How's this all looking? Plus couple of questions

Happy with all my temps, using a CHE with a heat mat under warm hide (on the left) set to 88-90 with themostat 80-85 warm end, 75-80 cool end. Ambient temp 80ish Humidity around 65% but usually more like 75% in the hide.

1) He spends most of his time in his warm hide (as he should) but since the heat mat is under it, the temp inside the hide is the "basking" temperature rather than the ideal ambient temp of the enclosure. Is this ok for him?

2) just found him burrowing and moving around under the substrate (outside his hide) in the middle of the day. Is this normal behaviour? I'm concerned maybe he's not liking his main hide for the reasons said in 1sy question.

I've only had him 2 weeks so maybe this is just him getting more comfortable in his new home and being more active? Middle of the day when he started coming out and burrowing though.

Also to note he's around 100g so around 6 weeks old I believe? Eating well too.

Thanks [emoji4]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...80f753234f.jpg

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Also to add that is sphagnum moss on the warm side there to help with humidity

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It would be helpful to get a temperature reading on the glass under the substrate right over heat mat. The heat mat thermostat probably needs set just a bit higher to achieve 90F inside the enclosure under the substrate. They will burrow under substrate, I wouldn't fuss about it. I can't tell if you have 3 hides in there or those rocks are just decoration. There should be at least 2 hides, and the rock on the right looks like its probably way too big to function well as a hide for a 100g snake so you may want to think about getting a smaller one for that side for now. Otherwise things sound great.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

It would be helpful to get a temperature reading on the glass under the substrate right over heat mat. The heat mat thermostat probably needs set just a bit higher to achieve 90F inside the enclosure under the substrate. They will burrow under substrate, I wouldn't fuss about it. I can't tell if you have 3 hides in there or those rocks are just decoration. There should be at least 2 hides, and the rock on the right looks like its probably way too big to function well as a hide for a 100g snake so you may want to think about getting a smaller one for that side for now. Otherwise things sound great.

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Thank you! I use a laser thermometer so the temp on the glass is good. They are both hides yes. I put I few rocks in the bigger hide to make it a bit smaller on the inside

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Looks great to me and it sounds like you’re off to a good start with your new BP! 👍🏾

I agree that your setup looks very nice and you're in a good place with your new scaly family member! Unless he is moving around in a very repetitive, stressful way I wouldn't worry about him poking around the enclosure. I've never liked the old phrase, 'a hiding ball python is a happy ball python' because snakes are naturally curious and interested in their surroundings. While ball pythons are definitely on the shy end of the behavior spectrum, you still want to see them relaxing in various areas of the enclosure and not just sitting in their hide all of the time.

Every snake is different, and some BP are fairly active even during the day. If yours is, just be sure he's calm and curious rather than stressed and trying to escape.

Also, don't worry if he doesn't spend much time in his warm hide. Every single one of the snakes I've kept has typically used their warm hide only when they are getting ready to shed or sometimes right after eating. Aside from those very specific instances, they seem to prefer the cooler areas of their enclosures the rest of the time.

If you want to make the larger hide more snug for your little guy, you can also just stuff the inside of the hide with paper towels. That will allow him to crawl around/under the paper towels if he wants to.