I’ve had my ball python since 2008? Something like that. A 40 gallon breeder terrarium (18x36), but I’m upgrading her to a 120 (4’x24"x24). Cleopatra. She’s a normal since the morphs back then were a lot more narrow. She’s grown into a almost 6 ft?
For a “normal” she’s a weird snake. And I’m trying to figure out all of this time what she wants in husbandry because she’s rejected more than half my attempts and none of what is advised online has really satisfied her.
Yes, basic temps 80 and 90-100 (depending on the time of year) for hot spot. Yes, I try to keep up her humidity to a reasonable level. Yes. I do keep her cage clean. No. I’m not trying to personify her. I just don’t understand this non-usual behavior and what I can do to accommodate it.
Originally in 2008-ish 20 gallon to start so I didn’t have to buy her a ton. Sliding top glass tank. Unfortunately, in those days the thermometers were trash since Inkbird didn’t really exist. It broke and there weren’t the newer ones that do better temp regs. She got burned. I recovered her back to health. Since then she’s hated, absolutely loathed belly heat. She was originally on a rug, but I put her on aspen after she got better. She hates aspen and since it’s dusty she kinda got sick a few times from kicking it to the side.
I upgraded her to a 40 gallon breeder. Originally, I used a used cat litter container (washed of course) as her hide. Not sure if this had an influence later… Sliding top lid. She was fine. Absolutely fine. She used to climb the branches early days, but then quit for some reason. (She also escaped back then, and would try to find me when she wanted something).
She’s stayed in there most of her life, but she’s recently kinda outgrown it and has been doing fantastic escapes every chance she gets, which is why I wanted to upgrade her.
She’s never liked aspen. She kicks it to the side and tries to have contact with the bottom of the tank. I moved into an apartment with rugs, and she really, really likes rugs. I put her on coconut coir too, in an effort to keep up the humidity, she absolutely avoids it and it’s been months.
Her most recent escape from the temporary caging was that she wanted to be fed, so I put her in her old cage until I could feed her, I gave her food. She hung around which is uncharacteristic of her. She stayed out until I gave her her water dish and her old hide, and then she pooed. She waited until I cleaned up near her cage. I put her back in with coconut coir. She escaped by sliding the front door open. Is it the coconut coir she hates? She’s hiding under a shelf where I can’t get her unless I feed her, but she’s hooked herself in such a way I can’t drag her out.
Other enrichment I’ve tried:
I made her a hide out of clay and she broke it.
I made her a hide out of a melamine bowl. She broke it so the entrance is wider. She loves that one.
She’s rejected all of the hides she can’t break with a wider entrance. (i.e. she won’t hide in there.) She took one look at a big enough hide with a darker format and she refuses to go into it.
Her favorite space to hide and escape from me is under shelves with a wide front opening where the rug is still exposed. Once I put down plastic rugs in the other locations, she’s hated it and avoided it.
She started to escape constantly: She figured out how to undo the lock pins on the sliding top. She pushed them out and slid the top open. I thought I didn’t, but I started triple checking… and yep. She figured out how to push them out.
She broke the silicone on the cage separating the two top sliding doors and was free… again.
So I locked the lock pins, and put retired math books on top. She figured that one out. Undid the lock pins and then slid with her nose the math books. Injured herself once doing it. TT Another vet visit. I asked about husbandry. Vet said nothing was wrong…
So I put in a wooden knitting needle. She broke it and then managed to slide the lid open.
So I put in a metal knitting needle and she would still try the lid and then stare at me.
She also turns over her water bowl when she’s not content with the quality of water or something.
So, other ball python keepers said the reason she’s reluctant to go back (when she was smaller and more like 5ft) was because the cage is not front opening.
Covid comes around, so I decided to convert the cage to front opening. It took a few months to coordinate the materials.
I tried to upgrade her to bioactive, but she got sick (play sand got stuck in her vent so I had to take her to the vet to treat it. She hated the plants and dug them up. And she was super annoyed at the isopods.) I switched her to coco coir. She hates that too. She refuses for it to get anywhere near her body. Aspen, coconut coir and soil. All are a no. She likes rugs, but they don’t keep up the humidity.
I converted her to front opening…
I bought the soil retainer, the doors, the sliding frames, etc. It took her a while to figure out that food and my hand were coming from the front and to stop trying to open the top of the lid. (She’d rub her nose against it.)
She still hates going back into her cage. She rather be outside. She’s not living up to her name of ball python at all. She’s so confident as a snake.
But once she figured out it was front opening, she started a multi-month campaign to break the cage. She pressed the back of the cage to the front of the soil retainer and started rocking back and forth. Back and forth. Until the silicone came free and it was unstuck. I tried to tape it… but she also worked the top sliding door groves free of the silicone.
And then one day I found that the whole front of the cage was collapsed and she was free again.
I could not find this almost 6 ft snake. One day I was late to feed the other snakes due to being out She was waiting for me at the apartment door. Periscopes up, flicks her tongue and demands food. I fed her BTW, and then she escapes from her temporary caging. TT
I’ve tried various enrichments and she’s rejected them. Branches. No. Did not like plants. Did not like isopods. Hates coconut coir. Dislikes the retaining soil wall.
She likes climbing shelves in my apartment. That’s where she goes when she escapes. She comes back when I haven’t fed her on time or her shed is stuck, usually stalking me outside my bathroom. When I’m late to feed her and she’s escaped, (again TT despite my best efforts) she’ll make a ton of noise by knocking things over, make sure I retrieve her, wait until I feed her and then scheme to escape again. I don’t know what else to call it. She figured out the sliding front doors… She absolutely knows how not to make sound since she’ll disappear for weeks until her shed is stuck (because she’s loose) or she wants food and then she’ll stalk me again. (Usually stuck shed is near the bathroom where I usually help her take it off. Want food is near the refrigerator door where my ft rats are… There are absolutely no studies I can find that explain this behavior.)
So… yeah… ummm… any suggestions on how to house this snake in the new cage? The new cage is from dubia roaches. My other ball pythons aren’t as fussy. Also, this snake has cost me more money than my more expensive morphs. I’m still trying to figure out how to house her after all this time.
I’m trying to figure out better enrichment for her, but I think she seems to gets her jollies knocking over the water bowl and greeting the sun in the morning. (She sticks out her head every sunrise and then goes back to her hide after the sun reaches mid morning.)
Iunno… people keep saying ball pythons don’t have personality. This one does. WHAT DOES SHE WANT ANYWAY? Also, sometimes I wonder if she’s really a ball python from how she acts. I tell her as she does long tongue flicks at me, “Are you sure you’re not a boa?” Iunno… I can’t find anything that explains her behavior.
burns can happen very easily at those temps…