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  1. #1
    BPnet Senior Member ckuhn003's Avatar
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    BP - Staying in Hide

    I noticed my BP has been staying in his hide the majority of time since I started handling him more regularly. I'm wondering if theirs any correlation? After he was fully acclimated he started showing himself only in the evenings after 9pm but now I rarely see him if I go downstairs at that hour (or later). I did however see his little head half hanging out of the hide this morning.

    As far as I can tell, he doesn't seem stressed when I hold him. He's pretty calm and doesn't show any signs of aggression. The main reason I'm asking is that I'm transitioning to F/T mice to F/T rats this week and I'm not sure if I should remove his hide when I try to feed him in the evening. Last week was the 1st time, I've had to remove it (since week1) because he was usually out at that hour. For reference, he's never eaten in front of me. I've always had to come back the next morning to see if the mouse was 'missing'.

  2. #2
    Registered User Pezz's Avatar
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    Re: BP - Staying in Hide

    Quote Originally Posted by ckuhn003 View Post
    I noticed my BP has been staying in his hide the majority of time since I started handling him more regularly. I'm wondering if theirs any correlation? After he was fully acclimated he started showing himself only in the evenings after 9pm but now I rarely see him if I go downstairs at that hour (or later). I did however see his little head half hanging out of the hide this morning.

    As far as I can tell, he doesn't seem stressed when I hold him. He's pretty calm and doesn't show any signs of aggression. The main reason I'm asking is that I'm transitioning to F/T mice to F/T rats this week and I'm not sure if I should remove his hide when I try to feed him in the evening. Last week was the 1st time, I've had to remove it (since week1) because he was usually out at that hour. For reference, he's never eaten in front of me. I've always had to come back the next morning to see if the mouse was 'missing'.
    A hiding beep is a happy snake. Probably hiding more now that he's acclimated. My two males come out when I defrost the rats in front of the tank, I still have to remove my females hide (which i don't like doing.)

    Sent from my LG-M151 using Tapatalk

  3. #3
    Registered User PythonBabes's Avatar
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    That's basically what ball pythons do; hide.

    Just me, but I wouldn't handle him at all until he is fully transitioned. Some snakes will not and never will eat in front of people, it is a very vulnerable state for them.
    Don't lift his hide, just put the rat right in front of the hide, cut your light off and you can even leave the room, and let him eat. If hes out, see if he'll strike and if not just sit the rat somewhere in the cage, if he's hungry he'll eat it.
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  4. #4
    BPnet Senior Member ckuhn003's Avatar
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    Re: BP - Staying in Hide

    Quote Originally Posted by Pezz View Post
    A hiding beep is a happy snake. Probably hiding more now that he's acclimated. My two males come out when I defrost the rats in front of the tank, I still have to remove my females hide (which i don't like doing.)

    Sent from my LG-M151 using Tapatalk
    I've always heard the same about a "hiding beep is a happy snake" . I just want to maximize the chances that he's going to eat his 1st f/t rat. Whether that's removing his hide if he's not already out or taking the chance that he'll wonder out when I'm in bed. I was a little hesitant last week because I removed one of his hides and didn't put it back until the next morning for fear of disturbing feeding time. That morning, he was tucked under the lone hide so it was fine.

  5. #5
    BPnet Senior Member ckuhn003's Avatar
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    Re: BP - Staying in Hide

    Quote Originally Posted by PythonBabes View Post
    Just me, but I wouldn't handle him at all until he is fully transitioned.
    I'm not sure if I'm following. He's been eating f/t mice since I've gotten him 2-3 months ago with no problems. And your recommending, I should stop handling him until he eats his 1st f/t rat? Sorry if I'm interpreting this wrong.

  6. #6
    BPnet Veteran SDA's Avatar
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    Try the technique that I do. If you see that head poking out of the hide and its in the evening of a feeding day, see if you can entice your snake out of their hide to grab a bite to eat. I dangle the rat outside the hide and pull back slowly. Many times he coils around it before I even know what happened. In fact if he is out and climbing around he rarely strikes if I offer food and have to lay it over a hide so he can slowly come and smother it to death. It might not be an instant success but mine took to this method pretty quickly and has, after years, come to expect his feed that way.


    I would never recommend removing hides to get a ball to eat, that might increase stress (you are essentially a big monster digging up their burrow) and it teaches negative reinforcement. It would be similar to force-handling instead of trust training. I have actually started over the past months to avoid hide lifting while my snake is in it unless absolutely necessary and it has been doing wonders for his stress levels.

    Edit: I also never handle my snake the day of feeding it just is an unnecessary thing to do in my mind.
    Last edited by SDA; 10-17-2017 at 10:09 AM.
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  8. #7
    Registered User Pezz's Avatar
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    Re: BP - Staying in Hide

    Quote Originally Posted by ckuhn003 View Post
    I've always heard the same about a "hiding beep is a happy snake" . I just want to maximize the chances that he's going to eat his 1st f/t rat. Whether that's removing his hide if he's not already out or taking the chance that he'll wonder out when I'm in bed. I was a little hesitant last week because I removed one of his hides and didn't put it back until the next morning for fear of disturbing feeding time. That morning, he was tucked under the lone hide so it was fine.
    Do you have any mice left. A tip for the transition is to take a mouse and rub it against the rat to blend the scents. That way your beep will recognize a familiar scent on the new prey (works when converting larger boas and pythons to rabbits, rub the rabbit with the rat). If he doesn't like eating in front of you i wouldn't bother moving the hide. I also wouldn't handle untill he ate two consecutive rats.

    Sent from my LG-M151 using Tapatalk

  9. #8
    BPnet Senior Member ckuhn003's Avatar
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    Re: BP - Staying in Hide

    Quote Originally Posted by Pezz View Post
    Do you have any mice left. A tip for the transition is to take a mouse and rub it against the rat to blend the scents. That way your beep will recognize a familiar scent on the new prey (works when converting larger boas and pythons to rabbits, rub the rabbit with the rat). If he doesn't like eating in front of you i wouldn't bother moving the hide. I also wouldn't handle untill he ate two consecutive rats.

    Sent from my LG-M151 using Tapatalk
    No mice left but I can certainly head to the store and buy one or two.....

  10. #9
    BPnet Senior Member ckuhn003's Avatar
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    Re: BP - Staying in Hide

    Quote Originally Posted by SDA View Post
    Try the technique that I do. If you see that head poking out of the hide and its in the evening of a feeding day, see if you can entice your snake out of their hide to grab a bite to eat. I dangle the rat outside the hide and pull back slowly. Many times he coils around it before I even know what happened. In fact if he is out and climbing around he rarely strikes if I offer food and have to lay it over a hide so he can slowly come and smother it to death. It might not be an instant success but mine took to this method pretty quickly and has, after years, come to expect his feed that way.


    I would never recommend removing hides to get a ball to eat, that might increase stress (you are essentially a big monster digging up their burrow) and it teaches negative reinforcement. It would be similar to force-handling instead of trust training. I have actually started over the past months to avoid hide lifting while my snake is in it unless absolutely necessary and it has been doing wonders for his stress levels.

    Edit: I also never handle my snake the day of feeding it just is an unnecessary thing to do in my mind.
    I've actually tried this technique and I got my 1st strike (although I think it was a defensive one). I'm not even convinced he knows how to coil I think he just puts it in his mouth and swallows. Reason being, his 1st feed ever, I walked downstairs 30 minutes after I left the mouse in the enclosure and he was stretched out w/ the tail hanging out of his mouth.

    I'll refrain removing the hides to get him to eat and I also don't handle him the day of feeding. Thanks for the advice.

  11. #10
    BPnet Veteran Kcl's Avatar
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    Re: BP - Staying in Hide

    Leave the hide. Some of them like to pull the food into the hide and eat in there and it's just generally more comfy for them. As far as the rest of it, just offer the rat in the same way as he's been eating the mice. Plenty of them won't fuss about switching over. No point in messing around with things until you see if he even cares about the change at all.

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