newspaper trick..

im sorry that my response came off aggressively defensive. Its not how i pictured it coming off. Sorry about that Adam

Adding the newspaper certainly wouldn't hurt. Ball Pythons, as has been mentioned before, are very secretive animals and aren't necessarily accustomed to having large, open floor space in their homes. Whether or not you use crumpled pieces of newspaper really shouldn't be such a difficult decision - there's no harm in it, and if anything it helps the snake feel more secure and hidden like it should. I've noticed an improvement (if you could call it that) with Mr. Bojangles since I've added newspaper crumples to his enclosure. He's not forced to choose between two hides, and he really seems to be more comfortable anywhere in his home now, as opposed to comfortable in only a couple of areas.

im going to give it a shot .. i just filled the viv up with newspaper balls im going to give her the rest of the night to explore.

When I first came here and was told about the newspaper trick - I must admit I was very skeptical - it does sound so strange. But I went off and stuffed her viv with these little untidy balls and she loved it :) She still hides quite a bit though - but, like they say - it's them ;) If I feel I need a cuddle with her I'll remove her hide in the evening and she comes out then.

It is a strange little trick LOL. When I first heard of it I thought "well okay, guess it's worth a shot, nothing to lose" and tried it with the adult female Brannagh that we had just taken out of a pet store where most of the employees were nervous of her. She was at the time highly agitated by everything and would constantly "pace" her enclosure, not even secure enough to use the hides provided, in other words the opposite of normal bp behaviour.

In went the newspaper balls and within a very short time she was able to retire to a hide and finally get some rest. Since she is an adult it wasn't even a case of a large open area and a small snake. She was just very very stressed and ready to defend herself from some perceived threat. That little trick with the newspaper balls was the first constructive step in her rehabilitation and to me is an absolute gem of an idea.

One thing to remember though is to remove the newspaper balls gradually once the snake adjusts, not suddenly pulling them all out or the snake may go right back to the stressed stage and you are back at step one again.


~~Jo~~

2 things that are more informational than anything else ...

1. I don't "ball" the newspaper, I just kind of crumple it. The idea is only to add some "fill" the the cage to make it feel darker and safer to the snake ... 30 tightly crumpled "balls" isn't the same as a bunch of loose crumpled up sheets of paper which in my experience is more effective.

2. The trick was taught to me by Kevin McCurley from NERD probably 7 or 8 years ago now and is also covered in his new book "The Complete Ball Python" .... To this day, everytime I crumple paper I think about how much everyone owes the pioneers of this hobby like Kevin for blazing a path for us to follow! ;)

-adam