It's completely normal for a new snake, baby or adult, to book for the hide and stay put. That's just a smart thing when you don't know if there is a predator in your new environment.

Most of our new snakes stayed in their hides constantly until they got settled in (a week to a month). Even now though we rarely see the balls out of their hides till well after dark and some of them we rarely see out. They just move about and do their snakey stuff I'm sure well after we are in bed for the night.

One of the hardest parts of owning a new snake is keeping hands off till it's eating well for you but it pays off in the end. His rigid, jerky movements are just being nervous I would think and even after he's settled in it takes time to hand tame them and some are always very reactive to movement or extremely head shy. Some aren't though and it's just very individual to the snake.


~~Jo~~