Quote Originally Posted by Katiecat124 View Post
Hi guys, I recently picked up a 3 year old male ball python from a breeder. It's really nice and tame, but it had never lived in a terrarium before. Basically, it did not seem interested in the hides I made for it (green walmart bowl, then tried a cardboard box). It would sit outside or on top of the hides, but never in it, which worried me because it's heat pad is underneath the hide. He seems restless and stressed.

However, when I had taken him out of the cage, he seemed to love hiding under the pillows and blankets of my bed - so I'm wondering if I may use a small pillow as a hide, or if it will cause some sort of respiratory damage or some other negative effects. Using the search function pulled nothing up, other than people using wet pillow cases during shedding.
A pillow is getting to peed and pooped on and be a pain to keep clean. You'll be throwing it out within a couple of weeks.

How are you measuring your temps? If your BP refuses to go into the hides, there's a decent chance the temps are not what you think they are on the ground where he makes contact. If you have a temp gun check the temps inside his hides using that. If you don't have a temp gun, you might want to consider one, it will save you a lot of time troubleshooting temperature related environment issues.