Hello, i have a 1y 2month old piebald BP that suddenly has started acting stressed. He is in a 36x18x18 terrarium, cold side is 80-81, hot side is 83-84, basking spot is 90ish from an UTH. Humidity is 50%. Hides on both sides. I took him to the vet last week to see if he may be sick but he checked out fine and said his changes in behavior is due to reaching sexual maturity and hormonal changes (hes 1200g). He has been in this enclosure since August 1st and out of nowhere the second week of November he started acting out of sorts, lots of restlessness and escape behavior and some “huffing”, but has yet to stop eating. He also is not going into this hot side hide anymore. The only things that has changed is i got 2 cats around the time his behavior started and also got him a bigger hot side hide. They dont have access to the room he is in with my 6month old BCI, but one day as i was doing some cleaning in my snake room the cats got in there for a few minutes and thats when his behavior changes started. Since they have not been in there. His enclosure is low enough that he could see the cats, so im curious if they are the reason he is acting out of sorts because now that he knows theyre in the house and can smell them and is stressing him out. Does anyone agree that it could just be him being sexually mature now or is it the cats or possibly his hot side hide is to big? I have attached a picture of his enclosure set up, let me know if anyone has any recommendations on what i should change or try different.
Welcome to the community! 
To me is an indication of being kept to hot. 90 on the hot side is way to hot in my personal opinion. What are you using to measure temperatures?
Only the substrate is 90deg for belly heat (runs off a thermostat and i check regularly with a temp gun), the hot side ambient temp is 83-84. His enclosure is actually a few degrees cooler compared to the summer months due to living in Michigan and it being cold out side. Hes been in this enclosure for 5 months now and the first 3 months with similar conditions he was completely fine.
I would personally turn that down like 5 degrees a ball python that is always moving is usually an indicator of something wrong. And how often are you feeding? I200 gram male after a year seems a bit much.
Ball pythons don’t have a very good sense of smell so if the cats aren’t in the room that wouldn’t make a difference. It sounds like it could be breeding behavior, but a lower temperature might help.
So hes not always moving, just more than he was before and is more alert than usual. He stays in his cold side hide for the majority of the day and around 5-6pm he comes out and is out and about till 10-11pm sometimes later. I have him on a day/night light schedule using a 13w led cabinet light (runs on a zoomed timer) which is what ive used since i got him.
Also indicates he is to hot.
I would be willing to bet it’s not this.
I feed him a medium rat every 7 days (80-110g rodent). He was a fast grower since i got him and ive never power fed, always on a 7 day schedule. He also is not showing any signs of being over weight. Im just not sold that his enclosure is to hot due to it actually becoming cooler when this behavior started but ill give it a shot.
I feed my adult males one adult mouse or small rat every 3 to 4 weeks.
How are you checking the temperatures? An infrared thermometer is the most accurate and best way to check surface temperatures. Temperature probes aren’t very accurate for surface temperatures, just ambient temperatures. Since you have a large enclosure he could just be exploring. But I agree that if he’s not going into the warm hide it could be too warm.
They indicated they are checking it a gun. The temperatures the snakes body come in contact with are what you should base your temperature off of.
I have an infrared temperature gun i use to measure surface temperature. I use temperature probes to measure ambient temperature on each side of the enclosure. Everything i use to heat my snakes enclosures are ran off of thermostats.
Sorry, I missed that part. I agree with you that lowering the temperatures is likely the best thing to try.
I will give it a shot. Any idea why he’d be fine with higher temps during the summer and fall but not during winter months? Just seems odd he was fine with 86 hot side temp and 83 cold side temp during the summer and early fall but not 83-84 hot side and 80 cold side now during the winter.
Your hot spot is 90 on the surface this temperature is way more important than ambient temperatures. I have 20 male ball pythons and I don’t keep them any hotter than 85 surface temp.
Gotcha, i will give it a shot turning down his UTH. Thanks for the recommendations!
No problem 