Removing items in cage for feeding

I have a few days before I feed our new BP, but want to make it as stress free for the snake and I as possible. Have a 6 month old BP in her new cage which is a 20 L, which I have cluttered up to make her feel secure. I am just wondering to feed her, would it be ok to remove the water bowl which is large and the climing branches? Or will this make her more stressed due to the changes. I ask because there is not a ton of room for her to strike and coil at a prey item. I would really like to feed her in the cage instead of having a seperate feeding box. My plan was to remove the water dish and branches and after feeding just put them back in. Ill put a few pics below so you can see how crowded it is for her normally. Any ideas would be great thanks.

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You really dont need all that stuff in there to begin with. I understand the desire to have a nice display but ball pythons are not a good display animal. They would much rather hide then have climbing branches and all the other stuff. Ball pythons in the wild spend the majority of the time burrowed and hiding.

^I would agree.
Just having all of that stuff in the tank to begin with might cause stress, which could lead to feeding issues. Then removing the decorations and the related rustling to feed will make it even worse. 2 hides and a water bowl would be perfect!

I don't see extra items causing stress. Actually I clutter up the cages of problem feeders if just a hide alone isn't doing it and it almost always gets them to eat.

To answer your question OP. Only you can observe how your snake is going to react. All animals are different. We can tell you trends, but your animal may not follow them at all. More than half my snakes do not have hides or anything in their cages and have no problems eating. The others need a hide. Just try to feed your animal and find out what does or does not work with them.

However in my experience you have nothing to worry about with having room to coil something, if there isn't room, they make the room.

Thanks for the comments guys. I had the same thinking in mind as Ohhwataloser as into adding alot of rocks and plants in there to make her feel more secure due to being a larger tank and her age. I guess I will just have to try it out when the time comes and adjust accordingly. At this point I will just leave the set up as is so she doesnt get stressed anymore since she is only on day two with us.

I made the mistake of buying a tank far too big for my little guy and was told to have lots of hides and lots of plant cover so that he wouldn't panic from being so exposed. As a result I also have a nice naturalesque enclosure and he's doing just fine in it. I don't remove the big stuff during feeding time but I do remove whichever hide he's under, feed him, and put it back down on top of him. Outside of one skipped week during shed, he's eaten very well for me. You could try feeding your snake that way insyead of causing too much of a scene moving around the big stuff like the branches.

I wouldn't change a thing, just feed and watch.
If the prey has places to hide that doesn't allow the snake to take it down then I'd rethink the design, otherwise feed away.

Adding stuff to clutter it up isn't going to stress the snake out at all, having a bare tank is much worse...

I almost always keep snakes in cluttered cages, the sterile minimalistic seems to be a N. American trend and many in Europe have a different style. I don't bother to remove anything I just always keep a space clear for the strike zone an they feed where they want to. I keep close tabs on them in case they catch some thing as well but have never had an issue. Most of mine strike just at the mouth of the door I don't always get rats inside at all.

Looks like the clutter won out with you recommendations lol. I guess I am not big into the minimalistic look for the cage and would rather have it more natural looking. I will just feed her in her little jungle and see how it goes. The hard part of all this has been waiting to hold her again since we just brought her home. I also feel like I have adhd by going in the room with stealth like a ninja as to not disturb her, but to check temps and humidity. Dont worry I have not been wearing a ninja mask yet.

If you want it natural looking then build a termite mound. Thats where most balls are found in the wild. Dug into termite mounds.

Def dont want to have to dig a termite mound in the room. But I think fake rock caves and driftwood looks a little more natural then newspaper and toilet tubes for hides. Thats the nice thing we can all customize how we want. If you want minmal in a plastic tub it is surely proven to work. Rather have at least a somewhat natural look minus termite mounds and termites.

If you have the space fill it !!!


We always stress our Balls like to "Hide" I see nothing but ample space to hide in this set up.

My Normal has 2 Hides (Hot & Cool) and One in the centre, Guess where he is now and has been for the last 24 hours, Under His water bowl !!!

I was feeding my Lesser in his tank QT reasons I remove nothing, Most times ( I know where he is hiding) I dangle the food in front and he'll stick his head out and nail it !

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Originally Posted by snake lab

If you want it natural looking then build a termite mound. Thats where most balls are found in the wild. Dug into termite mounds.

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I believe that is if you want a natural lay box... they are not social creatures and snakes per KM2 and mounds per KM2 don't line up at all. It is well documented they will invade a rodent or other prey item burrow eat the residents and in a few days move on to the next.

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Originally Posted by IAFFbuckeye

Looks like the clutter won out with you recommendations

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That does not make it the right answer.

Here's the problem I've seen with the kind of set up you've built....it's not with feeding, BP's are pretty good hunters when they're in the mood, the problem is with the cleaning. The more stuff you put in your BP's enclosure, the more stuff you will need to completely clean every time you break the cage down.

The first few times we do it, it's all fine and well, but the more we have to do it, the more it becomes a PITA. So, human nature being what it is, we start to put off the complete cage cleaning, a little at a time...or, we start to not clean all the stuff in there as well as we used to.

Then the snake decides to finger paint with its feces one time, and you start to wonder why you bothered with all that stuff in there...

It can become a downward spiral.

Minimalistic cage set ups are easy to maintain, easy to clean, and honestly, all that stuff in there is for your benefit...your snake couldn't give a rat's butt either way.

But, having said all that, I don't discourage you from trying it your way. It's part of the learning process and the first step in the development process of being a ball python owner.

As long as you know all the fancy stuff is for you and not your BP. Like it was said above if you really wanted to make it a natural environment for them build a termite mound. I don't think it's bad for the snake to have all that stuff as long as you provide all the basics it needs ie, hides water humidity. But I do believe it will end up being a giant pain for you in the long run. Cleaning all that is not going to be fun and prey to god you never get mites!

Good points by everyone. Only time will tell after cleaning the cage week after week I might go the simple route for sure. Im sure your right about once she does paint the cage with a certan matter I will be second thinking this jungle I have created lol.

I actually find my rack the hardest and most time consuming to clean. I spend about 30-45 min an enclosure all the stuff and the 5 hole rack takes 4-5 hours. I'd suggest loose the damn racks first they take more time to clean than anything... unless you just clean the tubs... and don't bother with the poop painted upper surfaces... just saying. There is a real value in lidded tub racks, faster to clean for sure. I have no trouble keeping my enclosures clean, the rack with tubs with just substrate and water bowls is the biggest cleaning problem I have! Too many hard to reach corners and too big to place in a sink and spray out.

About 5 years ago i was fortunate enought to go on a hunting trip to africa. Our first stop before we went for plains game was in ghana for duiker. I can tell ya from first hand that ball pythons are found in groups in termite mounds as well in burrows. Now are they in groups because they are social? Or because of necessity? I would think its more out of necessity but either way i never saw one on a limb or in a tree.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

I actually find my rack the hardest and most time consuming to clean. I spend about 30-45 min an enclosure all the stuff and the 5 hole rack takes 4-5 hours. I'd suggest loose the damn racks first they take more time to clean than anything... unless you just clean the tubs... and don't bother with the poop painted upper surfaces... just saying. There is a real value in lidded tub racks, faster to clean for sure. I have no trouble keeping my enclosures clean, the rack with tubs with just substrate and water bowls is the biggest cleaning problem I have! Too many hard to reach corners and too big to place in a sink and spray out.

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Your experience is directly 180 degrees opposite from mine.

Get a lot of poop painted upper surfaces, do you? :rofl:

I've had that happen maybe three times in five years.

how many tubs are you cleaning that it takes 4-5 hours? Last week I did a full clean up, disinfect tubs and the rack itself, new cypress, all water bowls and hides cleaned. 8 baby bins 3 medium tubs 15 adult tubs and also 4 4ftx2ft cages all cleaned in about 2 and half hours. I also spot clean as often as I can remember to so I don't get poop smears that often. I have never had poop on top of the rack, only the side of tubs.

I wash and clean all surfaces a snake can contact. As there are few disinfectants that kill on contact or in the presence of organic compounds that means wash with soap, rinse, steam clean, check the edges and corners and spray disinfectant wait 10 min re spray so it does not dry out (in effective if it is not wet) wait 10 again and re spray and a third time 30 min total contact time. Then a full wipe down. I just follow the instructions and do as the disinfectant and manufacturer says to (F10, povidone, CHG, bleach solutions all are about the same)

I can't seem to go faster. It takes me 45 min to an hour just to disinfect the whole rack keeping the correct contact times and wet surfaces. That is all on my knees and back too. 100% pain in butt The tubs are fairly easy rinse, scrub, rinse, spray wait rinse dry. They, the five of them, total for all takes about 30min to 1 hour. The rest of the time is scrubbing the rack interior surfaces, and checking the flexwatt. If you don't bother disinfecting I guess it would be faster...

My experience is racks are far harder to clean but then I am fussy.