Strange behavior/ “active periods”

[Erlabella]

Hello

So around 1 1/2 month ago i got a beautiful mojave ball python. She (I think) has these short periods (a few days) where she’s very active almost all the time. She slithers around her enclure trying to escape, and she’s also very active whenever I take her out. I try not to, cause I’ve read that it’s symptom of stress. However, when I put her back in her enclosure she seems to calm down and goes back to “normal” behavior. I’m probably sure it’s stress but she hasn’t been acting very differently except the fact that she’s more active. She doesn’t hiss at me or anything.

When I got her at the pet store they didn’t know anything about her, so I don’t know her age. She’s 1/2 meters long or 20”. I’m guessing that she’s born this year, so she’s younger than a year old. She seemed very healthy which is why I chose her.

She’s currently housed in a glass terrarium with a screen lid on the top and on one side. I’ve placed aluminum foil on the top to keep the heat and humidity inside. It’s 100 cm x 60 cm x 45 cm. Her substrate consists of wood chips. She has two hiding spot. One on the warm side and one on the cold side. She also has a large water bowl to soak in. I use a heat mat and a basking light for warmth. Warm side is around 32° C and cold side around 26° C. Her light scedule is on a 12 hours on/off. At night time I still keep the heat mat turned on so It won’t get too cold. Nighttime temperature is around 22° C. I try to keep her humidity at around 60% (higher when she’s shedding) by misting her enclosure and because of that, her humidity is pretty unstable.

i feed her pinkies 1-2 times a week and she usually eats them straight away, but only when it’s dark. I’ve never had problems when feeding her. Only when I just got her, cause she was pretty stressed then, and I didn’t know that she would only eat when her light was off.

She recently had her first shed. She shed almost all of it, except her face and the tip of her tail. Next time I’ll probably try and get her humidity higher.

She has never bit me, hissed at me or done anything aggressive towards anyone. She has only “mock striked” me three times. First time was when I held her in the pet store (probably because of stress) second time was when I tried to pick her up to put her back in the enclosure ( I don’t know why she did that) Third time was when she had just eaten and I was watching her (probably because she felt threatened)

I’ve never fed her when she’s in her “active periods” so I’m not sure if it is stress (since they won’t eat when stressed)

Is this normal young ball python behavior or could it just be stress? Whenever she’s disturbed in her “active periods” she starts to act “normal” again, but then later gets active again. I hold her almost everyday not longer than 10 minutes, and I haven’t had any troubles yet. She still eats instantly when I introduce her to a pinkie. Her “active periods” tend to be random, and not triggered by anything (or I still haven’t found the cause).

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Erlabella

[Godzilla78]

You should not be dropping ambient cool side temps below 26 Celsius ever. Not at night, not ever. I had a ball python acting like that, but when I upped the ambient temps and made sure the warm side hide was properly sized, the behavior settled down, I have no idea if that is the issue, but I know for sure you shouldn’t be dropping them temperature that low (22 Celsius is way too low)


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[Erlabella]

I know. 22° C is very low. I just can’t find a way to make it warmer, even with the heat mat turned on 24/7. Room temperature here is around 21° C and even colder during winter. What should I do to make it warmer?

I should mention that I do use a stick on thermometer/hygrometer, and it’s probably not accurate. I’ve placed it in the middle of her enclosure, mostly for measuring humidity.

[Godzilla78]

There are so many threads here about raising ambient temps, just do a quick skim... hundreds. There are multiple heating sources and ways to do it, but all of them require an accurate thermostat.
I personally use an electric infrared space heater to control ambient temps in the winter.


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[Erlabella]

Thanks. I’ll check it out

[Craiga 01453]

Sounds to me like a combo of cold an hungry.

As mentioned above, get those temps up. Your heat mat is there only to provide a hot spot, primarily to aid in digestion. So you'll probably have to up the wattage of your bulb. There is also no need for night temp drops. I suggest getting the dark purple lights. You'll need to run them 24 hours, but they stay nice and dark. Either that or a CHE.

Also, if you're feeding mice pinkies, they are way too small for a BP. They eat hoppers out of the egg for their first 3-5 meals and then are up to eating small adult mice.

[hollowlaughter]

Yup. CHE of appropriate wattage and larger meals should address the problems. Can attest, since right now it's been getting to -10F (-23C) here in Wisconsin and at normal room temp that CHE provides mine a reliable gradient of 78>88F in this enclosure without any issues.

[Erlabella]

So it’s been a while since I posted this and she’s actually doing great now. I’m feeding her larger mice and I don’t see any strange behaviors. She has calmed down a lot and usually hides all the time