Problem with trying to escape.

My ball keeps trying to get out either by pushing off the top but he can't I have it latched and there is a small hole where my wires runs through for the heat tape it is about a inch in diameter but I guess my 4.5 foot plus bp can get through it. Why does he keep trying to get out the cage is huge compared to him with plenty to eat and hiding and water. Is it just his instincts to do this? I'm not sure is he is wild caught or captive bred I got him from some guy that really mistreated him.

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Originally Posted by predator86

there is a small hole where my wires runs through for the heat tape it is about a inch in diameter

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IS the heat tape INSIDE this enclosure? If so he may be trying to get away from what I would imagine to be high surface temps.

it runs around the back but I check the temp all the time with a temp gun it about 90 in the back and 82 in the front most of the time its not even turned on.

OK - but is the heating element INSIDE of the cage?

yeah is red wire basically the gets hot.

You are going to want to get your heat element OUT of the tank! You NEVER want to have your heat element in the tank because there are so many hazards to it. The most common hazard of which is the fact that your snake could very easily burn itself. Heat elements are meant to be on the outside of a tank to heat the inside from outside. You have to realize that BPs are often not intelligent enough to realize that they are going to burn themselves and they will lie on the heat element and not realize it hurts until they are already burnt. You should really try to get that heat element out as soon as humanly possible!

Ok I don't need it anyways I have a uth and lights.

Wow - if you have THAT, and lights and a UTH i'd imagine the poor guy is pretty hot and dry. What are you monitoring your temps with?

And mistah Eddie_Z - thankya kindly sir!

I don't have all of them on at once I'm not cooking the guy most of the time just the uth is on to to keep it at about 85 max and always have water in there humidity stays about 50% and he just shed I had it at 75% then. I have had everything off so the temp is about 75 and he is still moving around trying to get out. I'm not worried about it I figured he is just looking around.

Try getting the warm side temps to about 93-95 and the cool side temps to about 83-84. Your humidity is good though. He may be trying to get out because he got out once and is trying to find the spot where he got out at. He may also be hungry, or may be looking for more suitable environmental conditions. Most likely warmer, more humid places. I know what heat wire you are talking about. Isn't it orangish and thin? I believe my aunt has that in her tank, even though I have tried to persuade her away from it. It's just not very safe and creates alot of unnecessary hot spots in the enclosure. Relative to a heat rock, IMHO. Snakes just really don't know when they are being burned, and it is our priority to provide them with the proper environment so things like that don't happen.

Hope everything is going ok, and you removed the heat wire out of the enclosure.

I removed it the weather in ohio is warming up. I just got it from the guy I got the snake off of. He has gotten out before so that might be it I know he isn't hungry I feed him once every four to five days and thats max. I will just latch the top down and keep at eye on him he won't go far I always have my door close and the only other people in my house won't even go into my room when he is in there.

I would still have to say though that you need to find some sort of regulation in your temps. As some one asked earlier, what are you using to monitor your temps?? You should try to keep your temps more consistant. Like Becky said, you want your warm side temps to be between 93F-87F. The very LOWEST the warm side should be is 85 & the highest 95. Then you want the other side of the tank to preferably reside in the 80-83 degree range. Perhaps he is lookin for a way out because he wants to find a more stable temperature environment.