Should I be Concerned...?

So, Scorseby is my first NO and he is adorable. The first few weeks were a little rocky. He was surprise present for me so research wasn't really a thing...Lol. I'm comfortable with him though. Especially when we've all ready run the gambit once Christmas. He was stressed and didn't eat for two weeks, we got rid of mites that we can only guess came from our Christmas tree because the store we got him from was super clean and non of their other snakes had any reported problems.

To combat his nerves we were feeding him hopper mice, frozen thawed thankfully. But he was circling his terrarium two to three days after feeding looking for more food. So, this last feeding I gave him an adult mosue. Bought from the same store we purchased him from just like his hoppers and thawed the same way. He took it like a champ with absolutely no problems. Now, however, he has picked a spot wedged between his humidity hid and his cork log watching our living room and hasn't moved from the spot since. When I sit in front of the cage he picks his head up and moves the first few inches of himself but besides that he doesn't go anywhere. He steer he's toward his water dish but doesn't drink and his temp and humidity are great!

Is he just sluggish because of his full belly? Or should I be concerned there's something wrong? Normally he is a lot more active.

I'm guessing this spot is on or near his hot spot? Full belly probably has a lot to do with it. Another thing could be that he is getting more comfortable and settling in, and he will be less active in the day. You might see more movement in the evening. Most of my BPs don't do a lot of moving around until late afternoon, though there are exceptions.

I promise you the mites did not come from your christmas tree. 99.9% they came from store.

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Originally Posted by MattEvans

I promise you the mites did not come from your christmas tree. 99.9% they came from store.

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That was my first thought too, but it's certainly possible in some locations. They can live a pretty decent amount of time with no host and in more tropical climates like FL or similar I could certainly see wild reptiles being active this time of year. Still like 90% it's the store but I wouldn't swear on it.

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

That was my first thought too, but it's certainly possible in some locations. They can live a pretty decent amount of time with no host and in more tropical climates like FL or similar I could certainly see wild reptiles being active this time of year. Still like 90% it's the store but I wouldn't swear on it.

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Snake mites aren't native though, only other kinds of mites are- although when snakes escape or are released & happen to have them, I guess they could take hold in wild snakes too- it's just not an issue so far (as far as I know?) & I hope it never is.

There's a couple important things to know about ball pythons and their general behavior. They tend to be more sedentary than the average serpent as they are ambush predators. They typically don't actively search and hunt down prey (with exceptions of course as yours showed) and prefer to camp out in a protected space for a meal to wander past. That and they're nocturnal by nature, so they're normally not going to be out and about during "optimal viewing hours" so to speak.

So with those two factors it's generally a good thing if your BP isn't moving around a whole lot in most cases. Mine is fully content to stay in his hide of choice most of the time and he's perfectly healthy and happy for example. Not to say such things are hard-fast rules as some BPs love to move around or even climb, but unless there's otherwise apparent issues a BP that doesn't move around much shouldn't be a cause for concern.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate your feedback.