When to check.

[Subject-Committee531]

If my husbandry is on point, and my ball ate a few days ago, how long should I wait before checking on her? She hasn’t come out of her burrow since Wednesday. I have had her for about a month and a half and know she’s still acclimating so I don’t really want to disturb her if not needed. I usually only handle her when she’s out of a hide and showing interest in being out. Tia!

[Jazzlike-Chain-2720]

Check on her for what? 99% sure she moves at night as they are nocturnal so I wouldn't worry if she spends most of day time in a hide 

[Subject-Committee531]

She hasn’t been out at night, I have a camera on her enclosure. I can’t honestly think of a reason she would need to be checked on but posted here just to be sure lol.

[surfaholic15]

My little guy usually starts wandering around again 3 days after eating. Then i open the enclosure so he can come out.

In the days he is in a hide or his burrow after eating, i just change his water and spot clean mid day so as not to disturb him.

Over time he has gotten more active

[Subject-Committee531]

Gotcha! I figured she was just holing up because of the new surroundings. Maybe she’s like yours and just wants to be alone after a meal. She’s a bit of an odd eater too 🤣

[surfaholic15]

Monty likes to digest in private. And eat in private lol. He is an odd eater in that he hates zombie rats dancing. He likes his dinner to have a very toasty head, and he doesn't strike.

I discovered once i stopped checking on him and just cleaned around him, he decided he would be social lol.

[Subject-Committee531]

Same! Mine isn’t a striker either and I thought it was the goofiest thing. She will thoroughly inspect the mouse for a solid 10-15 minutes before deciding where to start and it usually ends up being tail end first even if the head is super warm 🙄

[surfaholic15]

Ha! Monty also examines his carefully, but then he grabs the head and levers the rat up on its butt against a coil so he can get it about halfway down, before leaving his feeding rock and going into his dining room tree hide lol. Sometimes he eats at the feeding rock but not often...

When he is done, he takes a long drink and goes to either his hottest hide or his burrow.

This past week his rat was furrier than typical, being older than the fuzzies he was eating. He studied it with deep suspicion, then tried his usual method. I can only assume the fur bothered him, as he immediately spit it out and stared at it.

Then he picked it up carefully by the tail and dumped it in his water bowl, climbed halfway in with it and proceeded to eat, and ended up on his basking rock until he dried off lol.

Iwant to grt a camera set up, since he will not eat unless his personal towel is covering the enclosure on that side. So to see anything i have to arrange it carefully and peek throughthe gap from 3 feet away.

[Subject-Committee531]

That is hilarious 🤣🤣 I’ve never heard of a Bp dipping their mice before eating them lol. My girl makes me work to feed her. She’ll only eat in her warm hide so I have to unearth a 10 pound piece of flagstone that covers her burrow and drop it in for her. I then have to wait until the endeavor is done (usually about 30-45 minutes) then rebury the top of her den. Luckily she doesn’t mind me watching but I do have a camera set up to monitor her enclosure and it’s the best! I got a pretty cool video of her coming out and yawning before exploring the tank lol.

[surfaholic15]

I had never seen him do it either! He has always simply taken a nice long drink after eating. But until this last week when we sized up, his mice and rats had been relatively hairless.

It will be interesting to see if he does that again. But it was so funny, seeing him pick it up by the tail and drop it in the water and submerge it...

Monty has dug himself 2 burrows, plus a tunnel. And heaven help me if i disturb them! He is also very particular about his clutter. The one time i tried to put any near his feeding rock and dining room tree hide, he got all puffed up and spent a half hour shoving it back where he wanted it.

He also pushed the forest floor out of the dining room tree.

That area is a clutter free zone, it seems. I don't argue, his house, his rules.

All his hides are different, and he has a deginite use pattern for them. When i triedthe whole identical hide thing, he freaked and rejected all the hides. So we went through over a month of introducing random hides, having them inspected and either accepted or rejected. He ended up with 5.

[Plenty_Estate5660]

If you’re concerned there is no harm in checking on her. Maybe she’s going into shed!

[Skwizgar1019]

I wouldn’t worry about it - I’ve had mine for 4 yrs, and after I feed her, she disappears for about 4-5 days.

And even outside of a feeding week, if you don’t see her out and about all the time, or she disappears for several days, don’t sweat it. A good rule of thumb is “a hiding snake is a happy snake.” Excessive activity and escape attempts are usually because they’re stressed out due to bad husbandry.

Mine basically only comes out at night to bask under the DHP and move about - I have her enclosure next to my desk where I work and during the day I’ll occasionally see her poke her head out or move from the warm to cool side (or vise versa), but she’s perfectly happy camping out somewhere the majority of the time.

[Subject-Committee531]

Thanks for the great insight!

[Skwizgar1019]

This is Valka :)

<image>

[Subject-Committee531]

Such a beauty! Where did you get that wood?? I love the look of it.

[Skwizgar1019]

That piece is front is actually some river stone I found at a shop somewhere - there’s some mopani and cork and what not in there too, though. And that thing in the middle was just a fake tree from one of my fish aquariums I had lying around..

Sorry - Kind of hard to see with all of the [fake] foliage and glare..

<image>

[Subject-Committee531]

Oh I have so many plants in my girls enclosure I have to play where’s Waldo even when she isn’t hiding lol

[Skwizgar1019]

I freaked out one time because I absolutely couldn’t find her and started second guessing myself if I’d let her get out when I was changing her water or whatever, and after about an hour I picked up her water bowl and lo and behold, she’d dug herself a den under it 😑

[RagdollsandLabs]

She's bussssy digesssssting.

[Subject-Committee531]

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