Wiggles, the Children's Python

[Homebody]

The camera has been really helping me to get to know Wiggles better. I've never seen Wiggles so much as sip from his water bowl, but the camera caught him taking a dip. Actually, two dips. They were quick, not proper soaking, but it's still significant behavior.


One of the reasons that I use a large water bowl is so that he can soak if he wants, but after two years of never seeing him soak, I had started putting less water in the bowl. I didn't see the point. I, even, considered replacing it with a small bowl to free up space. Now that I've seen him using it for it's intended purpose, I'll keep it filled.

When he's in the terrarium, he splits his time between his sky hide and his ledge. No surprises there. I did see him use his wedge hide a couple times, either in or on it, and that did surprise me. When he's in the terrarium, he will periodically roam the enclosure for 30 to 60 minutes, once or twice a night. He's spent very little time basking, though he also hasn't eaten. He also spends a lot of time in the tub. Last week, I would have said he favors the terrarium. This week has been almost all tub.

Before I got the camera, my observations were limited to the evenings, and by my attention span. So, my observations were very limited indeed. Now, I'm able to observe his behavior for 16 hours a day. This will allow me to get to know Wiggles on a level that just wouldn't have been possible before.

Now, I don't want to oversell the value of the camera. I don't expect to see novel behavior very often. There is only so much Wiggles can do in his enclosure. What I hope is that I can develop a deeper understanding of why he does what he does. Even (dare I hope) be able to predict his behavior. If I could do that, that would be something.