Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I am about to pull my hair out and whats left of course. I would love to get as many peoples experiences with hide boxes. I am about to go to a shoe box and a boot box for my males and juveniles. After you add a 4 to 5 inch water bowl there is not a lot room left. My big female is in a cb 70 and is doing fine without a hide. Are there many people that do not use hides at all for any size of ball. I am considering just using crumbled news paper in the boots and shoe boxes. I have a 500 gram spider in a cb 70 and I have a hide in there that has about 1 inch of room from the top of the tub. So she is always laying between the hide and the top of the bin. So what is it that she really wants? A hide or a place to jam her self into? Anyone that wants to chime in please do. I would love to go hide less but I do not want miserable snakes either.

Thanks again for any help...
Bill

I have some nice hides I bought from reptilebasics that the snakes love, but some of them just love to get underneath the paper towel substrate...

When I used newspaper I had one snake that would find a way underneath everytime to hang out no matter what.. So I can agree if you allow them to get underneath the substrate (newspaper/paper towel) they will probably be fine..

Your snakes are likely much larger than mine though if they are in a CB70
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1.0 Het Albino Burm
0.1 Albino Burm
1.1 Mojave Ball Pythons
0.1 Normal Ball Python
1.0 Albino Ball Python
1.1 Pastel Ball Pythons
0.1 Spider Ball Python
0.2 Het Albino Ball Pythons
0.1 Lavender Albino Retic

Seeking bigger cages for the family

I use clay pots for hides to keep humidity up and they seem to like jamming themselves into the small mouth space.

However, I am building my first rack (slowly but surely) and I intend to use origami boxes as hides. I know, it sounds dorky, but I can make them super fast, out of the same newspaper I will be keeping them on, and they are disposable. They would provide a hide at just about any size I would like. Just a thought.
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1.0 normal ball python
0.1 greyband hybrid kingsnake
0.2 crazy cats
1.0 husband

I find that if your husbandry is dead on, you don't need a hide. I have over 100 balls here, mostly adults now and there is not a single hide in any enclosure. Anyhwere. Same goes for the subs and babies. I find that one out of every 100 needs one to start eating. All the rest are off to the races without it.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

Hi,

I have talked to several breeders that have never used them and they feel they are not needed. I guess eating is really the only issue I am worried about. If I don't use a hide and they eat than why mess a good thing up. I am just starting to go crazy trying to find what works for them. They really do just want to be jammed in to something really tight and on a human level it just seems really uncomfortable. But they seem to dig it.

Thanks for the nice replies,
Bill

I use Reptile Basics (RBI), my one and only knock is that my large females are almost too big for the large size. Easy to clean, snakes seem to like them. Have used clay pots, they are too large for racks. Newspaper works, snakes seem to like it, but I like the RBI hides for the look and less messed look of the rack or cage.

For my larger snake Arwen, I use the large Glad forceflex boxes. He seems to really enjoy it. For my smaller males they have the RBI hides. A little snug, but the use them. The 2 babies I have I took $.98 plastic paint trim pans from the hardware store and cut and melted a entrance on the side. Perfect size for hatchlings and less than a dollar you can't beat that.
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This is courage.. to bear unflinching what heaven sends. -unknown

2.0 chocolate lab (Harley) and basset (Capone)
0.1 leopard gecko (Nacho)
1.0 Normal ball python (Arwen)
1.0 pastel ball python (Merlin)
0.1 Spider ball python (Rogue)
1.4 breeder rats

ball pythons like tight, dark and 'heavy' hides. But if the entire cage is dark and meets all the requirements you could just do away with individual hides. Hides really should only be a little bigger than your ball python all curled up. They like to 'feel' the sides of the hide when coiled comfortably. Having it just a little bigger so one or two sides are not actually touching ensures some growth room or room for when full/gravid.
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PHLdyPayne

I don't use any hides in my racks and all my balls, retics, and blood python eat and breed extremely well. The only time I used a hide was when I got a 40g female pastel and she wouldn't eat right away. After she had a couple meals I pulled the hide and she never stopped eating.

I use aspen and some of my balls burrow in it and hide out. If they ever stop eating then I'll just give them some newspaper or a paper towel to hide under.

Also a hide is just one more thing to clean.

I just use a $1 dog bowl from wal mart I have tried all kinds of different hides from the wood ones to plastic and mine alwasy choose the bowl for some reason from the big ones to the little ones, so I just give them the bowl/hide and all of mine are doing ok

I had the same problem. I always used hides but now that I have a rack that is sealed on 3 sides it's dark in there and I've noticed that they all block themselves in the back with the aspen bedding creating thier own hide area. Works for me.

Cork bark slabs on coconut husk. They are light enough to be safe, but heavy enough to make her feel secure. She can burrow through the coconut husk and curl up underneath the cork bark, supporting the weight of the bark on her back.