Corn snake not using his warm hide - burrowing under it instead?

I have two hides for my corn snake. One on the cool side that is pretty large, an one on the warm side that is smaller. During the day I can usually find her in the hide on the cool side of the tank, but sometimes Ill find her on the warm side either over the UTH or exploring. Except today I went to look and she was on the warm side, but under the substrate and burrowed under the hide, just chillin. :snake:

When I got her - the guy had her in not even a half inch of substrate, with a waterbowl taking up 1/4 of the enclosure, no heat source, one small hide, and large stick for climbing.

I added 2 inches of substrate, a smaller water dish, two hides, some faux leaves, a uth, and a small 25 watt light to kick on if the room gets cold(which it rarely does). Ever since then shes been pretty active, exploring the cage, except she doesnt seem to want anything to do with the hide on the warm side. Is it maybe because she doesnt trust it yet? Since it is new?

Her temps are good, the bottom of the tank is obviously warmer because I have a UTH. Im just curious if all this is normal. I want her to be comfy and happy :) thanks!

My cornsnakes are almost always buried down in the substrate. :) Add a thermostat to your UTH though, those things can malfunction easily and over heat and kill your snake.

Pretty common with many colubrids to burrow. And if your setup is correct there is no issue with it.

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I have a thermostat, thanks for the advice :) is it possible her hide is too small? Its basically the same size as the one her previous owner had her using. Its got more height even.

It appears shes using her warm half log hide as an entrance into the substrate to access the UTH. Aslong as she feels secure and can get to heat, I guess! :gj:

My corns will burrow over using their hides, pretty typical for the species.

Your new hide might be too tall. My colubrids only use hides that are nearly flat (sheets of bark), just resting on the substrate. They burrow under the substrate and seem to like the closeness/weight of the shallow hide above. With deep enough substrate, I really don't think a hide can be too small, at least not until the snake grows so much that the hide turns to a hat.

My corn never uses his hide. He likes... no... loves to burrow under his water dish. Guess it's just their thing

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