Does anybody else's ball python NOT use their hide?

[Vasiliki]

I think my ball python just likes to be different. You know, mix up the stereotype. He doesn't want to be like all my other BPs. Nah, that's not for him. Got this little guy a little while back. He came to me younger than advertised, with a crackly breath. Everything has been fixed after some vet visits and we've been going strong since.

But there's one way he's not like my other two BPs. He just... doesn't use his hides, haha.

I've tried moving the hides around. I've put the hides on his 'preferred' spots. I've tried different hides. I've quadruple checked the temps to make sure there's nothing wrong and that no area is too hot or too cool (there's a gradient from right to left of hot to cool side).


Nope. I'll come in a little while later and he will have either pushed the hides aside and resumed his favorite spot, or he will perch on top of them until they are moved, then go back to sitting out in the open.

Yet he is still eating at a fantastic rate now. He isn't flinchy or cruising. He's super calm when he comes out every now and then.

My other two are total hide hoarders. They'll stay in their hides until feeding day, then back in they go. Meanwhile, Paarthurnax just sits there like: "What's up? Is it feeding day? Nah? Okay that's cool. I'll be here if you need me"

(This isn't really a complaint at all. I've been trying different things for months now and he just seems to prefer no hide? Small hides, bigger hides, black PVC hides, 'natural' hides... Hides on the cool side, hides on the warm side... Unusually shaped hides... Nope. He's not having any of them.)

I'm just wondering if anybody else has BPs who are exhabitionists?

[enginee837]

Our female thinks she is a chondro.

[Vasiliki]

Our female thinks she is a chondro.

That... is fantastic

[Hypancistrus]

My male, Malcolm, doesn't use his hides all the time. He is out and about a fair amount of the time, and very active for a ball python. The most active BP I have personally owned. It's nice to have something besides a "pet hole" which is what a lot of BP's are. My new pied seems to be more of the pet hole variety BP.

[Naraku]

My 3 month old ball python isn't a fan of his hide. He likes to move it around though so he can go through the area. When I got him at a month old he just hid under his newspaper instead of using his hide, then I put a branch in there and he decided that was more fun. Ever since then he'll only ever go into his hide if he's been fed.

[kgrah1]

Marble used to be very attached to her hides. Now, she's only in them if it's cold or if I have people over. Even after a feed, she goes to the half-log instead of her old favorite, the rock. I think she's just comfortable? Like she doesn't feel a need to hide because there's no threat. On the other hand, she was half the size of her clutchmates when I bought her, though the breeder told me they all hatched around the same time. She was 20 bucks, and expected to live a few months. She turned 1 in July.

[AKA Dave]

Pyrrha, one of my new girls actually will push her hide off the UTH and sit in the open. I thought it was a stress thing, but she's calm when worked with and she's eaten once since I've brought her home. She's just odd. The again the breeder I got her from had her in a tub all her life with no hide at all. Wonder if that has something to do with it.

Dave

[Karnage Reptiles]

Pyrrha, one of my new girls actually will push her hide off the UTH and sit in the open. I thought it was a stress thing, but she's calm when worked with and she's eaten once since I've brought her home. She's just odd. The again the breeder I got her from had her in a tub all her life with no hide at all. Wonder if that has something to do with it.

Dave

I thought only mine push there hide around. It's like they don't like the way I set it up.

Karnage Royals
1.0 Yellow Belly (Leather Head)
0.1 Bumble Bee (Karai)
1.0 Het Albino (Raphel)
0.1 Het Pied (Diamond)
0.1 Het Genetic Stripe (Bree)

[serpenttongues]

My male Houdini has never used a hide in his 4 years of life


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