New Bp Handling Question!

So today after having my new 6 month old BP for almost a week I decided to take him out & start handling him. At first he was a little shy but after a little he started flicking his tongue like crazy & was crawling up & down my arm. It was actually quite cute! I took him out after he woke up & he has his night light on, I figured it would be better for him to be awake & alert the first time I tried to handle him. I know you're only supposed to handle them for only like 10 minutes at the start & I might have gone over that but only by 5 minutes or so. He was just so pretty & he started to actually move more so i didn't want to have to put him back in! But as soon as I put him back in his tank he went straight to his hideout & he's been in there ever since which it's been about an hour now. It's night time so normally he'd be up & roaming around at this hour. Is this anything I should be worried about or is this normal? I'm guessing he could be a little stressed so I'm not too worried about it but since this was my first time having him out of his tank I'd thought it wouldn't hurt to ask around.

Also, he has 2 hideouts in his tank, one on the cooler side & one on the warmer side. I've seen him sleep on the warm side a couple days & now he's been sleeping in the one on the cool sde where the belly heat isn't there. Could this be a potential problem too? The hideout on the cool side is more darker & the warm side rarely goes more than 88 degrees F so I don't think it's that he's too hot. I just think he prefers this hideout from the other one so should I try moving it over so that he gets that belly heat? Or is he fine? Anything helps, thanks!


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I'm sure he's fine. They prefer their hides and they will move to whatever temp is more comfortable. Just make sure your temps are right and it should be fine.

It's all good. Nothing wrong with keeping him out for 15 minutes instead of 10 minutes.

Your snake will move from hide to hide for any of the following reasons:

1) It's Wednesday!!!
2) In order to thermo regulate
3) Just Cuz...
4) To make you worry
5) For no reason at all

Bottom line, you have nothing to worry about. Just a Ball Python doin' what a Ball Python do...

Both of my balls move from hide to hide all the time OR they hide in the faux foliage in the terrarium, so I am sure yours is fine. I also handle mine daily about 15-20 minutes. As long as they are not balled up when I am handling them, I assume that they are doing well. Hope you have fun with your new ball!

Alright, sounds good then. Thank you all!


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