Flip Flop

[Jamille Christman]

My snake(only have had about 3 weeks) fell in love with a coconut hide in the middle of the tank(about 83 degrees) I had for him, I had to go out and buy coconuts to make him more(haven't done it yet)since all the pet stores around me have stopped selling them. On average he spends all but an half hour a day in his hide, which from what I have read on here is normal. On the warm side I have another hide he doesn't like too much and on the cool side I have this ramp which is mostly for decoration until I actually make more coconut hides. Recently, and with no change in his enclosure he has decided to boycott the coconut hide and stays in the semi-open under the ramp, it is now day 2 and this odd behavior has me a bit worried.

since this picture i have added a couple plants between his coconut hide and the hide on the right.

Do you think he may have outgrown it? since I have had him he has grown about 5 grams(didn't weigh him until I owned him a week)

And before anyone asks, those wires are for the thermometers, I just didn't hide them at the time

[martin82531]

You wan't identical hides, one on the cool side and another on the warm. You want them to be identical so he doesn't chose one hide over another and do not self regulate his temperature properly. In this case, he maybe choosing the hide on the cooler side because this is the hide he feels more secure in, this is what you don't want.

Also you need to measure the surface temperature on the hot/warm side and the ambient temperature of the overall enclosure. It looks like you have a probe inside you hide that is on the cool side. The only time you need to measure the temperature inside a hide is if the hide itself resides over a UTH, in this case see the walmart link below.

How are you heating the warm side of you enclosure? If you have a UTH (under the tank heater) and it is not plugged into a thermostat please unplug it until you do. I have inlcluded a link to a fairly cheap/reliable one below. You can also check out a more preferred thermostat here, http://spyderrobotics.com/

Please also check out, http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

http://www.reptilebasics.com/hide-boxes
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rite-I...mometer/896347
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR.../dp/B000NZZG3S

[Jamille Christman]

You wan't identical hides, one on the cool side and another on the warm. You want them to be identical so he doesn't chose one hide over another and do not self regulate his temperature properly. In this case, he maybe choosing the hide on the cooler side because this is the hide he feels more secure in, this is what you don't want.

Also you need to measure the surface temperature on the hot/warm side and the ambient temperature of the overall enclosure. It looks like you have a probe inside you hide that is on the cool side. The only time you need to measure the temperature inside a hide is if the hide itself resides over a UTH, in this case see the walmart link below.

How are you heating the warm side of you enclosure? If you have a UTH (under the tank heater) and it is not plugged into a thermostat please unplug it until you do. I have inlcluded a link to a fairly cheap/reliable one below. You can also check out a more preferred thermostat here, http://spyderrobotics.com/

Please also check out, http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

http://www.reptilebasics.com/hide-boxes
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rite-I...mometer/896347
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR.../dp/B000NZZG3S

I know about the identical hides, like I said in my original post I am in the process of making some coconut hides since you cant buy them anymore. I would agree with you about choosing a secure place over heat, but he isn't. For the first 3 weeks I owned him he stayed in his coconut hide which is kept in mid tank, not on the cold side. Than suddenly he decided to hide under that ramp thingy all the way to the left, on the cool side(it was only put in there for decoration, it is not a hide).

The prob is in the coconut for the pic cause I was curious about the temp inside since that was the hide he was spending all his time at the time, it is normally not like that.

I have a heat mat warming the hotside, and a dome light in the center for ambient air temp, both are controlled with a thermostat(reptistat)

My main Q is why he has suddenly decided to hate his coconut house for no apparent reason, maybe he has finally adjusted well enough to me and the tank that he feels comfortable enough now to have an opinion on the hide?

[martin82531]

If your temperatures/humidity is spot on I would do two things to see if this helps and then go from there.

Get two identical hides of appropriate size
black out the back and both sides of the enclosure.

It doesn't sound like you have anything to worry about but I would start with these just to eliminate the possibilities of your ball favoring one hide over another. I say just to black out the sides and back of the enclosure just to give that added sense of security.