Paper towel rolls: dangerous??

[Surrealle]

I couldn't find any info on this with a search; I don't know if it's common knowledge and I'm just an idiot, but I thought I'd mention it anyways. I recently put an empty paper towel roll in for my young BP to hide in; she's about 8 weeks, 120-130 grams. I noticed she was hiding in it last night, which I figured was cool cause I know her regular hide is a little too large for her still. Today, I started to get concerned because I hadn't seen her move all day, even when I briefly took the pt roll out (with her in it) to refresh her bedding.

So, I lifted the paper towel roll and tilted it vertically to get her to slide out, and she didn't budge. I had to shake it a bit and then pull her out of it, and she seemed to be pretty snug in there. She was doubled back on herself at least twice. When she was free, she started moving around the cage rapidly, which is unusual for her. I don't know if she was stuck or not (or if that's possible, for snakes?), but I've since cut a slit down the length of the paper towel roll so it will flex/give way if needed.

Do you guys do that with your paper towel rolls, for those of you that use them? I feel stupid for not doing it in the first place, but it hadn't occurred to me that it could pose a problem..

[NH93]

I use paper towel roles too, and actually my BP is around the same age and weight as yours. He coils up super tight, but I really don't think they're stuck.
Nothing to be worried about in my opinion. Snakes are funny, and do weird snake things.
But if you feel better cutting a slit in the roll just incase, keep doing that.

It's pretty amazing the tight spaces they fit into!

[bcr229]

I've put them in with my smaller BP's, the worst that happens is that they get soggy from the humidity. I think yours was just happy to be somewhere secure, and you couldn't slide her out easily because she was fighting to stay in it.

[Surrealle]

Lol, okay. I figured I was just being overprotective. But, it does set my mind at ease to have a slit in there anyways.

[JLC]

I don't like to use ANY sort of hide that I can't pick up and get an animal out of without causing trauma to the animal. I don't think there's anything inherently dangerous in using something like a paper towel tube, but you won't ever be able to easily get a snake out of one, and if you HAVE to get the snake out, you'll cause a lot of stress in the process and could possibly risk injury. And if you ever "graduated" from paper towel tubes to something like a pvc pipe, you could find yourself completely unable to extract the snake without a real risk of injury. At least with the paper tube, you can tear them away.

All my hides are things that I can lift straight up to expose the snake underneath, although sometimes they'll still try to "stick" to the insides of their cave. LOL