My Baby ball python is curled up into a ball outside his hide?

I made a big mistake of holding him for like 10 minutes once he came. Im really scared. He isnt any of the hides i set for him, he is just curled up into a ball and he isnt moving at all. Should I be worried? The hot side is currently at 90 degrees and the cold one is at about 77 degrees. His head isnt inside of the ball, he is just in the middle of the tank, staring at me. Should i be worried? (I already love him to death and dont want to hurt him)

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Originally Posted by Zeraxi

I made a big mistake of holding him for like 10 minutes once he came. Im really scared. He isnt any of the hides i set for him, he is just curled up into a ball and he isnt moving at all. Should I be worried? The hot side is currently at 90 degrees and the cold one is at about 77 degrees. His head isnt inside of the ball, he is just in the middle of the tank, staring at me. Should i be worried? (I already love him to death and dont want to hurt him)

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Is this your first snake? Where did you purchase him from?

Unless there's something more than what you've mentioned here, everything is OK.

Step 1 - calm down. Holding for him for a bit didn't hurt him. It's recommended not to hold them until they eat just so they destress. Briefly holding him before putting him in his new home isn't a big deal.
Step 2- walk away from his home. He's probably just curled in a ball to protect himself for now and won't want to move until he's alone and unobserved.
Step 3- Glance back at him in an hour or so. He'll probably have hidden himself.

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Originally Posted by Kcl

Unless there's something more than what you've mentioned here, everything is OK.

Step 1 - calm down. Holding for him for a bit didn't hurt him. It's recommended not to hold them until they eat just so they destress. Briefly holding him before putting him in his new home isn't a big deal.
Step 2- walk away from his home. He's probably just curled in a ball to protect himself for now and won't want to move until he's alone and unobserved.
Step 3- Glance back at him in an hour or so. He'll probably have hidden himself.

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I agree. I held mine for a while when I first got him (and I was scared too bc I knew it wasn't recommended) and he was fine) try leaving him alone so he can explore without being watched. He might be shy 😉

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Originally Posted by spellbound04

Is this your first snake? Where did you purchase him from?

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I got him from Snakes at Sunset yesterday.
He was exploring his enclosure all day yesterday (at night too). He went in every nook and cranny. He doesnt really look scared. I should probably not worry. He has his head out and looks like he is relaxing. Its been a while and he is in the same position. I cant really tell if he is stressed.

On another note. If i open a f-t mouse packet, and its cut in half (like a perfect cut), should i feed him the mouse?

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Originally Posted by Zeraxi

I got him from Snakes at Sunset yesterday.
He was exploring his enclosure all day yesterday (at night too). He went in every nook and cranny. He doesnt really look scared. I should probably not worry. He has his head out and looks like he is relaxing. Its been a while and he is in the same position. I cant really tell if he is stressed.

On another note. If i open a f-t mouse packet, and its cut in half (like a perfect cut), should i feed him the mouse?

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That's exactly what my guy did, he explored for a long time and then made his way over to his hide. Its possible he forgot where his hides are in his tank because he's not used to it. Its likely he's just observing everything. If he isn't tightly coiled or in and s-shape he probably isn't stressed. I've never seen a f-t mouse cut in half (I get mine from pet smart/co bc it's nearby, but maybe they do it like that where you purchase yours. Id make sure though. Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by spellbound04

That's exactly what my guy did, he explored for a long time and then made his way over to his hide. Its possible he forgot where his hides are in his tank because he's not used to it. Its likely he's just observing everything. If he isn't tightly coiled or in and s-shape he probably isn't stressed. I've never seen a f-t mouse cut in half (I get mine from pet smart/co bc it's nearby, but maybe they do it like that where you purchase yours. Id make sure though. Hope this helps.

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I actually bought my f/t mice from petsmart as well. I bought 3 small mice and 1 medium (just incase the smalls r 2 small for him). I tried feeding him today, and oh god did the mouse smell disgusting. Like i've smelt dead mice before. But this one was another deal. Im pretty sure its because it was cut in half. I dont think thats what is supposed to happen. Ill see once i try to feed him in a week or so.

Do not feed it to your snake. It will be a sloppy mess. Wait a week before offering food.

As for holding your snake, it is my RECOMMENDATION that you handle your snake when you first get it. Take pictures, hold your snake, enjoy it, love it. Hold ot as long as you want as long as you keep it at safe temperatures for it (if it's prolonged you want a fairly warm room). Take tons of pictures.

When you are done stressing your snake out for your own selfish reasons and have enough to remember your snake by in pictures and memories, put it in it's enclosure and completely ignore that it exists for a week. Then start feeding it. Continue ignoring it exists until it is consistantly eating (2-3 feedings it eats).

The logic is, you get everything out of your system, you have pictures of the snake, and have the memories. Then you give it a safe place to live, and reinforce that safety by not intruding. Then it starts getting food, and the safety of the enclosure as well as the food delivered to it should help make it comfortable. Then you just try to acclimate it to you until it feels comfortable with you.

(When I say ignore it exists, you definitely want to still spot clean and supply fresh water, just don't prolong doing those things, don't lift the hide it is using, and don't try to watch it)

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

Do not feed it to your snake. It will be a sloppy mess. Wait a week before offering food.

As for holding your snake, it is my RECOMMENDATION that you handle your snake when you first get it. Take pictures, hold your snake, enjoy it, love it. Hold ot as long as you want as long as you keep it at safe temperatures for it (if it's prolonged you want a fairly warm room). Take tons of pictures.

When you are done stressing your snake out for your own selfish reasons and have enough to remember your snake by in pictures and memories, put it in it's enclosure and completely ignore that it exists for a week. Then start feeding it. Continue ignoring it exists until it is consistantly eating (2-3 feedings it eats).

The logic is, you get everything out of your system, you have pictures of the snake, and have the memories. Then you give it a safe place to live, and reinforce that safety by not intruding. Then it starts getting food, and the safety of the enclosure as well as the food delivered to it should help make it comfortable. Then you just try to acclimate it to you until it feels comfortable with you.

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Step 1 done. I've handled it quite a bit when it first came. I took pictures too. The enclosure is in my room so i cant like "forget" about the snake. but ill just occasionally look at it. I dont think itll be too stressed as long as i dont touch the enclosure (aside from changing water daily) 3 weeks though... *cries*

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Originally Posted by Zeraxi

3 weeks though... *cries*

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That's a minimum and assumes it eats consistantly. It might not and you may wait a couple months.

You're reaction to cry over the notion of waiting so long is exactly why I recommend people do all that when they get the snake. You'll keep thinking "oh, I should get another picture, see what color its belly is," and "oh, are its eyes green?"

You get one chance to - everything up and freak your snake out, and that is before it is introduced to its home. It is much harder to get the snake to feel safe if you keep disturbing it in what is supposed to be its safe place. So, I always tell people to do everything before they introduce the snake to it's home. You won't be able to get good pictures and handling again for almost a month, or more.

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Originally Posted by Zeraxi

I made a big mistake of holding him for like 10 minutes once he came. Im really scared. He isnt any of the hides i set for him, he is just curled up into a ball and he isnt moving at all. Should I be worried? The hot side is currently at 90 degrees and the cold one is at about 77 degrees. His head isnt inside of the ball, he is just in the middle of the tank, staring at me. Should i be worried? (I already love him to death and dont want to hurt him)

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Could be any number of things ...

It's just early days and as mentioned by others it will take a short while to settle ... Some spend DAYS just crawling around the Viv looking to find an opening .

I'd leave it alone for at least 7 days before even thinking about offering a "warm" defrosted mouse . Check around this forum for the best ways to offer it . Some suggest not handling until it's fed twice .


As to staying outside the hide - maybe he just doesn't like it as warm as 90F ...they are all slightly different..maybe it's much higher than 90F ?!

What are you using to take the temps under the hide ?

Im using a zoomed heatpad and a jumpstart thermostat. they both are working well. the hot range is always inbetween 89 and 93 while the cold side is around 79-83

Humidity is at 55% so its fine. He is hiding atm so its ok

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Originally Posted by Zeraxi

Im using a zoomed heatpad and a jumpstart thermostat. they both are working well. the hot range is always inbetween 89 and 93 while the cold side is around 79-83

Humidity is at 55% so its fine. He is hiding atm so its ok

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That's sounds fine ... how are you actually reading the temps though ? What are you using ?

To get my BP acclimated a little more quickly/feel better about food, I covered every side of his enclosure. It was a little too big for him when I first got him, and he was stressed and trying to escape. So I got those rock-like foam insulation panels from Exo-Terra for the back wall, used corkboard on both sides (those three sides will never NOT be covered), and then draped a couple towels over the front so he wouldn't see me and could focus on getting used to his new place. Those covered parts of the front of the enclosure for months until I felt like he was more comfortable with seeing me about in my room. Make sure there's plenty of foliage around so he isn't exposed when he moves around too :)

(Snakes at Sunset was where my guy came from too! Definitely a fan.)

It sucks to have to ignore them for so long when you JUST got them, but your BP will really appreciate it!

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

That's sounds fine ... how are you actually reading the temps though ? What are you using ?

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Make sure you are measuring the actual ground under the hide and not just the air temp. Use a infrared temp gun if you haven't been using one to measure that. I have a probe thermometer under the substrate in my warm side hide to constantly take peeks at somewhat relative temperature, but the temp gun will for sure give you correct readings.i got a very nice one at Home Depot for darn cheap.

also, one of my new ones pretty much did that for a couple weeks. She is very young and I didn't know near as much as I do now(thanks to the ballers and shot callers on this forum), so I put her in a 20 gallon enclosure. I filled the bottom with hides of all sorts so there wouldn't be as much empty space but she would wonder every single inch all the time, followed by short bouts of hide usage. She wouldn't eat either. She would push herself up by her tail against the sides so high towards the top that she would fall to the side and body slam the ground over and over and over... seriously. I thought I had a partially mentally handicapped snake... lol.

anyways, I balled up like ten pieces of paper and laid them in there and then took pieces of cardboard that I slightly bent and laid them over each other to cover everything. It essentially was an inside cover over all the hides and waded paper, so that instead of nothing but empty space over her, she had a cover 1 inch over her head and literally zero empty space on the ground. Enough stuff on the ground that if she wanted to move somewhere she couldn't without having to slither through a bunch of different crap and had something right over her head.

She of course could have came outside of the "fort" if she wanted to, but literally the second I did that she stopped wandering her cage and ate at her very next feeding. 3rd consecutive successful feeding since then just yesterday.

1- temp gun readings under warm side hide
2- zero empty space(this is what made the difference for me. Night and day)

Oh also make sure his/her hide is just a tiny bit bigger than they are when loosely curled up and very short as well

I have 4 hides atm (2 paper towel boxes and 2 wooden trunk-hides).
Im measuring my temperatures using a Jumpstart thermostat, and the probes are right above bottom of the bin (touching it)

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Originally Posted by Zeraxi

I have 4 hides atm (2 paper towel boxes and 2 wooden trunk-hides).
Im measuring my temperatures using a Jumpstart thermostat, and the probes are right above bottom of the bin (touching it)

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Thermostats don't read temps they regulate them only - maybe that could be the problem - the temps COULD be ridiculously high without you knowing ..

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Thermostats don't read temps they regulate them only - maybe that could be the problem - the temps COULD be ridiculously high without you knowing ..

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mine does.

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Originally Posted by Zeraxi

mine does.

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What brand? I want to get one


Herp Derp

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Originally Posted by Zeraxi

mine does.

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So your thermostat has a built-in thermometer with probes ??

Or has it a dial (showing temps) that you alter to regulate temps ?

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

So your thermostat has a built-in thermometer with probes ??

Or has it a dial (showing temps) that you alter to regulate temps ?

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It has a build it thermometer with probes and has a button to set the temperature it would stop supplying power to the heating pad for. until it cools down enough, then it starts to heat up again (its like a 3 degree fluxiation, nothing major.) The snake seems to be doing really well at the moment. She is moving around a lot at night and hiding out in random places during the day. She usually with her head sticking out from under paper towels (which I used as substrate, but apperently she likes hiding under them)

I was just thinking it may be a standard thermostat - we have no idea of your experience with these matters .

All stats have a wired probe and you can dial in the recommended temps BUT they can't be relied on to be anything like accurate in my experience - the temp dial is just a guide .


I use stand alone thermometers with wired probes and I also use a digital temp gun to randomly check temps under hides .

Keep us posted anyways .


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