BP in hide all the time?

I never see Rush out of his hide. Is that normal or do I maybe not have his cage set up right? He is in a 20 gallon aquarium. I use a heat lamp and temp is between 80-85 and humidity is usually between 40-50%.

" a hiding BP is a happy BP"

-jamie

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Originally Posted by CeeLee

I never see Rush out of his hide. Is that normal or do I maybe not have his cage set up right? He is in a 20 gallon aquarium. I use a heat lamp and temp is between 80-85 and humidity is usually between 40-50%.

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Ball pythons hide a lot. However, your warm temps are too low for healthy ball python standards. The warm side should be in the low 90's and the cool side should be around 80. It is important that you measure the temperature of the substrate as balls use belly heat. It is highly reccomended that you use a UTH (under tank heater) regulated by a thermostat rather than light heat as ball pythons are not a basking animal.

Hope this helps,

Mark

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Originally Posted by CeeLee

I never see Rush out of his hide. Is that normal or do I maybe not have his cage set up right? He is in a 20 gallon aquarium. I use a heat lamp and temp is between 80-85 and humidity is usually between 40-50%.

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Its great if your bp is in its hide all the time but you should have a temp gradient from 78-80 on the cool side and 88-92 on the warm.

should i only use an undertank heater or use that along with the heat lamp? and should i put the heater under the hide he is always in?

It depends on the strength of the UTH. If the UTH you have isn't getting the temp up high enough, either buy a stronger one or add a light. I find that the only UTHs available to me that are stronger than the one I have cover too much floorspace for a proper gradient, so I added the light.

You should have the UTH on one side of the tank. He should also have at least one hide on the side near the heater and at least one hide on the cool side away from the heater. Snakes don't have a "favorite" hide, they have favorite area with the right temp and humidity. So it doesn't really matter which hide is on which side.

Try looking at night that's when mines always came out when is dark

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Originally Posted by JamieH

" a hiding BP is a happy BP"

-jamie

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Very true. In fact, if you see your BP out of his hide most of the time that means they are not happy and looking for a way to escape and move on to a more comfortable area.

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Originally Posted by CeeLee

should i only use an undertank heater or use that along with the heat lamp? and should i put the heater under the hide he is always in?

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I personally do not recommend the use of a heat lamp. BP's do not bask, they only require surface heat. Most of what a heat lamp does is just dry out your enclosure and make it hard to maintain at least 50% humidity.
All your BP needs for heat is a regulated UTH, and yes it should be under your BP's warm hide. You want the surface under his warm hide to be 88-93 degrees. The best way of accomplishing this is to hook up your UTH to a thermometer such as a Hydrofarm http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...2641610&sr=8-2 or any thermostat RBI sells http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermostats.
And If you don't already have one I would also recommend a IR thermometer (such as www.tempgun.com) to keep track of the surface temperatures of your BP's enclosures.

I feel that every BP is diffrent and has it's own personality. For instance, mine seems to like his temps around 85 on his hot side and around 75 to 80 on his cool side. If I raise the hot side hotter than 85 he sits on the cool side to much, or right on the edge of the hot side, but never fully in it. It took me a good two weeks of near constant checking before I finally got it right lol.

As for a hiding BP, agian all BP are diffrent. Mine, if he's not in shed, is almost never in his hide. Istead he almost always in the top of his plants, or hiding somewhere in them. I also have to soak him about twice to three times a week because he won't get in his own water bowl lol. The breeder told me he never had like being in his bowl and the rare times that he does he won't drink out of it until I change it. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Dante's_Girl

I I also have to soak him about twice to three times a week because he won't get in his own water bowl lol. The breeder told me he never had like being in his bowl and the rare times that he does he won't drink out of it until I change it. :rolleyes:

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Actually it is not normal behavior for BP's to crawl into their water bowls. Once in a while they may, but if they do it often its a indication of mites.

Also it is not necessary or recommend to soak your BP for no reason. All Ball Pythons need is at least 50% humidity in its enclosure in order for it to shed properly.
By soaking your BP so often you can strip its skin of oils that it needs to shed. Soaking should only be done as a corrective measure after a poor shed.