Is a hide Necessary?

Thanks!

You could use a 15qt... I use 3qt till about 300ish grams then move to a 6qt

When I first got my BP, he laid on his hide, and right as I considered taking it out for room, he began shed and went inside. After that, he was in love with that hide. I don't say it's necessary, but it would reduce stress, etc. I'd say use one.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Depends on the snake.
Many of my hatchlings don't use a hide.

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I agree completly.
My smaller snakes dont use their hides, they rather hide under the paper towels. My older 500+ gram snakes rarely leave them.

In short: I've heard boas don't necessarily need them, although it certainly couldn't hurt.

Ball pythons NEED a place to hide to feel secure. It's not that they'll die without a hide, but they may go off feed or be snippy and defensive.

I use large tubs for even my small baby ball pythons and let them grow up in them, I've heard switching tub size can stress out a snake and make them go off feed, although I'm not mass producing and looking to cram in a lot of snakes. I use an ARS 7030 rack system with grey tubs and I don't have hides in any of them, makes cleaning much easier, just a tub and aspen bedding and a disposable Dixie cup for water that goes into the built in holder. None of my snakes are stressed out and all are eating well. I feed right in the tubs, the only problem I have is that sometimes it's hard for the snake to find the live mouse because he has so much room to run around. As far as hides I dig out an area in the back of the tub and just put a little bedding over the hot spot, they seem to hunker down in this little dug out spot, some even dig in the substrate and bury themselves. I really don't care for clear or semi clear tubs since snakes like to be totally enclosed, seems like if you had clear tubs you might need hides. I have one king snake in a 8018 tub with a clear front and every now and then when I walk by he freaks out and you can hear him jumping around in the tub and rattling his tail, and he isn't a mean snake at all, just gets startled from not being totally enclosed. The main thing I don't like about a hide is that when I want to feed the snake I don't want to be messing around and picking up a hide and exposing him, I've had some snakes really freak out when I do that.