I have a problem snake. She has been sick before and I’ve gotten her through it. The reason I’m posting is because I feel like I’m missing something or maybe I could try something else to help her that I just haven’t thought of.


She pushes and tries to get out of her enclosure every single night. She is hurting herself, and stressing me out because I just want to help her. In my opinion she started doing this out of the blue, no changes had been made to her enclosure at all. I cannot figure out what is bothering her.


Things I have done to try to solve it: New IR Thermometer Gun(bought a professional one just to make sure my surface temps weren’t off), moved her enclosure(I could feel a slight vibration when I touched the sides of the enclosure so I moved her to a different room), more clutter in her enclosure, lowering temps, two vet visits, both increasing and decreasing humidity, more places to hide, switching substrates.


Below are the questionnaire responses in order.



  • I’ve had her almost three years
  • Little over three years old and over 4ft long.
  • Yes
  • She was fed on 9/3
  • Small Rat (I get mine from big cheese rodent factory) this is the only major change I have made was switching where I bought her food. She has had similar issues before this though.
  • Every 7 days
  • Animal plastics T8 (4x2x1)
  • I’ve tried several in the past month to see if maybe that was the issue she is currently on Reptisoil(no I do not feed her on it for risk of impaction). She has been on Reptichip and Eco earth too. No depth on it.
  • Radiant heat panel connected to a thermostat. (Proproducts)
  • Yes
  • To measure surface temps I use an IR temp gun (AMES brand from harbor frieght. Not the tiny cheap one, the way too large one. Thing is massive…). For ambient I use some digital thermometer hygrometer combos I got off Amazon.
  • Cool side surface 80-82f, ambient 80-81f. Warm side surface 89f-91f, ambient 85-87f.
  • 50-65%
  • Three Reptile basics black plastic hides and one cork log.
  • Yes, changed every couple of days.
  • Alone
  • Lately she is held as little as possible to reduce stress. Before all those 2-3 times a week for 15-30mins each time.
  • Yes, I got her from Petsmart with and RI and she has had trouble ever since. I can’t tell you how many RIs this snake has had. My poor vet sees me waaaay too often.
  • I own a BCI Boa as well. I’ve had her going on a year and a half now. Nothing new though. My Boa is perfectly healthy.
  • Just that she seems to always be sick or stressed and I can’t figure it out. She isn’t in a high traffic area in my home either, and my Boa is in an the same type of enclosure directly beneath her.