Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So here is the new strange behavior. Our BP (Zeke) is now climbing to the top of his cage where he has found a small gap between two pieces of wood. This does not give him an escape route, but is high up in the corner. Anyhow, he likes to get himself all wedged in the space then coils up the remaining length of his body around the wedged part. After staying there for a five or ten minutes, he falls down! He sometimes lays there for a few minutes - but always goes back to exploring. Of course, he returns to that same spot, wedges himself in and inevitably falls again. (My husband thinks he's falling asleep.) We're talking about a distance of only 1.5 to 2 feet, but I'm a little concerned nonetheless. We've moved everything out of the way, so he doesn't fall on anything. But I'm wondering if we should fill in that gap. On the other hand, I hate to take away his fun if he isn't getting hurt? What do you think? ideas?
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Jenny

1.0 Ball Python "Zeke"
0.1 Box Turtle "Ferdie"

Fill the gap. Just because you don't see any outward damage doesn't mean that he hasn't or won't hurt himself. He's trying to get out and will continue to try if allowed. I don't think snakes really 'play' and 'have fun'. Sounds more like you're having fun watching him! I personally would not risk the injury to my snake.
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1.0 Ball Python
"Aragorn"

1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa
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0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

It isn't "fun" to watch this... we just found out this is happening late at night - my husband just happened to be up late and caught this action. It just seems so bizarre that he'd do it repeatedly - you'd think he'd learn, but I think blocking it is the right idea too. Just wondered if anyone else had similar experience.
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Jenny

1.0 Ball Python "Zeke"
0.1 Box Turtle "Ferdie"

When I was using an aquarium with a screen top my ball would contort his body to fit the side of it between the metal of the screen top and the plastic lip at the top of the aquarium, about 1.4" of space there. He would try to bet around the entire aquarium this way and would end up falling. A drop of about a foot. It scared the crap out of me because he would fall at different spots and land on different things.

I ended up placing fake plants all over the edge of the glass to soften any fall he might have. After about a week of this he stopped. Now I don't have to worry about it at all since I have a Boaphile plastics cage that rocks!!
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Rob Talkington

My ball python does this all the time. There's a small channel around the top of the rubbermaid and tries to wedge itself in. When the snake was small it was not problem. It was lay up there for hours. Now he's so big the he just wedges a part of his body there and drapes down the side. He's fallen a few times but the cage is only 12 inces high so no problem. I would suggest putting something for your snake to climb on like a branch. He may begin to prefer that over the other.

Funny thing is that he has a big Y-shaped branch that he pretty much ignores unless he's using it to shed. :>~~~

thanks for the insights - at least I know he is not *that* abnormal!
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Jenny

1.0 Ball Python "Zeke"
0.1 Box Turtle "Ferdie"

I have a cali king in a 30 gal. and he wedges his entire body between the lip of the tank and the top of the screen covering. He can usually do 2 to 3 laps around the whole thing, looking for a way out (of which there isn't one) before he finally falls. He did this many times many nights, before he finally reaized that A) there is no way out, or B) ouch, this hurts.

Either way, he doesn't do it anymore. Snakes aren't as dumb as they seem. They learn.

No worries about your snake.

~Nick