Should I be worried?

We've only had Boston for about 3 weeks now. He was born July 4th this year. We're far from experts but from what I can see he is settling well in his new home. He only wandered (was active) for the first 2 days and now he gets comfortable in his hides. He eats well (just bumped him up from hoppers) and we've only had 1 poop so far but read that i shouldnt worry about the frequency just yet. Iv noticed that lately he has preferred the cool side of his tank. Spending a lot of his time their. Tonight after his feeding, I placed him back into his tank (we feed in a separate feeding tote) and placed him into his hide on the warm side of his tank. When i returned back I noticed that he had moved... Over to the cool side. I have been resurching these snakes for just over a year before our purchase for our 10 year old son. I read several times that snakes need heat to assist in the digesting process. After meals they should be drawn to the warm spots. So why did Boston leave the warm side to digest his food on the cold?!? Maybe I'm overreacting and if so please call it out. I'm chalking that up to being a new mom lol. I just don't want to overlook something that I should be more concerned about. Just to add that I Jason the temps within the ranges listed on the care sheet. I do have a larger tank (38X18 I think) and aspen bedding so I have to spray daily as I loose humidity quickly. Should I be more worried? Should I encourage him to the warm side? I don't want to stress him and we do not touch him for 2 days after he eats but I don't want him to have digestive problems. Anyone? Thoughts?

If your temps are good its fine. I feed my ball in its cool hide alot and it goes right back in. Just provide what it needs and the snake will use it appropriately.

Short answer: No need to worry!

Longer answer: They do what they do :) and if your temps are spot on, the ambient heat in the tank should be just fine for digesting (but yes, belly heat aids in that process). If you have done your research as you've mentioned, then you'll know all about proper temperatures and whatnot, which can also be found under the care sheet section on this forum. "A hiding ball python is a happy ball python".

All the best!

Snakes can also remain in food/hunting mode for a few hours after taking a meal. They're opportunistic predators, and if they catch one rodent, they may get lucky and catch a second, so they move around a bit. In a day or so he may move to the warm side to settle down and digest.

That said, how are you heating the warm side and how are you measuring temperatures?

2 of mine prefer to digest on there cool sides and they have been fine so no need to worry :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bcr229

Snakes can also remain in food/hunting mode for a few hours after taking a meal. They're opportunistic predators, and if they catch one rodent, they may get lucky and catch a second, so they move around a bit. In a day or so he may move to the warm side to settle down and digest.

That said, how are you heating the warm side and how are you measuring temperatures?

---

I'm heating the warm side with a UTH/Herpstat t-stat. I have a temp gage on both the warm and cool side to monitor it but I do want to upgrade to a acurite thermometer (or something similar) that I seem on another thread. Everything is exact temps as on the care sheet. I take direction well lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tiffanie

I'm heating the warm side with a UTH/Herpstat t-stat. I have a temp gage on both the warm and cool side to monitor it but I do want to upgrade to a acurite thermometer (or something similar) that I seem on another thread. Everything is exact temps as on the care sheet. I take direction well lol

---

If you're talking about the analog ones... you unfortunately wasted your money buying them. Get a digital with a probe or an IR thermometer and measure the surface temp of the glass under the warm side hide. If the analog thermometer is reading an air temp of 90-ish on the hot side, it's likely his surface temp is too high.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bcr229

If you're talking about the analog ones... you unfortunately wasted your money buying them. Get a digital with a probe or an IR thermometer and measure the surface temp of the glass under the warm side hide. If the analog thermometer is reading an air temp of 90-ish on the hot side, it's likely his surface temp is too high.

---

Thank you for the reply. Going to have to go purchase one ASAP! Would you know any brands/makes that I can purchase locally in Canada? Something that's preferred rather then wasting anymore money? I googled and see this one but its more for food preparation. Would I be able to use something like this? http://www.thermoworks.com/products/...ermometer.html

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-a-thermometer

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bcr229

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-a-thermometer

---

OMG that's awesome!! U are the BEST!!