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  1. #1
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    thermoregulation question

    hi everyone, i am new to owing snakes and reptiles in general so this may be a stupid question but it is just something i am curious about. obviously i know that snakes have to regulate their own body temperature and that is why we give them a thermal gradient but i thought that thermoregulating was more something snakes do through out the day. but my ball python, who i have had for about four months now will pick a hide and stay there for weeks aside from roaming about at night. and then after a few weeks he will switch to the other side. sometimes for discernible reasons such as digesting or getting away from a poop/shed but sometimes for no reason that i can see. his hides are not identical but he spends significant time in each so i don’t think that is the reason. am i just being stupid and this is normal or could something possibly be wrong? how often do your snakes move to thermoregulate?

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    They all do their "own thing" according to what they need, and they didn't "read the manual". Assume they move more at night, in the dark, when unobserved.

    Many snakes sit still when watched (as a defense), but if you've been sitting still watching your snake & waiting for him to move & thermoregulate all this time, you
    may have a bigger issue than he does? ROFL. I'm just teasing......but stop worrying. BPs are not very active snakes to begin with. I can promise you that my rat
    snakes move around a whole lot more, as do many other kinds; BPs are ambush-predators, & if they're "out and about" in the wild, they're putting themselves at risk
    of being a meal for something else. Just make sure his temps. are correct (& accurately read).
    Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
    Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

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    Lord Sorril (01-18-2020),Luvyna (01-17-2020),miatb (01-17-2020)

  4. #3
    BPnet Veteran Luvyna's Avatar
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    As long as your husbandry is correct and your snake is thermoregulating and not permanently staying in one hide or never coming out at night, it's normal. Unless you are observing your snake 24/7, it can be really hard to catch them moving between hides during the day. They are very secretive about it and tend to do most of their activities when no one is around. I keep my BP in my room and I once managed to catch him switching from his cool hide to his warm hide and then back in a span of about 3 hours. If I hadn't just happened to be sitting there working on my computer throughout that period, I might have thought he just stayed in his cool hide for the whole afternoon, when in fact he had been thermoregulating

    My BP also seems to favour either the cool or warm hide for about a week or two at a time, although he does switch between them throughout that period as well. Similarly to yours, there are some times when the reason is clear, such as shedding or digesting, and other times when it just seems to be totally arbitrary.

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  6. #4
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    Re: thermoregulation question

    Quote Originally Posted by Bogertophis View Post
    They all do their "own thing" according to what they need, and they didn't "read the manual". Assume they move more at night, in the dark, when unobserved.

    Many snakes sit still when watched (as a defense), but if you've been sitting still watching your snake & waiting for him to move & thermoregulate all this time, you
    may have a bigger issue than he does? ROFL. I'm just teasing......but stop worrying. BPs are not very active snakes to begin with. I can promise you that my rat
    snakes move around a whole lot more, as do many other kinds; BPs are ambush-predators, & if they're "out and about" in the wild, they're putting themselves at risk
    of being a meal for something else. Just make sure his temps. are correct (& accurately read).
    haha no i don’t constantly watch him, he is just in my room so it is easy to see what he’s doing when i’m there. i guess i was generalizing all snakes, it does make more sense that different species would thermoregulate differently and even individuals, i just have nothing to compare him to. thank you for your help!

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    Re: thermoregulation question

    Quote Originally Posted by Luvyna View Post
    As long as your husbandry is correct and your snake is thermoregulating and not permanently staying in one hide or never coming out at night, it's normal. Unless you are observing your snake 24/7, it can be really hard to catch them moving between hides during the day. They are very secretive about it and tend to do most of their activities when no one is around. I keep my BP in my room and I once managed to catch him switching from his cool hide to his warm hide and then back in a span of about 3 hours. If I hadn't just happened to be sitting there working on my computer throughout that period, I might have thought he just stayed in his cool hide for the whole afternoon, when in fact he had been thermoregulating

    My BP also seems to favour either the cool or warm hide for about a week or two at a time, although he does switch between them throughout that period as well. Similarly to yours, there are some times when the reason is clear, such as shedding or digesting, and other times when it just seems to be totally arbitrary.
    that is very comforting to hear! i would definitely miss my bp if he switched hides in a three hour time frame while i’m at school/work so i guess there is a lot i could be missing. thank you for your help!

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    I also think, as you said, they do thermoregulate throughout the day in the wild. I am assuming that is because temps are constantly changing, with the sun going up and down, winds, air temps changing, etc. In your case you cage should stay relatively constant so there is no need for them to move around as much as they might in the wild. Mine will spend weeks only using the hot side, then it might move to a cool side for a day or two. This last stretch it was in the hot side for a couple weeks until it ate. Then it went to the cool side for a couple days before going back to the hot side, which is opposite of what I expected it to do.

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