Stressed or just Unsure?

So do to previous husbandry issues, I ended up taking out my little ball python a lot more frequently to give him baths and keep him warm. Now that all that has been (finally) corrected, I turn my attention to his stress.

Usually, when I'd go to pick him up, he'd just sit there and let it happen. But if I put my hand down to give him the option to climb on, he will either ignore it or go back into his hide. If I do pick him up, he huffs a little bit, and remains still for maybe a minute, but then he will stretch out and casually explore around. The only time I've seen him attempting to go anywhere quickly is when Id put him in the sink (the tub is too big for him) with Luke-warm water. I thought this was perhaps because the water wasn't the right temperature, but it felt almost like air temperature to me.

After some exploring, he sometimes will curl up close to me or on me (because I'm warm and I usually keep him on the bed with me when I have him out). Occasionally I'll go to pet him, because he's cute and it's a habit I haven't broken yet. He won't huff or ball up, but he'll sort of smack away my finger with the portion of his body I touched. Otherwise, he seems rather calm about everything.

He moves about his enclosure more frequently, going from one hide to the other. (One on the cool side, one on the warm). But this morning he was sitting outside his cool-side hide and felt cold. I checked the temperature of the warm hide, and it was where it needed to be (95-ish F). His cool side varies depending on what my roommate set the air-conditioner to...

Since he was outside his hide, Im a little worried I'm doing something wrong...

What do you mean by 95-ish? What did you use to check the temperature and where exactly did you do so?

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

What do you mean by 95-ish? What did you use to check the temperature and where exactly did you do so?

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95.3 specifically. I used a new laser temp-gun and I checked under the hide, as I wanted to measure the temperature inside the hide itself

95 is a bit too hot, try lowering the warm side down to 90 or so. You need to insulate the cage or move it or whatever you need to do to keep the cool side a stable temp, if it's getting too cold or fluctuating a lot you are going to end up with a sick snake. You aren't bathing him anymore are you? There's really no need to. What kind of hides do you have? Maybe they aren't tight or secure enough but might be just improper temps and trying to regulate himself.

What are you using as a heat source?

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Originally Posted by GoingPostal

95 is a bit too hot, try lowering the warm side down to 90 or so. You need to insulate the cage or move it or whatever you need to do to keep the cool side a stable temp, if it's getting too cold or fluctuating a lot you are going to end up with a sick snake. You aren't bathing him anymore are you? There's really no need to. What kind of hides do you have? Maybe they aren't tight or secure enough but might be just improper temps and trying to regulate himself.

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The pet store told me to set it at 95-100... -headdesk- I'm going to just throw out everything I was recommended to do by the store.

The heat pad they sold me does not have a thermostat. The hide is a little big but the other one in the cold is too small. I supplemented the small one by adding the fake leaves around it and situating the log piece so it doesn't have an opening on the other side. He seems to prefer this colder one, but I figured he'd be able to regulate himself as needed...

Im going to be making another trip to the pet store today to pick up more hides and things to make the enclosure smaller for him, and see if I can find a humidifier.

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

What are you using as a heat source?

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A headlamp during the day, and an under belly heater at night. Both on the same side with the better insulated but larger rock hide

You're going to be told to unplug that heat pad immediately until you get a thermostat for it.

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You NEED to buy a separate thermostat. You should NEVER run a heat pad unregulated unless you want to risk cooking your snake alive. You also don't need the heat lamp for a ball python. Ball pythons will self regulate but only to a certain degree. The thermostat's probe should be places between the pad and the enclosure and should be set to around 88-90F. As long as the heat source is fine, you don't really have much to worry about besides humidity which you shouldn't have a problem if you are using a proper enclosure.

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Originally Posted by Fraido

You're going to be told to unplug that heat pad immediately until you get a thermostat for it.

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I left it on without him in the tank while I was taking him to the vet for a checkup and discussion with the vet. And he hung out with me while I played video games the rest of the day and the hottest it got was 90 with two inches of aspen and open air. The rock insulated the heat to 95ish.

i only leave it on at night, because it's over carpet anyways and is a fire hazard. I want to switch to a thermo regulated heat rock