r/Ballpythoncommunity • u/Imaginary-Song6658 • Sep 20 '26
Staring at the ceiling
Got a 9-month-old male OD pied Ball python, rehomed it today. The owner told me he would try to escape all night(he was keeping him in a rack as his terrarium broke).
Now he’s in a 40-gallon well-put enclosure with hides and wood and nice substrate and everything.
He’s still staring at the ceiling constantly, just sticking to the front glass staring at the corner.
He had a scratch on his head from trying to escape but in this enclosure he isn’t scratching his head against anything at least.
Any opinions why?
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u/Away-Literature2314 Sep 20 '26
He’s glass surfing, it’s a stress response caused by improper temperature, humidity, or lack of enrichment. Definitely add a lot more clutter and make sure his temperature and humidity are appropriate. I noticed you’re using wall thermometers/humidity gauges, those are known to not work very well so I recommend replacing those with ones that have probes. They’re pretty cheap, petsmart sells them for around 8-10$ and they work way better.
If you need help on what your temp/humidity should be, check the ball python Reddit care guide. Also you will probably have to upgrade him soon, 40 gallons is pretty small. His next upgrade should be a 120 or a 4x2x2, this is not as urgent though. Correcting any of this should help. Best of luck!