Why does my snake do this???

Why does my ball python spend its entire night attempting to escape from its cage?? :colbert:

is that normal?

yes.

Ball pythons are nocturnal.

Well I wouldn't say it's completely normal Ryan. BP's are nocturnal and of course move about when they wake up and part of that is checking out their enclosure but what exactly do you mean. Is the snake sort of frantically trying to escape or just nosing about? How long have you had the snake and has it always done this or is this a new activity?

(S)he will spend her/his entire life trying to escape from her/his cage.

Unless your snake is an agoraphobic, it will always try to find its way out. Snakes are escape artists by nature!

yes. mine tries to get out when she sees me, she knows ill take her out and let her crawl around on the bed. *spoiled*

a snake trying to escape all the time is not normal. what are your temps and humidity? does it have sufficient hiding areas?

In my experience this is a symptom of a stressed snake - too much handling, about to defecate, inadequate hides, wrong temps (especially too hot).

snakes are different than lizzards. they will try to excape every chance they get. one of the other reasons is they are cruseing for food.

during a heat wave this summer my ball was going nutty trying to get out... we realized it was too hot for him... took him out... cooled off his enclosure (placing it in the basement) and he was fine after that.

i would not take it as normal behaviour.

Mine only "pace" like that when they don't have hides.

Security thing I would say.

just make sure it has a real dark secure hide . and also it might just be hungry, a few nights before my boy duncan eats he is usually crawling around the cage all night. my new girl is the same way.

My snakes never try to escape. I'm not saying they wouldn't take the opportunity if it presented itself.....but they're content enough in their own homes (apparently) that they are not always looking for a way out of it. I would definitely take that sort of behavior as a sign to look more closely at my husbandry.

I don't know that a normal, unstressed ball python is always trying to escape. None of my seventeen are trying to actively get out of their enclosures. They may cruise around, but they aren't pushing at the lid by any means.

i think that it is normal for BP to get up and crawl around, and push on the top a little bit, but not for them to frantically try to escape, as many people have said here. Make sure that your temps are find, and if he just has 1 hide, go ahead and give him another one, to make sure that he is feeling secure.

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Originally Posted by BALLISTIC BOAS

they will try to excape every chance they get.

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that is incorrect. if your snake/s always try to escape take a look at your husbandry.

they should hardly ever try to escape. the only reason you would want your snake to be trying to escape is for food reasons.

ofcourse the odd push on the sliding door, screen, etc. is normal (just looking around), but them doing that all night is a bad sign.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Well I wouldn't say it's completely normal Ryan. BP's are nocturnal and of course move about when they wake up and part of that is checking out their enclosure but what exactly do you mean. Is the snake sort of frantically trying to escape or just nosing about? How long have you had the snake and has it always done this or is this a new activity?

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the snake is just nosing about, its always been like this at night

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Originally Posted by mr~python

a snake trying to escape all the time is not normal. what are your temps and humidity? does it have sufficient hiding areas?

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yes, i have a hide on each side of the tank and the temps and humidity r correct

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Originally Posted by kurgan

In my experience this is a symptom of a stressed snake - too much handling, about to defecate, inadequate hides, wrong temps (especially too hot).

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i dont handle my snake that often so its def not from too much handling, i think the snake is just nosing around

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Originally Posted by juddb

just make sure it has a real dark secure hide . and also it might just be hungry, a few nights before my boy duncan eats he is usually crawling around the cage all night. my new girl is the same way.

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thats definitely it, b/c I had to wait an extra few days before feeding my snake b/c i was on vacation

My BP's that are in tubs - don't cruise around as much as Columbus does at night and Columbus is the only one is an AP T3 cage. So he has more room than the others....

my snakes tend to cruise around when they're hungry

I rarely see my snakes out and about. For the most part they're either curled up in a hide or head poking from a hide. Every now and then I catch them zipping from one hide to the other. Then again, I'm not up when they are so they could be playing poker for all I know.