i guess my bp isnt a hider

i have had my bp since sunday and still no hiding in his caves.anyone else have a bp that doesnt hide?i usually find him
behind his cave and waterbowl in the corner of the tank curled up but never in his hides.he is in a 10 gallon tank with a jungle backround on 3 sides so i guess he feels covered.he doesnt seem scared anymore and doesnt even worry when i change his water.the caves are small but he could still fit in them.does this seem odd to anyone

Try a different type of hide. Mine did the same thing until I got her something different. I had clay pots and plastic containers but she wouldn't use them. I finally put in a paper gravy cup from Boston Market and she went in very quickly. To this day that's the only hide she'll use. I don't know what I'm going to do when she outgrows it, which will be soon.

As an aside, she hides much less than my other girl. She's not fearless, just brave I guess. The other one is much older and is lazy so all she ever does is hide. -lol-

Hi,

JLC explained this quite well in a post once - she explained that the whole environment must be assesed by the snake as secure and it needs to make sure those hides are safe to use and don't contain anything else first.

Generally once they are convinced they are safe they begin to use them and, once totally relaxed, are rarely anwhere else during the day.

I'd let him have his week of no disturbances to settle down and see if he uses them after that - I take it you have checked the temperatures inside them to make sure they are in the right range?


dr del

Not all BP hide some of mine don't, however the first thing to do when you observe an odd behavior is to double check everything.

Sometimes BP do not use their hides because they do not feel secure enough in them.

Sometimes they tend to be next or in the water dish because the temps are too hot.

Double check your temps, double check that your hides are tight enough all side touching his body etc

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

Not all BP hide some of mine don't, however the first thing to do when you observe an odd behavior is to double check everything.

Sometimes BP do not use their hides because they do not feel secure enough in them.

Sometimes they tend to be next or in the water dish because the temps are too hot.

Double check your temps, double check that your hides are tight enough all side touching his body etc

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I had the same problem with mine at first. All he did was hid in the corner and never went in the 10$ hide I got him. I took it out and put a Trisket box in instead and after making it a little smaller he went in right away. Since then Ive removed the trisket box and put the rock cave back in and now its his favorite.
Just takes them some time to get used to their new enviroment.

You can also try taking him/her out of the cagethen put them back in facing the hide. I did that once and he got the idea ha.

the temps are good i got digital gages running constantly.if anything the hides might be 2 small so im going to get the medium sized one and put all 3 in there.then ill just see what happens.if he starts using only that one ill replace both small ones with the bigger size.he might be able to see my beardie so i dont know if thats why he is taking longer to go in his hides.do you think changing his water everyday is bothering his settling in?

you shouldn't have to change his water everyday. Unless he poops in it or something can probably change it every 2 or 3 days.

ok ill do it everyother day.i change the water for my beardie everyday so i though i should change his too

Quote:

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Originally Posted by beardieguy

i have had my bp since sunday and still no hiding in his caves.anyone else have a bp that doesnt hide?i usually find him
behind his cave and waterbowl in the corner of the tank curled up but never in his hides.he is in a 10 gallon tank with a jungle backround on 3 sides so i guess he feels covered.he doesnt seem scared anymore and doesnt even worry when i change his water.the caves are small but he could still fit in them.does this seem odd to anyone

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It sounds like he's hiding to me - just not where you'd expect him too.

If he seems intent on parking himself up against the glass you should make sure he's not doing it because he feels too hot.

What are your temps and where are you taking the measurements?

It took my little guy a while to get used to his enclosure. Now it seems that everytime I look in on him he has switched from the warm hide to the cool then back. He has certainly gotten the whole thermoregulation down. I'd say just leave him alone a bit if all temps are in range. I tried a couple of different sizes of hides and ended up buying a 4 pack of plastic bowls and using a soldering iron to make the openings. He loves them now. Good luck!

hes not against the glass but hes just balled up in the corner behind the bowl and hide kinda like he would be in a hide which like you said makes some sense ill post a pic of my setup i moved the hide on the left from in the back to the front and behind there thats the corner he hangs in.this is just a pic when i was doing my temp checks before i got him and moved some stuff. i have 1 probe on the substrate on the hot side 1 probe in the hot hide and 1 on the substrate on the cool side

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a.../DSC006271.jpg

I have a hide on the warm side for my snake, and a little branch with fake vines wrapped around it on the cool side. I never see her leave the branch. she just hides under the vines. Maybe she thinks I can't see her. LOL. But the temps are fine and she seams content. She's also eating well.

So as long as she is having no problems, maybe she's just comfortable there.

yea, I have some garland draped over my BP's hide and sometimes he nestles into the garland on the outside of the hide.

I don't use two identical hides - I don't even use two hides. I don't use a tight fitting hide either. I use a "half log" shaped hide that sits over a temperature gradient close to the glass in the back. Also, it has garland draped over it.

My personal experience has shown that general clutter is actually much more effective because it gives the snake a wide variety of options on where to hide. Its a bit trickier to set up but IMO ultimately more effective because the snake doesn't really want to repeatedly trek back and forth across the cage to thermoregulate. This approach is really helped alot if you have 3 sides of the tank covered.

Just a disclaimer: this is more advanced enclosure design. Unless you understand the issues at hand pretty well, I would stick to the basic setup recommended in the stickies on this site.

Sorry if someone has mentioned this, but I think we should have a sticky regarding new owners getting new BPs. Nearly every thread I read about new owners mention something about their BP exploring too much and not hiding. That's exactly what my BP did the first week or two, but once he got used to the enclosure, he never ever came out of the hide. Sometimes he's tightly pressed against the back of the hide, and sometimes his head is sticking out, but he's always in it.

It takes new BPs up-to a week to explore their new home, get to know the environment, and settle down. Until then they will be constantly moving around and trying to escape out of the tank. They will also appear to not be scared of outside movements during this phase.

It takes them some time to figure out all the "angles". A brand new snake will probably find somewhere decent to hide and latch onto it. After he feels more secure he'll probably cruise around at night and get a better feel for it.


Have you tried feeding him into the hide? Has he gone in and rejected it?

leave the hides in there and enjoy the show because sooner or later he'll use em all day long!