regarding 2 identical hides

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Butters420

after a few weeks of watching my juvenile bp ive come to notice that it never ever goes into the cool side hide.i see alot of people advise on it but in my opinion its a waste of money and ground space.

---

Your animal's not using the second hide will most likely be due to the temperature gradient being too uniform like others have pointed out.

Now, the reason why it's not a waste of money is because if you only had a single hide, and had a greater temperature difference between the two zones, the animal would most likely choose security over thermo-regulation (which isn't really much of a choice right now anyway), which could result in stress and health issues.

Your warm side is too cool - that is why he is not switching between hides. My bp does spent about 70% of his time in the warm hide (91) 20% of his time in the cool hide (84) and 10% of his time out and about.

I agree with providing low level climbing for my bp, but giving him anything remotely tall would result in him falling and possibly doing serious damage to his organs/brain. I love LD so just because I think it's neat when he climbs, doesn't mean I want to risk killing him - whether he would do it in the wild or not.

i only have one hide in montana tank same thing as going on with butter but my hot side temp is a constant 92 and she will go and sit on the hot side all stretched out never used the hide i had in there. she would lay on top of it flip it over so i took it out and now shes been feeding like no other. i put that hide in she goes off feed. and my other snakes doesnt even use hides, well ok he uses them as a toilet. but other then that hes always on top of them or out in the open. and his tank is the same exact way. so i dont know what it is but i dont think 2 identical hides is an absolute

I don't have 2 IDENTICAL hides either, I have a snake cave on the hot side (~92deg) and a modified bark bends on the cool side (~80) and plenty of fake plants making a covered path between them. I've read, and noticed thus far, that they will choose security over temperature every time. I've also learned that, given the opportunity, they will travel in cover as often as possible, which is why I've made a covered path between them. I'd be willing to bet that if you added a second heat source to the hot side to get those temp up a bit, your little buddy would be a little more active too!:gj:

I don't use IDENTICAL hides either. Most of my snakes have two hides though. I know lots of people who use racks and tubs use only one hide because the back side of the tub is so dark anyway. I would see a snake staying in the hot side hide all the time as a sign that the hot side temp is too low regardless of the hides.