My ball python has an green tree boa complex

[Parysa]

I've got one that climbs. It was hilarious when he was little and learning how to control his body. I had the crappy analog therm/hygro that comes with the tank kits and sticks on the side (I've gone to digital now) and he would climb onto it and hang, but it took him forever to learn how to balance his coils so he wasn't too heavy on one side and he'd slowly start sliding off and then fall upside down, look around like he was confused, and do it again. Now he's fat (joke--not actually fat) and just sticks his nose into everything.

[Touchedbyfate]

lol I love it!! sometimes I miss having tanks.

Yeah they are nice to look at.. I think I'll miss the scenery when I switch to my rack


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[Samii]

My guy likes climbing, he used to wrap himself in the crappy stick on thermometers that came in his tank, and when we added a stick for him to check out, he took right to it! He's always looping himself in things and climbing up.

[Neal]

That's awesome. I love exo-terra cages. I took the Styrofoam thing out of mine though.

Just out of curiosity, are those dial gauges?

[Samii]

Yes lol I have the styrofoam out at this point as well, and we do not rely on the dials! Just not worth removing when he so enjoys fooling around

[southbay54]

My little baby ball python loves to not only hide under the leaves in her enclosure but also climb all over them and loop herself in them:p I think she is a little confused. What do you think?

my og does the same lol

[JeanTownsend]

Because I heard that they are not arboreal.

I don't understand why everyone says they're ground-dwelling only.
What do they do when you're handling them? They climb. What do they do when there are branches provided? They climb.
When I was doing research on them before getting mine, I read something somewhere that someone was bathing his ball python and left for two seconds for whatever reason. When he returned, the snake was on the shower curtain rod. The same writer said in the same article that ball pythons do not climb at all, and are only ground-dwelling. I was thinking, "That makes no logical sense; they have to climb in order to be on a curtain rod!"
A study from a few years ago found that the majority of wild ball pythons were in trees. Only females that were laying eggs were on the ground. They kind of have to climb in order to be in a tree.
We always hear that ball pythons are on everything, yet that they are not arboreal.
It's so weird. They love to climb, and I don't understand why we're all told otherwise. I'd say they are semi-arboreal. They like the ground, but they also love to be above-ground. The problem is that we end up not providing branches for them, because we're told that they won't use them.
Personally, I think breeders wouldn't have a clue about it anyway, since the majority of them use plastic tubs. You can't accurately moniter their behavior in these, so how can they say what they do and what they don't do? They really can't, and it's the breeders that tell us ball pythons are ground-dwelling.
How this makes sense anyway, I don't know. Every other python species climbs. Why not these guys?

[Zincubus]

I don't understand why everyone says they're ground-dwelling only.
What do they do when you're handling them? They climb. What do they do when there are branches provided? They climb.
When I was doing research on them before getting mine, I read something somewhere that someone was bathing his ball python and left for two seconds for whatever reason. When he returned, the snake was on the shower curtain rod. The same writer said in the same article that ball pythons do not climb at all, and are only ground-dwelling. I was thinking, "That makes no logical sense; they have to climb in order to be on a curtain rod!"
A study from a few years ago found that the majority of wild ball pythons were in trees. Only females that were laying eggs were on the ground. They kind of have to climb in order to be in a tree.
We always hear that ball pythons are on everything, yet that they are not arboreal.
It's so weird. They love to climb, and I don't understand why we're all told otherwise. I'd say they are semi-arboreal. They like the ground, but they also love to be above-ground. The problem is that we end up not providing branches for them, because we're told that they won't use them.
Personally, I think breeders wouldn't have a clue about it anyway, since the majority of them use plastic tubs. You can't accurately moniter their behavior in these, so how can they say what they do and what they don't do? They really can't, and it's the breeders that tell us ball pythons are ground-dwelling.
How this makes sense anyway, I don't know. Every other python species climbs. Why not these guys?

There's a science paper online somewhere that shows where wild caught Royals are located .... I was surprised at how many were found in trees !!


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[SDA]

I would not go so far as to call a ball python arboreal or even call them tree dwellers. I think ball pythons will climb on things as they are cruising through the savannah. It is not like they will come across a shrub or tree and think "I need to find another way around or I may fall if I climb up that thing". The fact is they can live long and healthy lives on the ground in tubs and cages. Adding enrichment items like branches and vines and other things to climb just helps to give them options to scoot around but going so far as adding or inferring the word "need" into the equation might be a bit of a stretch. Finding something somewhere does not mean it lives in that location.

Let's take my rosy boa for example. They are ground and crevice dwelling snakes as shown from years of scientific research and the desert like conditions (chaparral actually) they live in. When I pick mine up, aside from trying to bite me because he is crazy food driven, he climbs. Should I now assume he must be a tree climbing snake? Nope, do I provide him things in his cage to climb and did I observe him climbing to the lip of the top of the cage when I got him? Yes.

There are more than just trees in these snakes habitats and they will climb over. in, around, and through them. Termite mounds for example are pretty tall and they need often to climb up to find an opening. Let's not call these snakes semi arboreal as they simply are not physically designed for it. They are terrestrial snakes but even terrestrial snake can climb. You want to see an arboreal snake, check out a green tree python, carpet python, or certain rat snakes.

Let's admit enrichment items are a beneficial bonus but not something that withholding is going to lead to anxiety or depression as seen in other animals like dogs.

[zina10]

Yes lol I have the styrofoam out at this point as well, and we do not rely on the dials! Just not worth removing when he so enjoys fooling around

Careful with that, though...

The weight of the snake on those dial on thermometers can make them pop off eventually...however, they will still be VERY stick and the snake can get them stuck on their scales. Very difficult to remove from the snake without some trauma to the snake/scales