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Do you dig up your snake ??

Droptines

Droptines

New member
Every now and then my snake "disappears" for some extended alone time.
She has a lot of tunnels and even a few chamber like pockets that she hides in.
She has a few above the substrate hides,(rock hide,rock cave),which she uses a lot,(rock hide mostly),but sometimes she is under the cypress mulch..now with this stuff,,you can't see her,,and shes good size(32"-34").
Sometimes I'll get lucky and find her under her water dish,,but shes getting too big to fit under it...
My question is,,should I disturb her "under substrate world",,or just wait till she shows her self.I don't like having to find her when shes due to eat.I'll have to move plants, logs,rocks,etc.just to find her..
 
I think in that situation I wouldn't necessarily disturb the snake. She's getting towards adult size, so you could maybe wait 'til she's actively roaming the viv to feed her for a couple of months. Monitor her weight to make sure the new regime suits her, and if it doesn't, go back to digging her out?
 
How much room does she have in her hides that she can fit in?

She may be "tunneling" to feel safe.

are there any constant noised around (TV, radio, etc.)?

Is this during the day, at night, all the time?

as for the "should I dig her up for feeding" part, I think you'll be just fine to do so. It may startle her a bit the first few times but other than that I think you'll be ok.
 
Who is the one in the "cage?" LOL. She's a snake, you want her to feed her, you want to hold, you want to clean the tank....Pick her up! Dig through the substrate, move it all around, it won't matter. The tunnels are easily made again and they seem to like that "exploring" anyhow.

Almost all of my snake love to dig through the substrate, it doesn't matter whether it is a boa or a corn. The only one who doesn't do it is the ball python, but he is so lazy that I don't think he can be bothered with any activity that goes beyond feeding time.

You want to stay on a feeding schedule, don't worry about the whole tunnel thing, they will make them again as they do their natural exploration. However, when you do, make sure you get her attention before just snatching her or randomly sliding your hand through the substrate. With mine, I ususally slowly move some of the excess substrate around trying to find where the snake is. This usually is enough for them to pop up their heads to see what's going on. Then read their body language and pick up snake accordingly.

My blood python loves that time because she likes to try "ambush" me, but all the other snakes are fine with it.

But you can't let the snake call the shots. You love and respect them, but you are responsible for their care, so it takes you working with them whether they are hiding or not. If it is too much of a hassle to move stuff around in the viv, then maybe the viv is too complicated.
 
I'm guilty of digging Nagini up just to play with her, but since she's not a squirmy hatchling or little juvi any more I feel comfortable doing that.
When it comes to my hatchling I try not to disturb him only because he's so flighty right now and I'm still trying to let him get used to the big monster I am. Don't get me wrong though I still dig his ass out to feed him though :rofl:
 
I guess I should have mentioned that this has only happened twice before,,first time I dug her up,and fed her..The second time I let her show up on her own.She went an extra 5 days from her normal feeding day.
I remember how pissed she seemed when I dug her up that time,but I think I'll feed her tomorrow :grabbit:
 
Yeah. I usually have to dig him up, or at least pick up his hide and scoop him out of it.
He's very calm when he's being handled, and doesn't seem to be stressed at all. I think he just really likes burrowing.
 
Yep, we get Cheerio out of wherever she is when we want to. She is quite docile and does not seem to be stressed by it at all. She always tunnels when the substrate is changed or cleaned, sometimes we "fluff" it as it gets flattened by her wanderings. She is quite large so she has a hard time hiding completely. We always make sure to touch her gently or stroke her first, kinda like "hello snakey, I'm going to pick you up now".
 
jacks always under the substrate sometimes he's got his head sticking out and sometimes hes completely gone, so i just find his head to let him know im looking for him and he tends to come out if not then i pick him up. But i allow him to watch me as i do so, and the others have paper so i just lift the paper up to find them
 
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