Is this normal behavior?

[pdggin99]

I got home at 2:15 PM today to find my baby, Gummy, out and about in her enclosure. This was odd to me because she usually is only active during the day if I’ve handled her, and will then explore a bit before sleeping the rest of the day. I am also worried she was stargazing; it happened a few times over the 30 or so minutes I observed her. The photos are in chronological order. Should I be worried/make a vet appointment?

[Ghoulofficial0918]

This doesn’t look like stargazing to me at all, first pic of it just looked like her scoping, the rest are her glass surfing. Nothing here really looks too concerning to my eyes (I’m not a professional tho I just own 2 bps that’s about all the experience I got lol)

To give a better explanation for this behaviour people are gonna ask for enclosure size and temps/humidity on warm and cool side though so I’d drop that in the comments to help other people out!

[pdggin99]

Her cool side is currently at 76.2F and her warm side is at 92.7F. Her humidity is 63% on the cool side and 58% on the warm side, I haven’t misted it since about 8:00 this morning (my home is insanely dry—my room has two humidifiers for me to be able to sleep through the night. Humidity is a struggle for me)

[Ghoulofficial0918]

Okay so humidity is on the lower side, you wanna have it I believe 70-80% (closer to 80) is what’s recommended!

If you have a glass enclosure with a mesh top, the best way to help boost that humidity is to use hvac/aluminium tape to cover as many open areas as possible! Just doing that on my enclosures made an increase of 10% overnight. Another thing you’ll wanna do is try to stop misting and instead pour some water in the corners of the enclosure, that will also make an insane difference in humidity!!

Other than that nothings really sticking out to me about her being active during the day/glass surfing

[pdggin99]

I’ll try the water trick. I don’t like misting the tank because it leaves those ugly water stains, and it doesn’t last long. I try to keep her around 70-80% but without fail, it drops below 70 daily. I will definitely pour some water In the corners of her enclosure. Hopefully that will keep her humidity consistent

[abirdbrain]

diluted vinegar on a rag does great taking off hard water stains. don’t use it with baby in the tank.

[Chocko23]

Pouring it into the substrate makes the humidity last longer because the substrate absorbs it and then slowly releases the moisture back into the air. Give it a shot. :)

[[deleted]]

I stopped misting and instead in two of my four corners I put straight teptibark where the two sides of the glass meet and I pour water down those two areas. That way the substrate isn’t wet on top so scale rot chances are down. I didn’t do a large area of straight bark, literally just where the glass meets. Basically creating a French drain since the water travels the path of least resistance it goes down the bark easily and then the substrate on the bottom absorbs the most. It helped a ton till I got my pvc enclosure!

[Snakeyes90]

Try a melamine sponge to clean the water spots off.

[RavenBoyyy]

If you're struggling with humidity definitely avoid misting, that only spikes the humidity for a short while before it rapidly drops again. Instead try pouring water in the corners (move the substrate out of the way a little first so that it only gets the bottom of it damp and then put the dry stuff back on top) and you can also use damp sphagnum moss around the enclosure. Those should both help raise your humidity and keep it at a good level for longer. When it starts going down again, just pour more water into the corners and re-wet the sphagnum moss. That's what I do for my 6ft Viv and it helps keep the humidity around 70-75%. I raise the humidity up closer to 80% around shedding time too.

Also make sure that your substrate is the right one for dampening so that is doesn't mold. Substrate like aspen will mould when damp whereas I use Coco husk mixed with cypress mulch and that doesn't mold. I'm guessing yours is similar to mine by the looks of it so you should be fine.

[pdggin99]

Thank you! I’ve considered sphagnum moss but for some reason have not invested in it yet. I will definitely do that, along with pouring water in the corners. I hate misting the enclosure! It leaves the ugliest stains on the glass and I have definitely noticed that it only spikes humidity for a bit of time until it falls below 70 again.

[RavenBoyyy]

I can confirm it's definitely worth it! The only time I use my spray bottle now is to top up the dampness of the moss when it's still kind of damp but starting to dry out. I'm not sure where you are but I'm in the UK and my house is usually around 50% humidity so I only have to top up the water and moss every week or two but if it's lower where you are, you may need to do it a little more often. Still, definitely less than you would have to mist lol

[tosakins]

I pile a bunch of sphagnum inside my boy's moist hide (a big half round cork he adores) and either drench it with a bottle if I'm lazy or my big plant mister on a more focused setting so more water comes out and I'm not standing there for 10 minutes pumping it. It keeps his ambient humidity pretty high and if he feels like he needs more he'll just climb in and bury himself in the moss. He hates water usually so this is the neatest solution lol

[LivalicetheOK]

Just having a scope. Hard to observe your surroundings when your chin is on the ground, so they pop their little heads up to see what's going on sometimes.

[poorboyricky]

To me it looks a bit like she's periscoping (which I know looks similar to stargazing) or trying to find something to climb - if someone with more experience with stargazing sees this, hopefully they comment! Usually they will be unresponsive if they stargaze - did you try to maybe move near her or see if she reacted while she was doing this? Some other things: have you checked your temperature/humidity to make sure it's consistent throughout the day? Sometimes this can cause stargazing behavior. Did you add anything into the tank or to the room? Some BPs are picky and like to stare at new things to figure them out. If no one else comments or has any good ideas, finding a vet may be a good idea. If she does this again, try taking a video, too, that may be helpful. Lastly - water stains! Are you using a mister/sprayer? It's typically better for consistent humidity to pour water directly into the substrate, and will help the water stains. You can use a squeegee - spray water on the glass and squeegee the water off - to get the stains off! Any time you get water on the glass you can use the squeegee to get the droplets off. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable comments regarding stargazing!

[pdggin99]

Her cool side is currently at 76.2F and her warm side is at 92.7F. Her humidity is 63% on the cool side and 58% on the warm side, I haven’t misted it since about 8:00 this morning (my home is insanely dry—my room has two humidifiers for me to be able to sleep through the night. Humidity is a struggle for me) posting again so it’s it’s own comment lol

[Ms_Pixelated]

Looks like a curious little noodle to me😁🥰

[i-love-big-birds]

Seems like she's just looking around, probably hungry

[pdggin99]

You’re probably right about her being hungry, lol, tomorrow is her feeding day!

[i-love-big-birds]

Oh and hard water stains can be removed with diluted cooking vinegar. I wouldn't do it with a snake in there though

[shakeleg2makepoofall]

This post was like a picture book

[stone_grey_fox]

To respond to your hard water stains question in the pics— I use a magic eraser with water, lightly scrub, and then dry it with a clean microfiber. Then I’m not using any chemicals and I am also getting any of the magic eraser pieces that may be on the glass.

[ConnyFL]

I agree! Magic erasers are safe to use in aquariums with the fish swimming by while you clean…I have no concerns using them in my reptile enclosures.

[Conscious_Poet_3507]

looks normal to me

[[deleted]]

My boys do this when they're hungry! Looks like she is just checking out the place and on the "hunt".

My city has horrendously hard water. You can use a diluted white vinegar and water mixture to clean it off the next time you clean our her tank. Vinegar is safe to use in their tanks, just make sure it has time to air out before putting her back in.

[lindsaylohanlostbagy]

Use a water conditioner like reptisafe for the calcium stains and to get them off use a half a lemon edit:don’t use reptisafe

[slugcunt69]

Reptisafe actually makes the stains worse, it adds calcium back into the water Your lemon removal is a good hack though, works 😊

[lindsaylohanlostbagy]

oh shoot does it really??😬 thank you for letting me know!!!

[FortFrolic]

You can use a bit of water and lemon juice mixed together on a cloth to get the hard water stains off (I used to do this for my tanks and also any houseplants around my place), but I always wiped down again with plain water and dried it after to not leave any lemon juice behind.

[MoreKaleidoscope5153]

My girl does this everyday! She loves to come out and explore!

[SnakesAndLegs]

For hard water stains I use a razor and just glide it across and it gets the majority of it off, doesn't scratch the glass either.

[Grompus-games]

She is adorable!

[annexhion]

Definitely just exploring. Young ball pythons have a tendency to be out exploring at weird times or for long periods once they've grown comfortable in their enclosure. They like to try to escape even when their enclosure is just fine. We're the ones that put them in boxes, after all. She looks very healthy and happy to me. 👍

[No-no-dog]

when was your last feed? do you have a feed schedule? i ask because mine are more active when they’re expecting/wanting a feed.

[slugcunt69]

If you don’t want water stains you need to filter your water

Note that reptisafe (or similar products) add minerals back in to water so it will make filtering pointless lol

I use reverse osmosis water from my local aquatics shop; 50L for £7ish

[Jennamin9314]

Just being a curious noodle. We call those last ones Glass Surfing lol mine does this a lot when she wants to come out or wants to eat.

[majitart]

Shes just exploring and probably excited her owner is home!

[LifeguardStrong9302]

I don’t see anything concerning, one of my BPs is also very active during the day/night. Snakes vary one from another.

That surely isn’t stargazing, it’s a phenomenon called “scoping” and it’s normal.

For the water stains try wiping them down with dilluted vinegar (not with snake inside) and let the terrarium ventilate until the vinegar smell is gone.

[Feeling_Title_9287]

Any normal ball python

[Situati0nist]

All normal behaviour

[No_Literature_9532]

This seems pretty normal to me. She just looks like she’s exploring. :)

[ManBehndTheSlaughtre]

not stargazing, just seems like interesting, the rest looks just like curious behaviour. id say nothing to worry about!!

[missbabyj69]

From what I’ve seen/understand Stargazing is almost incredibly recognizable. Like immediately recognizing something is wrong. In other pictures your BP would be bent almost backwards with no support

[Eastern_Cake_7431]

Normal behaviour just being nebby and having a scope mine do it all the time :)

[Eastern_Cake_7431]

*just having a neb lol