New owner with a few questions.

[SekiMoshu]

Got my first ball last Thursday. I attempted to feed him Sunday afternoon as his breeder said he should probably be okay to try with but he didn't take. I'm not too horribly worried as he's still on the first week in his new environment and just may not be adjusted yet and I'm going to try again next Sunday. He didn't tense when I touched him to pick him up out of his enclosure and moved him to the feeding tub. However he seemed freaked out by the tub and was near instantly wanting nothing more than to be out of it and climbed out and onto my hand. He was squeezing lightly but not hard but he didn't seem agitated and he wasn't breathing hard at all on my hand. I'm also worried that his hides may be a bit too big for him. But he won't touch them if I put newspaper in them to make them feel a little more cramped. When I took the newspaper out he went back in without a problem. He also seems to like to sleep in the warm hide during the day and on occasion he will pull his head out to lay on the rim of his hide or climbs out just enough to lay his head on the tshirt I've had in there to get him a little more used to my scent. Is any of this normal at all because I've read that Balls usually enjoy tight hides but again he won't touch them if there's stuff in his hides.

Also when I was doing the general maintenance today I lifted up his hide and I think I woke him out of a dead sleep but I wanted to be sure there was no mess to clean as he spends most of his day in there. He didn't tense again when I touched him to move him away so I could put his hide back but he seemed to be taking long deep breaths after I set him down again. Also lately he seems to be favoring his warm hide and won't use his cool hide. He likes to lounge on the branches I have in his tank. Is this all normal, I'm just worried since this is my first snake, I want to give him the best care I possibly can.

I know he wanders around for a couple hours at night as I'm nocturnal as well so I get to enjoy seeing him when he's active.

Oh, also. His temps are at a constant 85-90 on the warm side and 75-80 on the cool. The humidity on the warm is around 50-55 and the cool is about 60-68.

[mikesmelly]

I'm a new owner as well and this all sounds like normal behavior to me. I was told to wait a week before attempting to feed my girl so that might be why yours didn't feed? Just not comfortable enough I guess?

[SekiMoshu]

I think the main thing that has me concerned is that he's preferring the bigger warmer hide and won't touch his cooler hide at all lately. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

[mikesmelly]

I think the main thing that has me concerned is that he's preferring the bigger warmer hide and won't touch his cooler hide at all lately. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

As long as you have the correct temps I wouldn't worry about it.

[AnnaK231]

As long as your temps and humidity are great I wouldn't worry too much. I recommend hides being the exact same type.

Let the snake acclimate to the new environment. They will go to whichever side they need. Right now mines hanging out in his cool hide and has been for the last day or two. Minus him crawling around at night.

If you have a heat pad (UTH) please make sure it's on a thermostat to regulate the temp.

[SekiMoshu]

As long as your temps and humidity are great I wouldn't worry too much. I recommend hides being the exact same type.

Let the snake acclimate to the new environment. They will go to whichever side they need. Right now mines hanging out in his cool hide and has been for the last day or two. Minus him crawling around at night.

If you have a heat pad (UTH) please make sure it's on a thermostat to regulate the temp.

The hides aren't the same but that's because where I bought them they only had one of them at the time. I'm going to buy another when they get back in stock. The strange thing is he's preferring the bigger hide. Earlier he was also resting on his temp gauge up near the lamp with his head looking up to the top of the tank. He hasn't been 'trying to escape' per say. Or roaming excessively. He's just kind of resting his head on the glass looking upwards. He'll do this on the warm or cool side for like 10-15 minutes and then either go back to his hide or find himself a nice comfy spot on his branch to chill out. He was actually doing this just a few minutes ago before going back to his hide. I'm not sure if this is stress or not.

[AnnaK231]

Sounds normal to me. There is also going to be some "stress" for a bit as he gets used to his new home. Try to keep foot traffic around him down. Ours used to do the same thing with his head on the glass.

[SekiMoshu]

Thank you everyone for all the fast responses and advice. My roommates lately are more worried about me than the snake since I've been stressing out over him so much. I tend to scare myself because I find every little thing that could possibly go wrong and then fret over it. This is him by the by.

[Penultimate]

You don't need to place him in a separate tub for feeding. It will most likely just stress him out. It's perfectly ok to feed inside the enclosure. Don't worry about making the hides smaller unless you can't get him eating. He'll be fine in slightly larger hides. Sounds like he's just busy being a snake, nothing to worry about.

You could consider making his warm and cool end hides identical so he'll choose the right temperature over his favorite hide. However, spending time on the warm side is perfectly fine. He'll go where he wants, and as long as the temperatures are being measured correctly, he's in no danger from spending time on the warm side. Some of mine seem to prefer the warm side as well. They know what they need better than we do.

Just curious, but what morph is he? He's stunning. Oh, and do you have a picture of your setup?

[SekiMoshu]

You don't need to place him in a separate tub for feeding. It will most likely just stress him out. It's perfectly ok to feed inside the enclosure. Don't worry about making the hides smaller unless you can't get him eating. He'll be fine in slightly larger hides. Sounds like he's just busy being a snake, nothing to worry about.

You could consider making his warm and cool end hides identical so he'll choose the right temperature over his favorite hide. However, spending time on the warm side is perfectly fine. He'll go where he wants, and as long as the temperatures are being measured correctly, he's in no danger from spending time on the warm side. Some of mine seem to prefer the warm side as well. They know what they need better than we do.

Just curious, but what morph is he? He's stunning. Oh, and do you have a picture of your setup?

I've since covered the hide on the right on the outside with construction paper on the outside of the tank so he would have complete privacy in there. Also you can't see it right now but his right side of the tank is hidden by a rack that holds all of our sewing fabric. The left is hidden from view on the outside mostly by his hide. The one on the left is the one he's favoring right now on the warm side. This was taken before I got him last Thursday and I was testing the tank. Also his morph is called a pumpkin champagne. I'm going to be getting a new ever so slightly bigger tank in a couple months. This current one is 30x12 and the one I'm looking at is 30x18