Unusual behavior?

[Gigs]

Hey everyone,

I've got a female ball python named Scarlett, and lately she's been doing something weird. She has two perfectly good hides, one of which is in the corner of her tank on her hot side, but instead of going in them at night she keeps cramming herself behind her corner hide and sits there between the back of her hide and the glass.

I move her when I wake up and she stays in her cool hide throughout the day. Once night rolls around she comes out and tries to get behind it again. Can anyone shed some light on why she may be doing this?

Here's a description of her setup:

She lives in a glass 20g-long reptile tank with two sliding doors on the front and a wire mesh ceiling. I have the ceiling covered to retain heat and humidity. (I live in Illinois and it is getting colder. The ambient temp of my apartment is held at 68°, so I cover the top of her tank with a blanket to insulate her better) I have a duel heat lamp resting about 1 inch away from the top of her tank. I use a a 60w "blue light" bulb that I turn on during the day, and a 75w infrared light that I leave on all day and night. I use a repti-fogger to maintain humidity levels of 50-70% in her tank day-to-day.

The ambient temperature of her tank at night is around 88° On her hot side, and around 80° on her cool side. The temps go up a bit during the day with both lamps on. I also have a heat pad affixed to the bottom of her tank under her hot hide to provide her with belly heat that is consistently around 94° or so.

I use reptile carpeting with varying elevations of fir bark substrate on top of it but no less than 1 inch of bark throughout. (Aside from preventing her from burning herself on the heating pad in case she burrows under her substrate, the carpet is for cleaning purposes. It makes it much easier to change out all of her substrate when I do deep cleans of her tank.)

She has a soaking tub in the corner of her cool side, and a water dish on her hot side, so she has access to water on both sides.

she has two hides, one fitted in the back corner of her hot side, and one more in the middle of her tank, but definitely cooler than the other. She spends almost all of her time during the day in her cooler hide. Three of the four side walls of her tank (the back and sides) have decals to make her feel more secure from all sides.

I have started to build up the substrate much more heavily around her hot hide in an effort to deter her from wedging herself behind it, but she is persistent. She continuously digs into it night after night until she is able to move it to get behind it. I have no idea why she is doing this.

Also, is it possible she just likes that spot? Please let me know if you have experienced this.

[AlbinoBull]

Cinnamon Roll used to wedge herself beside or behind her cool hide every so often. I'm unsure why exactly, as she usually uses her hiding spots, but maybe she just felt up to a change in scenery that time. She hasn't done this for me recently, but it was sort of "every now and again" behavior to start with and with her new enclosure she might not feel like it anymore.

I'm certainly no expert or anything, but with my snake it just seemed to be preference at that time. Hopefully others with more experience chime in to your particular situation!

[the_rotten1]

My snakes do the same thing. They all have their preferred hides, but it changes from time to time. Every now and then my pied will wedge himself between a glass corner and his climbing branch. Sometimes I find my girls between their hides and the plastic walls of their bins. As long as they're comfortable I don't see any reason to try to get them to stop. Sometimes a nice corner is just as good as a hide.

[Yzmasmom]

Do you have a thermostat on the heat pad? If not, you need to get one to control the temp. 94 may be a bit high - try for 90.
Make sure one hut is over the hot spot and one is on the opposite side, not the middle. See if any of that helps. Good luck.

[Trisnake]

Are the hides you use identical? Her warm hide may be a bit too big for her liking and that's why she crams herself in the space behind it. Also I believe 94 to be a bit too warm, and may contribute to her preference of the cool hide.

[Gigs]

I do not, but I have a laser temp gun that I use to monitor the temperature. I control the temp by adding or taking away additional substrate in that particular spot.

Thank you all for you replies, I'm a bit relieved that she just may be doing this purely out of her liking. I can definitely make sure her hot temp is lower, too.

Are the hides you use identical? Her warm hide may be a bit too big for her liking and that's why she crams herself in the space behind it. Also I believe 94 to be a bit too warm, and may contribute to her preference of the cool hide.

Her hides are not identical, but the hot hide is a tad spacious for her right now. I have seen her use it though.