Daytime Roaming = Prowling for Food?

Since BPs are nocturnal and spend 99.99% of their time hiding (at least the "happy" ones), would daytime roaming with tongue flicking indicate prowling for food? i.e., hungry and ready for the next meal?

That's what ours is doing at the moment, and after having it for just about 2 weeks, that's the conclusion I'm coming to, although I may be wrong.

<---our new baby :)

I would lean more towards stress, stress can be caused by lack of security or poor husbandry. Make sure his hides are suitable for him, temps and humidity is ok, and he is in a low traffic area. How often are you feeding him and what is he eating?

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Originally Posted by FatBoy

I would lean more towards stress, stress can be caused by lack of security or poor husbandry. Make sure his hides are suitable for him, temps and humidity is ok, and he is in a low traffic area. How often are you feeding him and what is he eating?

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I agree - daytime roaming generally indicates a stressor.

Well, shoot, OK, let me look everything over. Temps and humidity are good, and it's been eating well. Hmm...

You could try to feed him and see, but most likely theres something bugging him about your husbandry. Do you have a thread with your husbandry listed or would you care to list it here for us?

What kind of hides do you have for him and what size tank is he in?

Also is the tank in a high traffic area?

I agree, you should list all the details about your husbandry so members can look for anything that may be out of place.
All your gear(hides, substrat ect.) tank temp & humidity, size, weight of your BP along with feeding schedule and type/size of food being offered. Lights or UTH? you get the picture, every little detail helps.

Here's a picture. Everything came with the snake. Since taking that picture we've added an Acu-Rite and ReptiTemp 500R. The UTH is under the tree. Temps are 90-98 (seems to fluctuate depending on if the snake is lying on the probe or not) and 70-80. Humidity is 60-70%.

It came to us thin, and continuing the hopper mice it was already on wasn't gaining weight, so it's moved up to medium mice now. That's why I'm thinking hunger, as it usually hides but does some roaming 2 days after it ate.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...IMG_0475Cr.jpg

Cover the back and sides with some dark paper and go out to the dollar store and get two opaque bowls. Cut a small opening in the bowls and use those as hides, waterbowl in the middle. Also, try and throw some fake plants in there. See if that helps you out.

Hide may be an issue too. Need something a little more secure, look on RBI's website, their hides are real nice and secure. I also agree with covering the sides and back, may also need to "clutter up" the tank a little to help with security.

Hello again, thanks for all your suggestions. I definitely will cover the sides and get a second hide small enough to fit.

We've had a medium mouse (14g) thawing these past few hours. I was planning to feed snakey tomorrow, but bumped it up to today because of the roaming. Sure enough, it struck instantly and happily gobbled it down. It last ate 2 days ago, also a medium mouse.

Snakes don't eat when they're stressed, right? So this is a good sign, I'm assuming. Hopefully now it's full and can go back to being a happy, hiding BP.

::::insert smiley of snake contentedly burping:::: :D

Wow...more food. He needs bigger prey than medium mice. Feed him something slightly bigger than the largest part of his body. Looking at your pic he should be eating adult mice easily, maybe even weaned rats.

A quick update: Ever since that last meal 48 hours ago, he's been a happy, hiding, digesting BP in his warm hide. He came out around midnight last night for some nighttime roaming, but by this morning he was back in his hide.

I'm hoping hunger was all that was going on that day. That was my "mama" gut feeling. However, I have also since bought 2 identical hides and foam poster board to cover up the sides with. :)

Now the pendulum has swung the other way. Ever since Patriot went back into her hide after that meal last Monday, I've seen her come out only once on her own. Her eyes are blue/opaque and we're waiting for our first shed. :)

I've since taken her out to weigh and feed her (gobbled it down), but other than that, she's been the happy-hiding BP.

It seems like if all else is good, a thin BP roaming in the daytime could simply be looking for its next meal. :snake:

Conrats on the feeding and shed, most bp's are very shy during there shed and you usually dont see them very much. I wouldnt be suprised if the daytime roaming became an issue again after he sheds.