Climbing Balls

[L2.BP.Plox]

We have 6 BPs and 1 Corn Snake here (which is mine).

4 of the BPs are in a rack system, 1 is in a separate tub, and the other is in a tank.

The one in the tank, Jules, has a log and a hide. He does not go on his log often but we do find him up there now and then. One of the girls, Adel, in the rack is always getting up on top of her hide and trying to push her way up to get out of the rack. When we pull Adel's tub all the way out of the rack for cleaning she always gets up on the edges of the tub and hangs out there for a bit before trying to go explore the carpet. Another one of the girls, Hope (We named her that after going through a couple months of assist feeding and her finally taking mice), does the same thing when we take the lid off of her tub. She also has to hides in her new tub. One being taller than the other. Sometimes, I find her stretched across reaching between the two or completely on top of the higher one. The tub Hope used to be in had handles on it, which created ledges and she often got up on top of the ledges in the tub and sat up there. Our other three BPs do not exhibit any desires for climbing.

As for staying in the hides and being out -- we have a few different scenarios with the snakes. The Bumble Bee BP in the rack spends most of his day in his hide. The Spider, Arachnia, in the rack likes to sit with half her body in the hide and the other half out. She has plenty of room in her hide and she is all the way in it often. Jules usually follows the same behavior pattern as Arachnia. However, when he does come out all the way he is usually stretched out or on his log. Adel is almost ALWAYS out of hide, during the day and very late at night seems to be when she is most active. She is very rarely in there. She makes a mess of her paper towels in the tub and is always active. I think she should be the tank and not Jules; However, that is an on-going debate in the house. Hope is pretty active, but she does go in her hide a lot. Our Lesser BP is pretty timid and does not come out a lot but when she does come out she likes to sit around the edges of her water bowl or rest just beside it.

So, yes some BPs like to climb. Some follow the nocturnal behavior, but half of ours are also active during the day. We have one that is pretty much in his hide all day. 4 of the snakes have the exact same temps and humidity and they all behave differently. So, the temps/humidity don't seem to effect their behavior much.

Mike, I myself come off as a bit arrogant and cocky and do not realize it until I read things or think about things that I stated until much later. You come off as arrogant. I can see that some of your arguments follow the fallacies of: circling in on yourself to keep the argument within the range of your comfort; and directly attacking your opponent. Which, I must say are the two fallacies that irritate me the most. I also think that maybe you see things slightly more extreme than other people. Your behavior seems to be that of someone who believes people are trying to humiliate you when they respond to your posts. Which, could be true in some cases because a lot of people tend to get irritated quickly when confronted with someone they feel is arrogant. However, I do not feel that anyone was directly attacking you nor that anyone "hates" you. I feel that they just disagree with you and are not fond of the attitude that you bring into your opinions. There are a lot of ways to set things up and a lot of opinions about the different ways for things to be done in each scenario of housing in tubs, tanks, racks, and etc.

As for the BP that is doing all this climbing. It looks healthy and if it is not stressed I definitely don't see anything wrong with your set up. I have heard from a lot of people that the heat lamps are not so great, but if they are serving their purpose -- all is well. Hopefully, you can get them replaced soon and I wish you luck with that venture. Your set up looks a lot nicer now that you have the plants. One thing I would suggest though is to keep them away from the water or secured from getting into it. My corn snake knocked his plant into his water bowl once and it turned slightly green. I fixed that immediately though when I saw it. GL with your BP. And on behalf of the BP community "Welcome to the Addiction".

[thedarkwolf25]

As for the BP that is doing all this climbing. It looks healthy and if it is not stressed I definitely don't see anything wrong with your set up. I have heard from a lot of people that the heat lamps are not so great, but if they are serving their purpose -- all is well. Hopefully, you can get them replaced soon and I wish you luck with that venture. Your set up looks a lot nicer now that you have the plants. One thing I would suggest though is to keep them away from the water or secured from getting into it. My corn snake knocked his plant into his water bowl once and it turned slightly green. I fixed that immediately though when I saw it. GL with your BP. And on behalf of the BP community "Welcome to the Addiction".

Hmm good idea, I'll tuck several parts of it under the water bowl. And thank you

[rabernet]

Oh! good idea! We go to Dollar Tree alot for cheap snacks and such, they might have some cheap houseplants. But a question, is there anything I should look for? I don't want to get any type of plastic that might hurt her or make her sick.

Good question - above all else - the fake plants do tend to come with plastic rings on them for the purposes of hanging them as decoration in a home, etc.

Cut those suckers off IMMEDIATELY if yours has them. We've had countless members come on here freaking out because their snake found that plastic ring while crawling through it and became stuck in the ring and entangled. The only way to remove it was to cut it off and in some cases, the animal was left scarred because the ring was so tight around their body.

[BPelizabeth]

I haven't read the whole thread but can tell you....my BPs all have different attitudes. I have one that when she was in a tank...thought she was a GTP at night. It was hilarious....she would even hang off the top branch like she was in the movie the "Jungle Book". This is the same BP that thinks she is a human and should be out with us ALL the time. She will explore all over but not farther than the tail wrapped around some part of our body. I have another that is a lap dog...just sits there while you pet her and stares at you. Another that likes to watch TV. ETC ETC...


Seriously I could go on and on about what they do that is "off kilter" to what they should do.

My only suggestion would be to get an additional hide on that other side...and get an accurite thermometer (wally world). Other than that enjoy you "different"acting BP...personally they are my favs.

[MitsuMike]

PM sent, didn't mean to post

[kitedemon]

Mike,
first off I am sorry I didn't read you earlier post and missed 'pretty much' My intention was to be a bit sardonic, your posts rub me the wrong way.

What really bugs me is the sweeping statements you always seem to make (in my experience) You HAVE to do... Lamps are bad. I guess radiant heat panels are bad too? Although they are the best simulation of a natural environment available. Belly heat is a matter of simplicity for most.

I feel it is sad that you have a good knowledge base but will not share it in a reasonable way. Why bother being part of a community of exchange of information if you are going to name call and make judgements that you have only partial information on?

Setting up a miniature eco system is a delicate balancing act. The location of the enclosure and conditions in the that area will greatly effect the environmental controls required to maintain the temp ranges in the enclosure. I know you understand that so why harass a less experienced person by saying what he is doing (which is close in figures to you) is wrong? It is working for him perhaps he will make changes at some point or not his choice.

Call me what ever you like it doesn't bother me. I don't know you so I can't hate you or like you either, I'll make that judgement until I have had the chance to meet you in person. Personally I welcome criticism it makes one re think what they are doing and why, I try to listen to what others say and take something of value from it.

Again I am sorry if my jibe upset you.
Alex

OP for my part in this I am sorry that valuable information has been confused by squabbling. I hope that you can sift over what has been said and take away things that are useful. Ultimately every set up is different, and each has its own challenges.

I hope that you are having fun and enjoying your snake.
Alex

[anatess]

Okay, I read all 5 pages of this entire thing...

Judy is right and... yes, Mike also has a point. The first thing that came to my head when I saw the set-up was... "no wonder he's climbing"... of course, like my signature says on the bottom, I'm no expert.

But here's what I learned from the measly 2 years that I've owned these critters:
1.) The first 2 snakes I owned climbed their logs the first few weeks I've owned them. They climbed all day long. Check out my avatar. You see my baby spider on top of the log (100g bp in a 20 gallon). They didn't use the hides much. I had my first 350g pastel bp in a 55 gallon Exo-Terra decked out like this:

She climbed day in and day out. I thought it was CUTE! I wasn't a member of bp.net yet.
So then I found her mostly doing this when we pass by:

So yeah, I finally realized after a few months of owning her that she was stressed out as all get.... and I thought she was just being CUTE!

The spider was stressed too - we realized that later on - although he was eating every week without fail. We found a big difference after careful observation of these snakes in temperament between when he was in his initial set-up to when we adjusted his set-up to be more "ideal" (I guess this is what Mikemitsu refers to as the "best" way, although, I wouldn't go so far as calling it the "best" because that is really relative to the snake you have).

2.) My 3rd snake I got at 300g or so (if I remember correctly). I was already reading all these stuff on bp.net by then. I put her up in a 10gallon like this:

She never tried climbing. Her previous owner said she's a finicky eater. She ate not even a week after I got her and has not skipped meals since. That's for more than 2 years.

Anyway, after we adjusted all the set-ups to be more "ideal" - we moved the pastel to a 20 gallon, the spider to a 10-gallon. They quit climbing. They stayed in their hides most of the time only to be seen a few times at night. Which is kinda boring (they're in my office - I work from home - so I see their houses all day long).

So, my take on climbing snakes:
- I would first worry that they are climbing - checking husbandry, etc. to make sure they got the necessary characteristics - temperature, humidity, and security. Because climbing is not "ideal" for these guys.
- If everything is good, then they probably are one of the "unique" ones that just like to hang out on a branch.

Just my 2 cents on the matter.

[JLC]

Alex and anatess....exceptionally well said, both of you. Thank you!!!

[thedarkwolf25]

The funny thing is , I have seen all over BP.net that 2 hides are needed. I had tried a couple out but they just didn't work. The first was a small tupperware container with a slot cut out so she could get in. I think the fact that it was clear made her shy away from that.

The second one we got her was a decorative one from PetSmart that looked like a hollowed out tree stump, and she never went in that one. So we took that back yesterday and got some in-store credit for it (likely going to use that in the purchase of our next UTH).

I just checked on her and she is (I think) using the leaves as a hide as she is coiled up just how she is when she is in her hot side hide. Here's a pic.



Still going to get another hide for the cool side, but since she is using the leaves as a hide is that ok for now?

[JLC]

One thing to keep in mind about trying out different hides is that they live life muuuuuch more slowly than we do. And they're purely instinctual. Whenever you put a new hide in there, it's not an instant gratification for them. (It MIGHT be, because some are more bold than others...but for most, it takes time (up to a week or two) to convince themselves that that perfect little cave hasn't already been claimed by some other critter that might want it back.

And yeah, I realize that is a bit of projecting and anthropomorphizing, but I'm just trying to paint a picture of why it sometimes takes them awhile to accept a new hide.