Weird behavior

[3dvera]

Hello everyone.

I am new in the BP hobby and new on this forum. I have been reading so much about this beautiful animal and i have spent many hours on this forum, which is freaking helpful!. I have 2 ball pythons, one generic stripe "Gilbert" and one pastel "Pineapple" they are both males. Gilbert i believe is 2.5 years old and Pineapple is 5 months old. They are both very healthy guys.

I got Gilbert about 2 months ago and Pineapple 1 week ago.

2 days ago I clean Gilbert's cage, changed bedding (I used coconut fiber), disinfected the entire cage (Including hide, water bowl and plants), and I even gave him a bath in luke water. he actually enjoyed it a lot. When I put him back in his cage and after exploring the clean environment he went inside his hide, I was happy to see that. But next morning I see him outside of his hide. I checked the temperature in hide and it was a bit to high in the 99F. I have a heat tape attached to the bottom of his hide spot (on the outside of the cage of course) his cage is made of PVC. So I decided to lift the cage about 1 inch to allow air to flow under it. which reduced the temperature to about 88F.
The same night when I got home from work I saw him inside the hide, which made me so happy! BUT this morning he was outside of his hide AGAIN.... Temp is in the 85F and humidity in the 70's.

I am not sure if I am doing something wrong... my theory is he is just cooling down a bit since his bedding is fairly new and it is still a bit wet meaning its very humid in his hide.

Wanted to see if any of you guys have a better theory??

Now on the other side I recently bought a new (smaller hide) for him.... which I put in last night and this morning I see him on top of a fake plant I have attached to his cage wall. He is a very small guy only 170g. I can see he went in his cage but for some reason he decided to chill on top of the plant and stay there. I simply laugh in the morning when I saw him. Again temp and humidity in his cage are in the 88F and 60's.... I have the exact same setup for both tanks. Heat tape under the hide spot with 1 inch of space in between the bottom of the cage and the table the cage is sitting on.

Hopefully I can have some good feedback from you guys.

Here are some pictures of my 2 guys:

[tttaylorrr]

how are you measuring your temperature/humidity inside the tank? do you have your heat tape rigged to a thermoSTAT? and you talk about getting a second hide, did you always have 2 hides in his tank? balls should have 2 identical hides for them to feel secure.

also, pictures did not show up. (: you have to have them hosted somewhere i believe?

[DVirginiana]

You need to get a thermostat to regulate your heat source, or you're going to end up with a burned snake. Unregulated they can easily reach over 90F and seriously harm the snakes.

[Sauzo]

Try to use identical hides for both sides(the one he does like). Also lower that temp as 99F is hot. 92F would be the hottest I would ever want to run. Also lower that humidity, 70% constantly is too high, 50%ish should be plenty and that is all I run for all my snakes and they shed fine. If your guy is using the warm hide and then sitting outside of it, my guess would be that he likes the warm hide but gets too warm so wants to go into the cooler hide but doesn't like it so next best thing is sit outside the hide he does like and cool off.

[3dvera]

Thank you guys for the replies. I am currently measuring the temp with a heat gun I how from work and also I have a little thing attached to the cage wall that reads temperature and humidity. I do not have thermostat for the heat tape... I read everywhere it's a must have but I honestly didn't think I need it. Starting to doubt my decision. Where do you think i can get one? I am in Toronto Canada. Also i am not sure why the pictures are not showing. It's my first post ever

[3dvera]

[tttaylorrr]

well, that was a bad decision. (: you can find them on amazon for around $40 or so. here's a link to the exact one i have:

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...ile+thermostat

he's moving around because he can't find a comfortable spot. fix his hides and temps and you will see his behavior change.

- - - Updated - - -

oh how pretty they are.

[3dvera]

Ya i definitely made the wrong decision. Oh well lesson learned. I just purchased this one from Reptilia in Toronto for almost $80. I am going to shop around and see if I can find something cheaper. Thank you very much for your help Tttaylorrr.

[tttaylorrr]

awesome.
hope it all works well!

[Foxton]

Ya i definitely made the wrong decision. Oh well lesson learned. I just purchased this one from Reptilia in Toronto for almost $80. I am going to shop around and see if I can find something cheaper. Thank you very much for your help Tttaylorrr.

Unless that has two probes to control both devices you should bring it back and get one for each. Otherwise one is always going to be either too cold or too hot.