Staying on cold side after eating?
I feel like I've been posting so much about this snake, but just want to make sure I'm getting it all right and there isn't anything I need to change. My BP arrived last tuesday, and I quickly learned her hides weren't small enough for her. She was curling up beside the glass instead of hanging out inside her hides. Anyway, I swapped out the cold hide for a smaller one and added a small hide on the warm side. She had been using the small warm and cold hide, until just yesterday. I went in to feed her (And actually had a mini heart attack because I couldn't find her in her cage... thought she escaped. Yeah, freakiest 10 minutes of my life. In any case) and she was hiding underneath her water bowl. It now seems to be her favorite spot and shes completely ignoring the hides I put in her cage, even though they are size appropriate. She just ate yesterday and I'm wondering if its going to be problematic because shes spending all her time on the cold side. I've heard of ball pythons preferring the cold side of the terrarium, but she just ate, so in theory won't she want to be on the side with the heating pad to help digestion? When I put her in a separate container for feeding, I flattened out the area around the water bowl so that wouldn't be the first place she would want to go back to, but now shes just dug right under it again.
The warm side is 90 degrees, the cold side is staying at 77, and the humidity hangs around 47 (I know its on the low side, its really dry where I live and I'm going to buy a mister and start spraying her cage.)
So basically, any ideas why shes doing this? Human error on my part or is she possibly just weird? Would it be worth reorganizing the cage, so her surroundings are completely new, or could that just stress her out? OR, am I just way overthinking this whole thing? Whichever it is, thanks for the help guys!
Re: Staying on cold side after eating?
Yes a little bit of over thinking. Try to get the cool side up to about 80-82. The high side is good and just mist once in a while to bump humidity up. My room for my bp's stays at 80-84 and humidity is at 45 normally. I mist a couple times a day while in shed. As far as she likes the cool side....mine do at times as well. It's just what they do. As long as she is eating, shedding, and potty normal then it is fine. They really are easy to keep. I know someone might post a care sheet here. I have seen it on a few threads so maybe search the forum for it. I just don't have the link saved.
Re: Staying on cold side after eating?
Definitely over-thinking. I am for 78-80 ambient, but realistically as long as you're above 75 you're fine.
As long as you're properly measuring your temps, chalk this one up to "I'm providing the right environment for my BP, so what it chooses to do within that environment is completely up to it."
Re: Staying on Cold Side After Eating?
Sorry for the late response, been busy! But thanks for all the input everybody.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cchardwick
What kind of substrate do you have and how often do you change it? I switched to paper towels and spot check twice a day. When my snakes go to the bathroom on the hot end they always move to the cold end, probably hard to tell if they soiled the hot end substrate with any other substrate besides paper towels, but that may be what's going on. They should be on the hot end for digestion. I also keep extra wet balled up paper towels on the cold end, when the hot end dries out they move to the cold end for the extra humidity. They are very predictable in my setup.
I'm using aspen substrate, and I haven't changed it yet. I just received her on the 9th, and she hasn't defecated or urinated. But I will definitely do the paper towel method. Thank you!
Edit: Fed her earlier today and found her hanging out in her warm hide. :) Thanks again everybody!
