as Shannon described and that will fix things.

 
Member Comment 11/17/2013 7:47:46 PM

Fishbone

I agree with the above, something large, heavy and flat bottomed, but I'd take it one step further.  Something like this.  You can usually find thngs like that cheaply at dollar/discount stores.  I used them ith species that like to burrow with very little problems. 

 
Member Comment 11/18/2013 2:41:32 PM

ernman

Less substrate.....Add enough substrate to be just below the top of the bowl....

You could also try placing the bowl on a piece of wood to raise it up a couple of inches...

 
Member Comment 11/18/2013 4:43:09 PM

Aimee

I also find that a good ceramic casserole baking dish from a thrift store is good, too. nice and heavy. alternatively, a small rubbermaid...but keep the lid on and cut a hole for access. even though they're light, sometimes it helps.

 
Member Comment 11/28/2013 3:54:02 PM

snakeman74

You can try getting a piece of pvc pipe the water bowl can fit into. You can cut the pvc pipe to the height that you would like. It should help. If that does'nt work you can silicone the pvc pipe to the bottom of the cage and still be able to remove the water dish for cleaning and refilling. If you go that route make sure the silicone has cured before you put your snake back into the tank.

 
Member Comment 12/16/2013 8:40:33 AM

Cenobite

This question has had no activity for 14 days and will be closed by an administrator unless the original poster takes action.

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Author Comment 12/17/2013 8:02:27 AM

Red Dirt Reptiles

Changing the hide fixed the problem. Thanks everyone for your input!

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