Constantly roaming lately seems unhappy in his new tank

I keep mine in a tank, because I only have one snake and aesthetically it's more pleasing. Maybe if I had several I'd move to a rack, simply for the space issue, but I prefer a nice-looking terrarium set-up, and with the proper controls/set-up/heating it's easy to make it just as proper "environmentally" as a tub or PVC cage.

If you're using the "infrared" bulbs then the day/night cycle shouldn't be that big of an issue, particularly if the rest of the room has natural lighting throughout the day and is dark at night. If you have fluorescent lights on all the time that might be more of a concern.

Shen's behavior went 180 on me after a few weeks of being in his new tank too, although he seems fine and happy, he's just not acting like he used to. If your environmentals are fine I'd say just leave him alone for a couple of weeks to figure things out, aside from feeding time. I'd put in a ton more drift-wood/vines/etc/etc though to make things "snugglier". There was one person who commented in the past they had to cover most of the tank in order for their BP to chill out and then slowly removed it.

Here's how I decorated mine:

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...inal_thumb.jpg

The infrared lights are on almost 24x7. On dimmers and they are really turned down, but they do click off from time to time due to thermostat. I do have a fluorescent light but I only turn that on when I need to see in there.

The tank is covered on the back and sides and kind of tucked away in a corner of my home office, here are some pics of how the lights are arranged and how the tank is covered..

http://db.tt/FXRQ0Rcs

http://db.tt/UdLtrcMh

I gave him fresh water this morning before work and decided to put him in his hide, so I curled him up and stuck the hide on top of him. He actually stayed there all day, poked his head but went back in and stayed. But then tonight, came out and is cruising again.

I say him alot, but we still don't know if its a he or a she, we call it a he though because my wife says only a boy could be this aggravating.

He has finally settled down and is eating again. I took the reptile carpet that I had laying around and glued it to the top of his hides on the inside. So its more snug now and keeps the light out better. The hides are pretty thin plastic (kitty litter pans). He ate a small rat 2 days ago and was acting really hungry so I gave him a medium rat tonight. That should tide him over till next week.

It sounds like you are starting to get it dialled in. I may make a suggestion snakes see very far (most reptiles do in fact) into the IR spectrum so deep red is actually in the middle of the visual range. I would guess they see it as quite bright. I would suggest dark blue instead as the visual range is in the IR end dark blue is at the opposite end and may not appear to them so bright. I also believe they will get used to it either way but blue may speed the process. More cover can never go wrong, and there is no such thing as too much ventilation just too little humidity can be solved 1000 ways restricting air flow so exhaled breath increases ventilation can place health at risk in a very serious way. I'd take the odd poor shed over RI any day.

MrLang, so you are suggesting no lamps and a tub if the ambient temps are 80 with two lamps a tub would be far below this. How would you heat ambient are temps of a tub when two lamps are barely able to do this or do you believe that a 1 mm plastic tub is better insulation than 1/4 glass? Please use your head! CLEARLY a tub would need heroic efforts to maintain correct cool end/ambient air temps in Docs environment, so your suggestion is move ? Change his living conditions? What is the issue with lamps let me guess glass absorbs water? I really hate it with my windows swell and crack when it rains... Lamps heat air, warm air can carry more RH so in fact lamps can add to humidity if you understand how humidity works (hint, it comes from water and air flow patterns...) Your clipped unhelpful answer has only gone to show your arrogance that you can only see the way you do things as right and everybody else as wrong. There is no right or wrong just different.

Might be kind of hard to tell from the pic, but that black strip along the front is full of holes for ventillation. There is also a small square openining under each light. So I think plenty of fresh air is getting in from the front and stale hot air goes out the top but its not so much that I lose all heat and humidity.

I also dialed down the intensity of the lights by quite a bit. Now instead of them coming on for a few minutes and going off quickly they stay on for longer durations but no where near as bright. Based on the reply above Im thinking this maybe has just as much if not more to do with things than making his hides more snug.

Ill have to check into getting some blue bulbs next time Im at the pet store and give those whirl. It would be good to have spare bulbs on hand anyway. Though maybe Ill wait a while since he just now started eating, trying to keep it all the exact same for a few weeks.