Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My silly balls think they're arboreal at night. They have a small tree-type thing to drape themselves over under their lamp, but they've also taken to crawling in the wires connecting the socket to the cord (until I caught them & duct-taped them flat).

Should I get them a bigger branch to play on at night, even though they're not arboreal? They're slightly clumsy, & fall while roaming at night, so I don't want them to get hurt. Any thoughts?

never use tape in a snake cage. It might get stuck on the scales and it will be very painful. They might be going in the branch because the temps are to low on the bottom and need some heat. Check your temps, and also it wouldn't be a bad idea to give them indidvidual cages.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
0.1 Red blood python (Rhianon)
0.0.1 ball pythons (FELIX!!!!!)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

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why individual cages?

I agree with lilroach.

House them seperately and make sure your temps are correct. Balls are not good climbers; they are terrestrial snakes.

Housing two together stresses them out (they are solitary snakes), and you can't keep proper track of their poop cycles. How will you know if one gets bound up? You won't. And tape in a cage? Fix that NOW. It wouldn't be hard for on to get a part stuck on it, or at least some of the glue from an edge on them.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Yes, well, thanks for the (patronising, caustic, unfriendly) advice, but I think I'll let them live together as they have been for six years, coiled up around one another.

And as for the tape, it's not a matter of caulking a hole. There's no hole, I'm trying to keep them from crawling over the wires so they don't pull them out, break their light & burn themselves. Since the tape is on the roof of the cage, & it's been like that for several years, I think I'll leave that also.

My QUESTION was whether I should give them a bigger branch to crawl on. I didn't ask for preaching about your opinion (because that's really all it is, & everyone has a different one, so it's hard ot know which to follow) about the pros & cons of living alone.

So let's make this simple:

Should I give them a bigger branch to curl up on/crawl on?

Yes or No

I would say no......

They live on the ground out in Africa and I try to keep my snakes in the most natural settings possible.

If you feel that they need branches to crawl on thats on you. The comments that everyone else made were not negative but informative...... 6 years is a very long time of living together yes....but you also have to understand that they do not "enjoy" each others company....... they might not care... but they dont need each other. The only advice I can give you is to make sure they are not both males cause if they are you are really killing them with the stress of having to deal with each other everyday..... especially during the breeding season...

Good luck and dont take this post the wrong way. We are not only here to answer questions but to provide help in order for our animals but be happy and healthy....

Raul

may I make a suggestion regarding the tape? you can listen or not but I guess I will tell you my tape stories so you understand what can happen. First one was the first day I got my first baby ball python, while climbing in his cage he pulled the round humidity cage off the cage and it got stuck on his tail right about the vent and that thing was very sticky, I took him to the vet and they got it off of him he was a biting machine that day and I had little experience with snakes at that time.

you would think I learned my lesson about sticky stuff around the cages, but I guess I didn't. On another cage I had cut a hole in the screen on top for the thermostat to drop down in. I later moved it to the other side of the cage, but there were some little wires that I didn't want the snake to scratch itself while it moved around looking for a way out of the cage. So I decided to put a little piece of tape that I tought wouldn't stick really over it. It stayed in there for many many months then one day I came home to find that my breeding male who was not at all tame had the piece of tape stuck on his head. You know how most ball pythons don't like their heads touched well add that with a not tame snake and it was hell. I soaked the snake the best I could but how do you soak a snakes head? I finally got to the point of taking him to the vet since the snake was getting crazed. When I got there the tape ended up coming off by itself they said the soaking must have worked. I got lucky it could have been worse.

Needless to say I have now learned my lesson, we say stuff cause some of speak from things that have happened to us and we don't want them to happen to you.

Do you have a picture of your cage maybe if we could see it one of us could come up with an idea that might work to fix your problem. Most cages don't have it where the wires really run in the cage, so I am not sure what yours looks like.

ya I speak from experince keep tape away from the cage at all costs! You need to look for other ways to fix a hole, maybe caulk or something like that I am not sure. One of mine like to be up in the air too (the temps were good).

I know this is off topic, but is that the only hidespot you offer?

no and I don't have the cage set-up like that anymore.