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Babies Spilling Water

Aozora

Aozora

Blue Sky Reptiles
I have my clutch of babies housed in Ziploc containers, with paper towel substrate and a half of a toilet paper tube as a hide. I'm using hors-d'oeuvre cups as water bowls, but the kiddos keep knocking them over and soaking the paper towels and toilet paper tubes. They're not eating, because they're wet and unhappy.

How do you water your babies? Do you even keep water bowls in their bins, or do you offer them water daily? I'm tired of replacing their setups every day, and they're tired of being soaked. I'm concerned they're going to get scale rot.
 
I use the small animal water/food bowls from Petco. They act as a hide and water bowl. They're also harder to tip over
 
staple or hot glue a water dish to the side, then use a second one nested in it for water. You can remove that one for cleaning and the first one holds it in place.
 
I use 2.5 oz food sample cups. I'd have to go to the herp room for exact brand. You might be able to find them at a restaurant supply store or something like Party City around their shot glass/drinking dishware section. To keep them from spilling, i place them in 2in female-female pvc couplings made by Charlotte from lowes. The ones here at home depot are too long (tall) for the ziploc containers. I rarely have spills, usually when the water gets low and the snake somehow manages to get under the coupling or shift the cup such that it gets under it.
 
I keep babies in shoebox Iris racks, from Reptile Basics. (No, they are not escape proof as they come, despite what the company tells you! I shim the bins with cardboard or rubber shelf lining.) Then they have heavy ceramic creme brulee cups. Even if they do manage to cause a flood (by getting a corner of paper towel into the water bowl- so that's why they switch to carefresh or aspen after three meals) they still have a place they can get to, high and dry. I did have a baby, Fugu, who just had to empty his water bowl every single time, no matter what. So I ended up putting a small fake rock hide in his bin, which kept him busy enough that he wasn't messing around in the water bowl all the time.
 
Thanks, everyone! These ideas are brilliant! I'll play with the cups when I get home and see which will work best.
 
Aozora said:
I have my clutch of babies housed in Ziploc containers, with paper towel substrate and a half of a toilet paper tube as a hide. I'm using hors-d'oeuvre cups as water bowls, but the kiddos keep knocking them over and soaking the paper towels and toilet paper tubes. They're not eating, because they're wet and unhappy.

How do you water your babies? Do you even keep water bowls in their bins, or do you offer them water daily? I'm tired of replacing their setups every day, and they're tired of being soaked. I'm concerned they're going to get scale rot.
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Hi Aozora! How ya been?

Glad you got a lot of responses to this and sorry I didn't see it earlier. I have been immersed in snow hatchlings since the second week of July, so this is a familiar area. However, I also have the misfortune of being a semi-hoarder and collect hardware and various souvenirs from literally every facet of my life, so a collection of small, hard containers was waiting for the babies upon their arrival.

I use everything from large shot glasses to small ash trays I snatched (or someone has dedicated to me) from visiting hotels all over the U.S. and the Caribbean for the past 20 years! So why not let my little sneaky ones enjoy the fruits of my disorder? I find that the BEST ones are those large and heavy enough for the hatchling to be able to get into and soak if they want, without knocking them over. The most effective seem to be small, triangular-shaped ash-trays from Atlantic City (of all places!) and they are shallow enough for the baby to get into & out of with minimal difficulty. But for those whom I notice just like to sip & slither on, I use heavy shot glasses usually made of glass or ceramic. Of course, there ARE accidents, like when a hatchling will drag with them a piece of shredded paper towel large enough to cause an overflow or when they decide that they HAVE TO take a dump IN THE WATER!! Which is why a daily check is warranted in their case (actually twice a day for me as I check in the morning and before bedtime at night!).

But one thing I do notice about hatchlings is that they almost seem to prefer being mildly DAMP compared to their adult counterparts. Even when I discover them in their hides, they almost ALWAYS seem to have just come from taking a dip! Maybe this is from underdeveloped scales or is it that their bodies still contain a great deal of the moisture from their recently soaked-in yolks? Could also be that small, shoebox-sized container with tight seals appear to hold in humidity more efficiently. Don't really know, except to say that it has never seemed to cause any health issues as long as I clean out their little enclosures on a daily basis. A little labor intensive, but why breed snakes if you're unwilling to work with them, right?

Just my own two cents! :crazy01:
 
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