This just blows my mind...

when i check mine they seem like they never move but when i sit up late at night in the living room i'll hear all kinds of racket comeing for there room. and wheni check they are moveing around. they even move there hides and water dish. so just because they seem to never move they do alot more then you think.

I have learned something new about snakes. My hides are all three different. Two are half logs of different size, one is wood and one is plastic. She prefers the plastic. I also have a hollowed out rock (clay or ceramic I think) looking one that was intended for fish tanks. I am very careful her temps and humidity. She gets checked at least four times daily, 0700, 1200, 1730, and 0030. I got me a digital thermometer a couple weeks after I bought her that does humidity too. She might be using the hot side at night when she is most active. She usually starts coming out at about 2100 hrs. She is a very consistent feeder and has never hissed or struck, and hasnt balled up past her two week mark. That was more training kids than the snake I think. As soon as she is handled, she starts spreading out and searching. I take those good things to mean that I am providing good husbandry. I will get her more matching hides and see how that works out for her.

I apoligze for missing that part of Adam's post about the termite hills, I was gathering and comparing a lot of information at once. In Adam's second post I learned a lot more about BPs nature and wild habitat. Thank you, to everyone who contributed and taught me more about the snake. I have never seen the hide consistency item discussed before. I am planning on getting a rack ordered in a couple months, I will use this information when setting up the tubs for the new snakes I plan on ordering.

Lars, remember this is just my experience with my own snakes plus some private conversations with various other forum members about our snakes seeming to prefer certain hides, getting out of sorts if their hides are changed, or showing a strong preference for a certain shape/type of hide no matter where it was placed in the enclosure.....but certainly not the gospel truth.

If your snake is using it's hides consistently and appropriately, then get a lot more than my opinion before you mess with anything. As Adam said, they don't like their environment mucked around with a lot. It's also just my personality that I like consistency and order LOL. When I strip out a tub to clean, it's just faster and more efficient for me to pop everything back in as I don't have to remember which particular hide went where since they are all basically duplicates of each other.

Also, as Mike and I have every intention of having a larger collection one day and breeding, we are setting up our own personal husbandry habits now that will take us through the coming years of expansion. My gran always said..."begin as you intend to go on"


~~Jo~~

Well here's my tuppensworth. I set my temps as Adam said. My BPs have three hides - always in the same place in the viv. They have their basking spot if they want it (and it's so cold here and it's been snowing tonight if I could I'd jump in their viv and bask with them LOL), a medium temp and the cool end so they've got a good choice of wherever they want to be. I've got no problems with them eating (except Byron refused his meal on Sunday as he's in shed - should shed tonight or tomorrow and he'll probably make up for it this Sunday) and both my BPs shed a treat so I'll stick with the tried and trusted:D

A good tip that I got from Adam about this hide consistancy thing... If you feel like he/she is favoring one hide over the other, swap it out with another one. If you find your snake in the same hide in a different location, then make all your hides the same as the one he/she favors.