is this normal? HELP

[spalding11]

I'm a new owner, and have made some mistakes, but i think everything is ok now.
I have my baby ball python in a 20 gallon tank with 2 identical hides, and LOTS of clutter to make her secure. Temps. are 90-93 on hot, 81-84 on the cool. Hum. is about a constant 54% and ambient is always around 76.

I have had her now for about a month and a half, and I'm a little worried. i thought she was doing fine, so after 2 weeks i started holding her for short times everyday to every other day, and she LOVED IT. then when feeding days came, i couldn't get her to eat. In the past month she's eaten 2 SMALL fuzzy mice total. So i stopped handling her, hoping it she would eat, and didn't. Now, for the past week i am finding her cramming herself in small and odd places.

poo twice (second time yesterday)
pee once.

I'm afraid I'm doing SOMETHING wrong, and she's trying to tell me "HELLO, YOU'RE KILLING ME!!!!!"
maybe I'm just paranoid?

let me know, your help and opinion is NEEDED.

by the way: we also got a spider male with my pastel, he's a month older, a bit smaller and HAMMERING DOWN rat pups every 5 days!

[Mike Cavanaugh]

are you keeping them together in the same tank?

hiding in odd tight places means that your hides are too big, or not secure enough. Please provide pictures.

[FatBoy]

Mike is right, she is stressed out. Tighter hides, more clutter, cover the back and sides of the tank, maybe even changing to a smaller enclosure will help. Pics will help.

[littleindiangirl]

Ditto that. It's generally a good idea to stop handling until you get them to eat weekly consistently.

How do you offer food, in our out of the tank, prescent?
Your husbandry sounds spot on, like Fatboy and Mike said, I would see if the hides are too big for her to feel comfortable.

[JeffJ]

I agree totally with all 3 of the above posts. they are al good reasons why she may be doing this. take them in to high consideration

[Sanova]

Good question and helpful answers, thanks.

[blackcrystal22]

I hope your not keeping the two snakes together..

You could try downsizing the tank size to make him feel more secure. Putting him in a small 15q tub or putting him in a 10 gallon tank might help.

Try covering 3/4 sides of the tank with dark paper of sorts to make it more secure. :]

[Kaorte]

Pictures of your setup would be super helpful!

[spalding11]

thanks everyone. I will get pictures up soon. i covered 3/4 of the tank.

NO they are not together.

i've tried f/t mice, freshly killed mice, let them just run around, "zombie" danced them...a little of everything. i do prescent

also, she looks like she wants the mice SOOOOO bad, but they go right up to her, the snake and mouse literally snuggle and touch noses for a minute, and she doesn't strike. then she looks like she wants to eat it, and then the same thing happens.
pictures will come

[Bruce Whitehead]

I do not handle any snakes till they have had 4 successful feeds.

I know I am neurotic that way.

Agreed a pic would help, but it sounds like your husbandry is on track and you seem to know what it is the snake needs.

I would put the snake down completely until it feeds.

If I missed it, then I apologize, but is the snake in a quiet area of the home, with a natural day and night light cycle?

If a snake gets a bad start, sometimes it does take a bit for them to get back on track. Skipping a week between feed attempts is not a bad thing.

If I have a hesitant feeder, and I have made changes to the environment, I give them two weeks till I offer food.

Let the snake acclimate, feel secure, and build up hunger.

Bruce