Okay, so maybe this is normal behavior, I'm not sure... but wanted to throw it out there and see if it's just my snake, or if anyone else has seen this. I got my first bp in early November 2015 (2 months ago). I had her in an enclosure I picked up at an expo (seen below). It was higher than I liked, and because it was very thin-walled, it didn't hold much heat. A large UTH and CHE were used to keep temps on the low end of acceptable. So, I started studying up on tubs. I decided to build a rack, and move her over to a tub. She's around 130g now, so I went with a 15qt tub with two small hides and a water bowl. I know the hides aren't "needed" but she had two before, so I gave her two in the tub.

Now, the strange part... when she was in her enclosure, I could open it and remove her from her hide and she was fine. I felt like she felt very comfortable being handled. I've had her in the tub setup for about three weeks now, and gave her some time to get used to the change. When I take her out of the tub now, she coils up and seems very hesitant to move around. Almost like she's scared. After 5 minutes or so or if I put her on my lap, she'll loosen up a little bit.

I am wondering if there is something in the snakes brain that now that it's home is a dark hiding spot, anything out of that "norm" could be threatening. Where as before, it had a large, open front to see the room and activity in the room, so it become more used to that outside behavior.

Does that make sense? Maybe she just needs more time to get used to the new home?


Here is a picture of the old setup and new tub setup.

old setup temps/humidity: 88/77/40-50%
New setup temps/humidity: 92/81/60-70%