My Baby ball python is curled up into a ball outside his hide?

[Zincubus]

I made a big mistake of holding him for like 10 minutes once he came. Im really scared. He isnt any of the hides i set for him, he is just curled up into a ball and he isnt moving at all. Should I be worried? The hot side is currently at 90 degrees and the cold one is at about 77 degrees. His head isnt inside of the ball, he is just in the middle of the tank, staring at me. Should i be worried? (I already love him to death and dont want to hurt him)

Could be any number of things ...

It's just early days and as mentioned by others it will take a short while to settle ... Some spend DAYS just crawling around the Viv looking to find an opening .

I'd leave it alone for at least 7 days before even thinking about offering a "warm" defrosted mouse . Check around this forum for the best ways to offer it . Some suggest not handling until it's fed twice .


As to staying outside the hide - maybe he just doesn't like it as warm as 90F ...they are all slightly different..maybe it's much higher than 90F ?!

What are you using to take the temps under the hide ?

[Zeraxi]

Im using a zoomed heatpad and a jumpstart thermostat. they both are working well. the hot range is always inbetween 89 and 93 while the cold side is around 79-83

Humidity is at 55% so its fine. He is hiding atm so its ok

[Zincubus]

Im using a zoomed heatpad and a jumpstart thermostat. they both are working well. the hot range is always inbetween 89 and 93 while the cold side is around 79-83

Humidity is at 55% so its fine. He is hiding atm so its ok

That's sounds fine ... how are you actually reading the temps though ? What are you using ?

[ferrislongdog]

To get my BP acclimated a little more quickly/feel better about food, I covered every side of his enclosure. It was a little too big for him when I first got him, and he was stressed and trying to escape. So I got those rock-like foam insulation panels from Exo-Terra for the back wall, used corkboard on both sides (those three sides will never NOT be covered), and then draped a couple towels over the front so he wouldn't see me and could focus on getting used to his new place. Those covered parts of the front of the enclosure for months until I felt like he was more comfortable with seeing me about in my room. Make sure there's plenty of foliage around so he isn't exposed when he moves around too

(Snakes at Sunset was where my guy came from too! Definitely a fan.)

It sucks to have to ignore them for so long when you JUST got them, but your BP will really appreciate it!

[gplegend11]

That's sounds fine ... how are you actually reading the temps though ? What are you using ?

Make sure you are measuring the actual ground under the hide and not just the air temp. Use a infrared temp gun if you haven't been using one to measure that. I have a probe thermometer under the substrate in my warm side hide to constantly take peeks at somewhat relative temperature, but the temp gun will for sure give you correct readings.i got a very nice one at Home Depot for darn cheap.

also, one of my new ones pretty much did that for a couple weeks. She is very young and I didn't know near as much as I do now(thanks to the ballers and shot callers on this forum), so I put her in a 20 gallon enclosure. I filled the bottom with hides of all sorts so there wouldn't be as much empty space but she would wonder every single inch all the time, followed by short bouts of hide usage. She wouldn't eat either. She would push herself up by her tail against the sides so high towards the top that she would fall to the side and body slam the ground over and over and over... seriously. I thought I had a partially mentally handicapped snake... lol.

anyways, I balled up like ten pieces of paper and laid them in there and then took pieces of cardboard that I slightly bent and laid them over each other to cover everything. It essentially was an inside cover over all the hides and waded paper, so that instead of nothing but empty space over her, she had a cover 1 inch over her head and literally zero empty space on the ground. Enough stuff on the ground that if she wanted to move somewhere she couldn't without having to slither through a bunch of different crap and had something right over her head.

She of course could have came outside of the "fort" if she wanted to, but literally the second I did that she stopped wandering her cage and ate at her very next feeding. 3rd consecutive successful feeding since then just yesterday.

1- temp gun readings under warm side hide
2- zero empty space(this is what made the difference for me. Night and day)

Oh also make sure his/her hide is just a tiny bit bigger than they are when loosely curled up and very short as well

[Zeraxi]

I have 4 hides atm (2 paper towel boxes and 2 wooden trunk-hides).
Im measuring my temperatures using a Jumpstart thermostat, and the probes are right above bottom of the bin (touching it)

[Zincubus]

I have 4 hides atm (2 paper towel boxes and 2 wooden trunk-hides).
Im measuring my temperatures using a Jumpstart thermostat, and the probes are right above bottom of the bin (touching it)

Thermostats don't read temps they regulate them only - maybe that could be the problem - the temps COULD be ridiculously high without you knowing ..

[Zeraxi]

Thermostats don't read temps they regulate them only - maybe that could be the problem - the temps COULD be ridiculously high without you knowing ..

mine does.

[KingWheatley]

mine does.

What brand? I want to get one


Herp Derp

[Zincubus]

mine does.

So your thermostat has a built-in thermometer with probes ??

Or has it a dial (showing temps) that you alter to regulate temps ?