New enclosure questions

[Overkill]

I'll soon be rebuilding my snake enclosures, and on my burm enclosure I'm planning to make a foam/hydrolic cement natural looking background for the back and one side wall. As part of that, I'm thinking of adding a cave to serve as his hide. One side of the cave will sit flush with the sliding door, so I can get him out if needed, but with it closed he should feel very secure. My question is if I should build the cave into the warm or cool side of the Enclosure? If it's on the cool side, I'll build it so the water tub can sit on top, and honestly that would be my preference, but from everything I've ever heard about our ball pythons, they prefer it on the warm side. If the hide should be on the warm side, I'll set it up as a basking spot on top.

[StevenL]

Like I said, I'm not a builder but your cage plans sound great.

Myself I use no hides with my Burmese Python. Not now and not way back when. I'm making no reccomendation on to use hides or not use hides, just stating what I do and the positive effects I have seen not using them. Biggest effect with my current Burm and the one from many years ago is their curiosity quickly over comes any fear they may have. They learn quite fast that the big world they are looking at through the glass of their cage is not to be feared but to be explored. One of my ball pythons doesn't have a hide and the other two seem to enjoy laying on the top of theirs so I leave it in for them. My Burm and BP's feed like machines so I don't think their stress levels are enough to give them upset stomachs. LOL. The only thing I think that stresses my snakes is if I don't get them out each day. The only time I don't handle my snakes is 24 hours after feeding them.

Good luck on your build. Sounds great and if it were me and I was incorporating a hide, I would build it on the warm side but that is just me.

[Overkill]

That's a good point. They aren't timid like bps. Maybe I'll just do a big ledge he can use to bask on or sort of hide under. I assumed most people didn't use hides due to not being able to easily buy or build one big enough, or wanting the snake on display at all times. But they don't really hide much in the wild either. More just make use of their camoflauge.

[David VB]

I also don't give my burm a hide, only a shelf on the warm side, which he uses most of the time. My retic has a shelf too, but under it is a log which she moved a bit so she can hide behind that :p