I havent seen her come out of her hide in a week.

Like the title says, my Ball Python (Lucie) has spent the last nearly a week in her hide. Even during her normal active hours when we usually see her out and about, shes just been in her hide. My gf and I have had her for a little over a month. The breeder didnt tell us how old she was exactly, but she's young. I'd say probably not older then 3 months. She's been eating regularly (with the exception of the first week). The last time she ate was last Friday night/Saturday morning (March 20th). When I didnt see her for a couple days after that I had assumedit was because she just ate, but it's coming up on a week now.. I'm assuming shes about to shed, as she hasn't done that since we've had her, so I know shes due for one soon. I'm probably just being a little paranoid, but I wanted to be safe and ask if anyone had any opinions on the situation.

Well if you "must" lift her hide & reassure yourself, you'll probably just get a huffy response...she's likely going into, or already in, a shed cycle...and that can easily run
2 weeks or so, from start to finish. Keeping snakes requires some patience. ;) Make sure she has water & good humidity. She's on "snake time", not "human schedule".

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Originally Posted by Jakemh91

Like the title says, my Ball Python (Lucie) has spent the last nearly a week in her hide. Even during her normal active hours when we usually see her out and about, shes just been in her hide. My gf and I have had her for a little over a month. The breeder didnt tell us how old she was exactly, but she's young. I'd say probably not older then 3 months. She's been eating regularly (with the exception of the first week). The last time she ate was last Friday night/Saturday morning (March 20th). When I didnt see her for a couple days after that I had assumedit was because she just ate, but it's coming up on a week now.. I'm assuming shes about to shed, as she hasn't done that since we've had her, so I know shes due for one soon. I'm probably just being a little paranoid, but I wanted to be safe and ask if anyone had any opinions on the situation.

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It is fine and normal. Possibly a shed coming, but an "active period" for a royal is not typical. A happy royal is a hidden royal. Ours is coming up on 9 years old and she's in her hide 97% of the time.

If you haven't read any media that discusses the natural biology of the species, I'd suggest you do. A great many folks don't understand the eating habits of the royal python, and their intentional isolation in regards to where they live.

New keepers are often hyper-vigilant which isn't a bad thing, however you can put yourself at ease by throughly researching the particular species you keep.

Let her be and she'll be fine. Not doing much is what they do best.

When mine disappear into their hides for days it always means shed time.

Just a thought; as you didn't mention what the hide is, it may be worth a quick lift to double check that your snake is able to exit and that it is not caught on something inside your hide. This may be irrelevant but not seeing what you have, it makes me feel better to mention it. Better to have a grumpy snake than one in desperate need...

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Originally Posted by Tila

Just a thought; as you didn't mention what the hide is, it may be worth a quick lift to double check that your snake is able to exit and that it is not caught on something inside your hide. This may be irrelevant but not seeing what you have, it makes me feel better to mention it. Better to have a grumpy snake than one in desperate need...

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Oh I already did that. Her hide is just an empty rock/cave looking thing. After 2-3 days of not seeing her out AT ALL (She usually comes out at night for a little bit) I lifted her hide to make sure she was okay. The hide has a lip the runs all the way along the bottom that she usually curls herself up onto. Usually when I pick up her hide shes stuck on that lip but she'll un curl herself and go onto my hand. She didn't do that this time and I had to pull her off. She did NOT want to leave the hide, bt I needed to check to make sure she was physically okay. She was.

Yeah,

I agree it is probably a shed cycle - make sure your humidity is on point and share pictures of the new skin . :D

Look out for activity and it’s colour returning / eyes clearing and then start spraying the viv daily .. it will shed anywhere in the following 7 to 10 days .


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Take a picture of your hide. I had some that kind of sound like what you described. I got them because I thought he would be little more visible for my kids. I learned later that the hides I had were too open and the snake would not feel secure in them. I ended up getting the black plastic ones. I initially thought the rock hides would look better but I also realized the snake feeling secure is more important then the looks of the hide. Not saying your hides are bad but someone might see a husbandry issue that your not realizing. I also noticed the first time ours went into shed it started staying in the hide almost all the time.

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Originally Posted by dr del

Yeah,

I agree it is probably a shed cycle - make sure your humidity is on point and share pictures of the new skin . :D

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Turns out it was a shed, thankfully. Everything turned out fine. Unfortunately I'm not able to post pics for some reason.