What does your ball do?

[Cubby23]

Mufasa seems to stay in either one of his hides all day. I understand that I have a rather bland tank, having only the 2 hides and a water dish, giing him nothing else to hide under. But he hides all day. These are definately his normal habits now that I have had him for 6 months. My corn is out all over the place almost all the time. Mufasa however does come out at night, but I usually only see him out very late in the night when there have been no disturbances and maybe only half the time. So heres my question what does your ball do?

[Schlyne]

Um.... I have several ball pythons, so I can't really vote in the poll.

I have a couple that are super shy, and will hide almost all the time. They will come out every so often and wander around the enclosure at night, but will hide immediately if there is any distrubance. (they are also my youngest ball pythons). Then I have Vash and Issa, who only hide if they are in shed or digesting. Vash often comes out at and night and "perches" on a branch to bask. Issa is the ball python I've had the longest, and is about 1.5 years old at this point. He's never balled up and he very very rarely gets stressed out.

Have you covered the back side and one side of the tank? That will make your ball python feel more secure. Also, how quiet is the area that the tank is in?

[JLC]

About the same as yours. She sleeps most of the time in one hide or another. Sometimes I'll catch her during the day moving from one hide to the other, or with her chin resting on the edge of her waterbowl while the rest of her is still crammed in a hide. LOL


At night, about 10:30-ish, she comes out for an explore and pokes around all over the tank.

[Cubby23]

I'm reall worried about him hiding. The area is very quite, even though snakes are deaf. But there is low traffic in the room. Maybe I'm in there an hour a day typing or watching a movie. Usually just take care of the herps and handle them.

[JLC]

It doesn't sound to me like you have anything to worry about. It's natural for them to spend 97% of their time hiding/sleeping.

[Adam_Wysocki]

I'm reall worried about him hiding.

You shouldn't be.

Ball pythons are in a category of animals known as "ambush predators" ... unlike your corn snake that is designed to actively "hunt" for food, ball pythons are designed to pick out a nice cozy hide and wait ... and wait ... and wait ... for food to come to them ... and then digest ... and digest ... and digest ... and then wait ... and wait ... and wait ... that coupled with the fact that they are a heavy bodied animal with a very slow metabolism, naturally shy and secretive, and nocturnal, makes the your ball pythons behavior totally normal.

Hope this helps.

-adam

[Cubby23]

Thanks for the info, I didnt know about them being ambushers. But I guess I made a pretty bad typo I meant "I'm NOT really worried..."

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

Everything. I have a few.

[Melicious]

Depends. Since I've put in the newspaper for Ody, he's been much more calm around people, but he's also twice as active. (Thank you, Adam!)

Ophelia, on the other hand, is pretty much a hide girl. She'll pop her head out from time-to-time and maybe slither around her tank a bit, but unless I've physically removed the screen, she's pretty-well quite. OPening the screen...yeah. She pops her head right out with this, "Hey Mommy, whatcha doin'?" expression on her face.

[Mina]

Now, keep this in mind. I have had Dax for exactly one week today, and he hasn't fed for us yet. During the day he hides. Sometimes at night, the time varies, he will come out and explore, sometimes he does not. When he comes out to explore, if I walk in quietly and sit on our bed, he will let me watch him. I couldn't sleep on Wednesday and got up and saw that he was investingating his tank at about 3 am. He probably moves around a lot more while we are asleep.