Hi everyone, new poster...
My daughter has a ball python ("Crowley"). He is about two years old. His home is a 50-gallon glass enclosure, aspen bedding, large under-floor heater in one corner, and two hides, one of which is above the heater. Temp is consistently between 75 and 85, and humidity for the last couple months has been around 60%. She recently switched from feeding him a thawed mouse every 5-6 days to a thawed rat every 7-9 days. He's never had problem eating or defecating, even after switching to rats. We usually handle him once or twice a week for fairly short periods (10-20 minutes). He had a clean shed about 2 weeks ago. He tends to be very active - he's often outside his hides even during the day, and it is very common to see him out and about at night.
However, since his last feeding about 6 days ago, he has not left his hide, as far as I can tell. He did plow a path through the bedding, all the way down to the glass, from his hide to his water bowl, but I have not actually seen him move around. He usually poops within three or four days of a feeding, but there's nothing. I know he's still alive, and he does shift position in his hide, but he has been much less active than usual. I'm wondering if we should be concerned. Reading around on different snake sites I have become worried that maybe he ate some of his bedding and we should take him to the vet.
Should I be worried, or is this within the normal behavior of ball pythons?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
- JK
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