BP burrowing after feeding? Insight needed!

[The Serpent Merchant]

I've had a Ball Python that just decided that she wanted to dig in her substrate for a week or two, then she stopped. Their might not be anything wrong at all, your snake might just be having fun lol. If your temperatures and humidity levels are in the proper ranges, you have proper hides, and the room that your snake is in doesn't have a party going on in it constantly I'd say your fine. I don't think a snake would dig down to try to get off stuck shed, there are far more efficient methods for that. The nay thing I can think of is that you snake might be digging down to try to find a cooler spot. I wouldn't change anything until you can verify the cage temperatures, then go from there.

[rgalanti21]

I've had a Ball Python that just decided that she wanted to dig in her substrate for a week or two, then she stopped. Their might not be anything wrong at all, your snake might just be having fun lol. If your temperatures and humidity levels are in the proper ranges, you have proper hides, and the room that your snake is in doesn't have a party going on in it constantly I'd say your fine. I don't think a snake would dig down to try to get off stuck shed, there are far more efficient methods for that. The nay thing I can think of is that you snake might be digging down to try to find a cooler spot. I wouldn't change anything until you can verify the cage temperatures, then go from there.

Cool cool, ill get the temp accurately measured tomorrow and go from there. Thanks! Also, would you recommend using the ceramic heat emitter or trading it out for a UTH?

[The Serpent Merchant]

I prefer my UTH's but they require a thermostat (I use and highly recommend "herpstats" by spider robotics), and you really can't have a thick layer of substrate. I switched from shredded aspen to corrugated wrap when i switched to a UTH.

here is a link if you are interested in corrugated wrap:

http://www.papermart.com/Product%20P...x?GroupID=4608

[rgalanti21]

I prefer my UTH's but they require a thermostat (I use and highly recommend "herpstats" by spider robotics), and you really can't have a thick layer of substrate. I switched from shredded aspen to corrugated wrap when i switched to a UTH.

here is a link if you are interested in corrugated wrap:

http://www.papermart.com/Product%20P...x?GroupID=4608

what would you think of using a UTH with zilla green reptile carpet and then 2 inches of aspen?

[The Serpent Merchant]

No, to get the top of the substrate up to the proper temperatures, you would have to run the UTH so hot that if your snake decided to dig down, he/she would burn him/herself. You also need to consider your ambient temperatures, because UTH's do not really effect air temperatures so if the room gets below 75 degrees you might need a heat lamp as well to maintain your ambient tempertures.

You could use a UTH with just the reptile carpet, or 1/4 inch , maybe a 1/2 inch of aspen

[rgalanti21]

No, to get the top of the substrate up to the proper temperatures, you would have to run the UTH so hot that if your snake decided to dig down, he/she would burn him/herself. You also need to consider your ambient temperatures, because UTH's do not really effect air temperatures so if the room gets below 75 degrees you might need a heat lamp as well to maintain your ambient tempertures.

You could use a UTH with just the reptile carpet, or 1/4 inch , maybe a 1/2 inch of aspen

Thanks for all of the help. Sorry to ask so many questions lol. One last one... How exactly do you hook up a UTH to a thermostat so it will turn off the UTH if it gets too hot?

[kitedemon]

The snake ate so clearly what you are doing is basically correct stressed snakes don't eat and cold snakes don't eat and hot snakes don't eat. Changing a system that is working for an unknown is tricky because what ever you did you have a balanced system not messing with it will only stress the animal and cause issues I'd advise WAITING. Give the snake a chance to settle in to new home new keeper and new situation before you change its substrate and heating systems.

UTH do nothing for ambient temps so you might want to think about that before changing if you room is too cool you will have to still use an over head system. I'd look at CHEs but I'd also wait at least a few months before I did anything unless there is a problem between now and then.

Eating snakes are happy.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Thanks for all of the help. Sorry to ask so many questions lol. One last one... How exactly do you hook up a UTH to a thermostat so it will turn off the UTH if it gets too hot?

The thermostat plugs into the wall the thermostat has at least 1 outlet on it. The UTH plugs into the thermostat. The thermostat has a probe. You will place this probe on the UTH directly. You need to secure it there. I use hot glue, but there are other ways just don't use aluminum tape as it can mess with the probes readings.