BP not settling after laying

My 25 year old BP laid 6 eggs 2 days ago, but after bathing her and cleaning the vivarium, and putting the old hide box (as shown in pic) back in (I used a cardboard box prior to laying as it was taller for wrapping around a clutch) she has been roaming quite a bit and hanging up by the wooden guard by the ceramic heater.

I closed up the other hole on the hidebox as can be seen in the pic, it might make her stay in there

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach....com/a/taxha0d
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...pics/setup.jpg



There's a heatmat on a thermostat at the far left end of the hidebox (temp is 85-90F) (so she can choose to be warm or cool inside the hidebox), and the ceramic is on a pulse proportional thermostat, and gives an ambient in the centre of the vivarium temp of 80F.
Trying to keep the humidity around 60%

Typically she would just be in the hidebox all day.

Last year and this year whilst gravid she would act weird and start climbing up on the mesh guard but now she is doing it quite a bit.

She's dropped from 2900g to 1900g this year, a slightly bigger drop than last year.

I thought she might have been hungry so I put a F/T rat in last night, she sniffed at it but wasn't interested.
Last year she ate about 5 days after laying, and ate 10 200g rats in a row stopping in November.

At this moment she is relaxed under the ceramic, but I'd rather she was in the hide box.

Is there anything wrong with my setup, would it be better if I put her in a tub so its dark all the time?
Please advise if you can, thanks very much.

I can't help with her behavior, but if that's tape I see inside the enclosure it should be removed ASAP. Tape should NEVER be used inside an enclosure. The snake can become stuck to the tape causing horrible scale damage. I ever heard of one snake dying when it got stuck on tape, apparently the snake got scared and started thrashing to get loose and ended up fatally breaking its own neck.

Just trying to help

Ok done, it was only temporary while the other box was there.
I did know about the tape issue but thought it was safe enough for a few days, but I guess its not worth the risk.
Thanks

That's because you need to remove the eggs scent from EVERYWHERE, first the snake , second the enclosure, it needs to be wiped clean completely, including furniture (I usually recommend Chlorhexidine for both)

Without that she will keep being restless and be reluctant to eat.

I put her in a tub
Washed the carpet and fake plants with hose pipe
Disinfected the vivarium and water dish with antibacterial stuff
I put everything back and put the original hide box back in (which wasn't there during laying)

I cleaned the glass windows too.

The only bit I didn't clean was the wooden guard thingy, I suppose there could be scent on there

Then I gave her a bath in that tub, so I donno, might possibly help to do it again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by colin-java

I put her in a tub
Washed the carpet and fake plants with hose pipe
Disinfected the vivarium and water dish with antibacterial stuff
I put everything back and put the original hide box back in (which wasn't there during laying)

Then I gave her a bath in that tub, so I don't think its an egg scent issue.

I suppose I could do it again if you think it might help.

---

In the majority of cases it usually work now there is also a small percentage of female that no matter waht will remain restless even after all that and only resume back to normal including eating at the 60 day mark which marks the time when their clutch is due to hatch, and sadly they can get back to normal one year and the following display that type of behaviour, it's not uncommon and all you can do is keep offering food, smaller than usual and see if they will take it.

Thanks, I did miss cleaning the wooden thing you can see she is climbing on now
And she was climbing on it before I washed her, so I guess its possible there's some scent on there.
I think I'll just do a thorough clean again, and a bath.
Really need one of those things that shows up urine stains under UV light, but for egg scent instead.

I only just bought 15 150-250g rats, I might have to get something smaller too.
I don't like the idea of assist feeding cause it probably makes things worse, but that's a last resort I guess.

I'm wondering if its stress, but at least if she's hanging off the guard thing, she's not moving all over the place

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ics/setup2.jpg

Quote:

---

I only just bought 15 150-250g rats, I might have to get something smaller too.
I don't like the idea of assist feeding cause it probably makes things worse, but that's a last resort I guess.

---

There is absolutely NO reason to assist an animal that knows how to eat the only thing that you will accomplish by doing so is stress the animal leading to more refusal. There are many things that can be done before it is time to panic.

Yeah, I said it makes it worse, and its a last resort

I'm doing a reclean and bath now, she still trying to get out of the tub though, I doubt it will work.

After the re-clean and bath she is still wandering a bit and climbing on the heater guard.
This climbing on the heater guard only started last year whilst building follicles / making eggs.

I've made a cover to put over the glass so she might settle down easier, in case its stress.
I've ordered some 75g rats which I'll try her on next week.

There's clearly no eggs left inside her, but I'm wondering if there is a slug egg inside and that's keeping her from settling down.

Or maybe its just hormones or something.

I think I'm gonna give her 2 or 3 weeks, and if she hasn't taken a 75g rat by then I'll see a vet.
How does that sound, thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by colin-java

I think I'm gonna give her 2 or 3 weeks, and if she hasn't taken a 75g rat by then I'll see a vet.
How does that sound, thanks.

---

I would not go and see a vet because a female does not take food after 3 weeks of laying her eggs, what is the vet gonna do? tell you to assist feed, give you unecessary medication? Most vet have a poor understanding on what triggers those animals.

Again this is not unusual and there are ways to help them settle back down that may require a little work on your hand and willingness to make temporary changes but again it could be 60 days before she normally resume without doing any of that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stewart_Reptiles

I would not go and see a vet because a female does not take food after 3 weeks of laying her eggs, what is the vet gonna do? tell you to assist feed, give you unecessary medication? Most vet have a poor understanding on what triggers those animals.

Again this is not unusual and there are ways to help them settle back down that may require a little work on your hand and willingness to make temporary changes but again it could be 60 days before she normally resume without doing any of that.

---

Thanks, I was just thinking there could be something wrong physically, like possibly a slug egg that didn't make it out.

But yeah, the stress of being examined isn't gonna help either.

You mentioned the 60 days, so I guess she could still be being maternal, but saying that, when I put her back in with the eggs (cause they had veins in and I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with them) she wrapped them but later just went climbing up on the heater guard again, so I really donno

I'm prepared to change her enclosure if needed, but saying that, its been fine for her for 10 years, and last year, about 5 days after the eggs she took 10 200g rats in a row without missing a single meal and put all that weight back on nicely.
(you probably remember me getting advice then cause I didn't know what was going on with the swelling and the vet I saw wasn't great, he kept asking me if she had laid and it had only been a couple of weeks past ovulation, so I came here and got proper advice from yourself and others).

If I did get a tub, I think I'd have to get something longer and section it off so as to provide 80C ambient heat. It gets cold in the uk in winter so a single heat mat isn't really enough.

For now, I'll keep her covered up and keep trying the small rats for a couple of months.

Thanks again.