Stressed Ball?

[kaylxo]

Hey guys,

I'm a new ball python owner here and I was wondering if my girl is stressed out. She's currently in a 10 gallon tank as she is still quite small, she has 2 hides one on the warm side and one on the dark side. The warm side has a UTH connected to a thermostat is is around 88-90F where as her cool side is around 78-80F. The humidity in her tank is around 62. She has successfully had a shed and has eaten f/t rat pups since I've gotten her. During the day she is always curled up inside of her hide on the warm side of the tank. At night however, she likes to roam around a lot and try to 'escape' her tank. Sometimes I take her out to let her explore my bed and she never sits still. I was wondering if this is because I'm taking her out at night and her being nocturnal or if she is stressed out.

If she is stressed, what can I do better to minimize this? Would taking her out during the day to handle her be better?
Not sure if this is relevant but I've had her about 2 and a half weeks.

Thank you

[PythonBabes]

Handling her during the day will stress her out for sure. She's nocturnal, she's sleeping during the day, I'm pretty sure you would be stressed too if some huge thing went and grabbed you out of your bed while you were sleeping.

Are you handling her everyday? That will stress her out, handling her maybe every other day is okay.

[redshepherd]

They're more active at night, because that's the time they would come awake to hunt. You can handle her during the day if you want, no problem. Depending on the individual snake, you'll find how often you can or can't handle to avoid stress.

I handle my BP's about twice a week, maybe 10~20 minutes each time.