Are ball pythons naturally "curious"?

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Originally Posted by rickm

I absolutely agree one hundred percent that snakes do better with some 'enrichment', and I am a huge fan of very large, naturalistic enclosures.

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I agree 100%, here. One of the items that I have, in the past, moved around to see how it works in different spots would be the plastic plant that I have in his terrarium. And although he does have a climbing branch, I find him winding himself through the plant to reach up and explore the ceiling of the enclosure much more often than I find him using the branch for leverage. He really likes that plant, it seems.

But, yes, I love a natural environment for the keeping of reptiles. I prefer Eco-Earth and driftwood branches and plastic plants and faux-rock hides to tubs and bins and newspaper, but just as you mentioned, if and when I get more snakes, a simpler rack system would be much more convenient.

All in all, thank you everyone for the responses. I wasn't certain about that care sheet's degree of accuracy, which is why I was sure to use the word "alleged" when referring to it, haha. It didn't seem right to me that a snake could be "bored", but I do agree with all that's been said here about enrichment. I don't know a lot about corn snakes and don't plan on owning any, but I was just curious to know about their particular required husbandry.

I am going to put myself in the "enrichment is beneficial" camp, with the footnote that I believe this is totally dependent on the personality of the snake.

Out of the 7 snakes I own in total, 3 of them seem to actively seek adventure. The other 4 would usually rather hang out in their home. The thing I have seen that the "actively seeking adventure" snakes have in common is that they will all actively come out of their enclosure on their own whenever given the opportunity, and most of the time, they will hang out at the opening of their enclosure at night, waiting for their opportunity to come out. Also, I have noticed that these snakes will not actively seek shelter once out of their enclosure, but tend to try and investigate their entire surroundings.

I think it is indeed a good idea to pay attention to the stress level. I usually gauge this through two methods - how "tense" the snake is (detected through the stiffness of their muscles), and how heavy their breathing is. The snakes that I have noticed are the more curious and adventuresome, do not tend to show any stress whatsoever when out of their enclosure.

With Norman, my oldest BP, one of his "seemingly" favorite activities is what I call "yard patrol". I will put him around my neck - where he truly seems to be a super low stress way of holding him, and we will walk around the yard investigating all kinds of trees, flowers, plants. And by investigating, I mean, I usually let him get in a couple of sniffs (tongue flicks), but never let him interact with any wild plants. It is interesting to see how he seemingly reacts negatively to some plants, and others, he seems to make every effort possible to play on.

All of this "play time" is always highly supervised, and never for long periods of time. I have noticed that even Norman, the social butterfly of the group, can get tired and eventually starts seeking out shelter.

I have included some pictures of Norman and some of his favorite activities (Yard Patrol and DJing). He also seemed absolutely fascinated with the Guitar. I wish there was some scientific experiment to rely on, but it seemed quite obvious that he was aware of the vibrations coming from the guitar, and was seemingly intrigued at exploring every inch of the instrument.

I know there is a lot of controversial anthropomorphising in this post... but I feel strongly that given the chance, our seemingly shy little arm and legless friends, might actually benefit from the gift of exploration.

Checking out the camera after a short yard patrol adventure:
http://i.imgur.com/8Nccwvth.jpg

DJing:
http://i.imgur.com/WsVTlza.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hIjYmmH.jpg

His fascination with the guitar:
http://i.imgur.com/6B9qzCA.jpg

Mine rarely hides,he never is in his hide..if he is anywhere its in the corner behind the plants,but he is always active crawling around the tank,especially if add some vines or a plant,something new,he will climb and slither around the tank for hours on end...he rarely hides. Very active and seems very content.