my ball keeps burrowing beneath the carpet in his viv. any ideas why?

[tttaylorrr]

i hope this is the right thread for this question; apologies if it's not!
so he's a healthy-and-eating 2 year-old and he's starting to act out of the ordinary: i'll come home and see a giant lump underneath the bedding and realize he's made his way underneath his carpet. at first i thought he was cold - trying to get closer to his heating pad beneath the carpet - but after obsessively monitoring his temps for almost a week i've found no change (air temp never drops below 75 F, his UTH for the warm hide is around 89-93 F and works fine) and have noticed he tries to stretch towards the cool hide (not staying on the warm side).

so last night as i go through this routine of pulling him out and fixing his enclosure i noticed something: while fixing his viv i set one of his hides on my bed, letting him go into it, i noticed he stops trying to go inside when his body is about half-way through. that's when my my second hypothesis came: is he too big for his hide/enclosure and therefore not comfortable in them? the enclosure is 20 inches long, i believe (i'm at work at can't measure) and has these hides in size large. he's probably over 3ft.

after setting his viv back up and placing him inside towards his cool hide, i noticed he did the same thing: stopping when his chunky bits are half-way through, and sloooooowly going in. any other ideas? i was already planning on getting him a bigger enclosure in a month or so but i might have to make that sooner than later. any insight or advice is very appreciated! thank you guys!!! (:

[Rikoku]

The reptile carpets are not good for Ball pythons, they are a bacteria breeding grounds. Are you regulating the UTH with a thermostat?

My best guess would be that your snake does not feel secure in its hides and is using the carpet as a makeshift hide.

[Mangiapane85]

I would definitely try a bigger hide. The reptile basics hides are very nice.


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[butterballpython]

Reptile carpets are not good for any reptile. Eventually they start to smell bad, and if they smell, you know there's a lot of bad stuff in them.

[tttaylorrr]

thanks for your reply. yes, i use a thermostat for regulating the UTH. any suggestions on what else to use besides the carpets? i wash them with every viv cleaning and have 2 that i use in rotation. i use them bc i worried he might burn his belly if he lays directly on the glass. i agree that he might not feel secure anymore, and i've also noticed him laying differently in the hides, which started right before he found his new hiding place beneath the carpet. do you think the size of his hides could be the issue? it's really the only thing i can think of at this point, and i'm getting tired of rebuilding his viv almost every night lol. again, thanks for your reply!

[tttaylorrr]

that's what i'm going to try; since his hides are the exact width of his tank i'm going to get a bigger tank, too. thank you for the advice!

[tttaylorrr]

Reptile carpets are not good for any reptile. Eventually they start to smell bad, and if they smell, you know there's a lot of bad stuff in them.

the reason i use them is to make sure he can't burn himself if he burrows himself directly onto the glass. any suggestions for moving away from carpet? thank you for the input!

[Rikoku]

the reason i use them is to make sure he can't burn himself if he burrows himself directly onto the glass. any suggestions for moving away from carpet? thank you for the input!

If you are using a thermostat like you mentioned, then there should be no risk to you snake if its directly over UTH on the glass as it should not get hot enough to burn them.

[tttaylorrr]

If you are using a thermostat like you mentioned, then there should be no risk to you snake if its directly over UTH on the glass as it should not get hot enough to burn them.

alrighty then, no more carpet! they were quite the pain to try and keep clean. i'm just a worry-wart is all. (: thank you for the advice.

[Mangiapane85]

TRY A BIGGER HIDE.


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