Bratty Ball in T-8. Keeps climbing on top of his fluorescent light.

I just recently divided my T-8 so I could house my adult male bp and my hatchling bp. Loki, my adult bp is about 1,200 grams. When I divided the tank, I moved his fluorescent light over to the side of the tank to provide the slight lift I needed to get my ambient temps up to a good range. In spite of having both proper ambient temps and a proper hot spot, Loki is INSISTENT in trying to climb between the fluorescent and the top of his cage. He keeps worming his way up there until one or both sides fall down :cens0r: I'm worried he's going to break the bulb on the rock he has on his cool side. I have tightened the screws just now so hopefully it will be tighter against the top so he cannot get himself in there even a little bit so hopefully that will help. I also ran some foil tape across the light to help hold it still (he has figured out if he gets between the light and the front of the tank and pushes just right it will pop down.)

Anyone else experience this/have any advice to help stop this before he injures himself trying to pretend hes a green tree python? :confusd::confusd:

My bumble bee used to do this all the time. I wouldn't leave tape up there just in case he does get it loose again he can really injure himself by getting stuck on tape so take that out of there ASAP. My bee eventually stopped on her own when she got a little bigger so I can't really give you advice on how to get them to stop just make sure the screws are tight so the light doesn't fall

Here's a thread I started last year when my first BP ever (my Butter Pastel) did this exact same thing: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Arboreal-Hide

My solution (post #33) was to put a bunch of crumpled up newspaper in the enclosure with her. It didn't take very long for her to come down on her own and tended to avoid the light after that. :gj:

A few months later when I got my Spinner Blast girl, she started doing the same thing - even with the newspaper. :rolleyes: She eventually made a game out of knocking down the light when she got big enough to do so. After a few times of that, I made sure to tighten the screws as best as I could and she was only able to knock it down once a month instead of the every few days routine she started with. My solution to this? I called Ali up at Animal Plastics and ordered new tops without lights (not too expensive at all) so she couldn't sneak out the cord hole if I just removed the light. They shipped to me MUCH faster than a regular order with them and now I no longer have lights in either of my two T8s (and a second set of tops with lights for when I sell them in a month when my rack arrives).

I lived and I learned. I hope this helps!

Best regards,
Eric

Tape should never, ever be used inside of a tank. Remove it ASAP before he gets stuck to it!

I would also ditch the light and put in a second UTH to run at a lower temperature, say 82*F, to give your BP a good temperature gradient.

What is your room's ambient temperature?

If you need to bump up the temp a little like above just remove the light and add another Uth.

If you really wanna use the lift just switch it with a wrap flourescent fixture so it has a cover over the bulbs.