Stressed BP

[Keyboard Warrior]

I switched out his bedding on his hot side to aspen, after having wood chips there. It was the only way for me to get proper temps. I don't know if it stressed him out, but he's not hiding in his hot hide anymore...The husbandry is right. He's not getting burned. But I'm worried about him. He has a hiding tree...and he never hid in that before, and he did this time, and once he hid behind it, out in the open...but it creates a dark corner. I thought I was finding him dead, it scared me.

Any advice, should I switch back to wood chips for his hot side?

[lk_holla]

sometimes when you switch up their habitats they get really freaked out by it. my girl would hang on top of her thermometer and on her hides rather than touch the floor when i switched from aspen to paper. She's over it now, it just takes a little bit of getting used to.

[snakesRkewl]

I hope no spot in the enclosure is over 95 degrees, are you covering the hot spot with bedding to protect the snake from getting burned?

Aspen is wood chips? what other type of wood chips were/are you using?

[AkHerps]

Yeah, Ball pythons can be very sensitive to change, and it can take them a couple days, to a couple weeks to get used to their new environment.

You have to think about it, in the wild, they choose when they want a new environment, in captivity it is thrust upon them.

[Keyboard Warrior]

I hope no spot in the enclosure is over 95 degrees, are you covering the hot spot with bedding to protect the snake from getting burned?

Aspen is wood chips? what other type of wood chips were/are you using?

oh yeah, of course. As I said, my husbandry is on par, and he's not getting burned. I was using repti bark before, and I wanted to see if Aspen would hold heat in better, and it did. But for some reason he didn't care for it, because he's been sleeping in his tree or in a dark corner the past few nights.

I switched it back. That change will likely freak him out, but this is the first time he refused to eat. So I'm just gonna switch it back and see if I can get my temps right with the repti bark.