spacesnek:

the-awkward-turt:

spacesnek:

Usually, I use the time to tell if its stress related or not. Since Ball Pythons are nocturnal, they should generally be more active during the night. You should watch for behaviors that indicate stress such as glass surfing. 

They should act curious and relaxed instead of trying to escape in their enclosure! I’m sure there are some other differences as well, but I’m having a brain fart right now and this is all I can come up with haha 

There’s definitely a tangible difference in stress-moving versus exploring-moving but it’s kind of hard to articulate. Exploring will usually be more leisurely and there will be lots of tongue flicking, but stress-related moving will have a kind of anxious desperation to it, like the snake needs something and is trying to find it. That’s the best way I can describe it.

I will also note that glass surfing and excess movement can sometimes happen when a snake is hungry or during mating season for some species, not always because they are stressed. My hoggie is perfectly content going about her business 99% of the time (and she has a very nice bioactive enclosure) but she glass-surfs quite dramatically when it’s feeding day.

Yeah! Sorry, I was pretty general with my reply but this is very true as well.

Thank you so much! Mine are really new to their enclosures, so I am trying to determine if they are just checking things out or if I did something wrong and need to change stuff up. Also I’m about 90% sure that one is going into shed ( thanks snake. thanks. I needed that.)

They are only active at night, and I am seeing flicky tongues. They don’t seem frantic to me, more like they just want to cruise around and climb all the things, including, sometimes, the sides. They don’t stay up there long, though.