First 24 hours with my new ball python?

[rustypolished]

Hi there! I'm Meg and this marks my very first ever post on these forums, as well as my very first snake ever A month and a half old normal male ball python I got from a local breeder here in Toledo.

I've been researching BPs pretty tirelessly before I actually went out and made my purchase, so I'm fairly sure I have most everything set, but still, like with anything new, I'm a bit stressed out to make sure I've got everything perfect - The slightest little movement and I've been flying to google to look up whether or not he's acting normally (;_; I feel like one of those crazy soccer moms threatening to call the doctor every time her kid so much as yawns). But anyway - I figured I'd come here for some 1 on 1 parenting advice.

The tank is a 20 gallon long, substrate is a layer of "repti-bark" - heating is about 87-88 degrees on the warm end under a 75watt heating bulb and the "cool" end is about 78-80 with a UTH. Ambient air temperature seems to be about 80. Humidity hangs around 55% but I've had some trouble getting it to stay consistent, something I'd definitely like to fix. Also - is there such thing as a water dish that's too large? The dish I have in the tank, I picked because it was the heaviest and least likely to suffer a curious snake flipping it over - but it's very large. He could easily soak in it if he wanted to - but not very deep at all. I've been watching videos and looking and photos of BP tanks and they all seem to have smaller water dishes - Is there a reason for this and should I swap out my large dish for a smaller one?

I'm having trouble reading his body language - He's captive born from a breeder. He's actually been reluctant to ball up and surprisingly active since I placed him in his tank this morning. I tried not to hold or interact with him at all, but even when I lifted him from the little container the breeder gave him to me in, he tensed at my hands at first but then after about 10 second started flicking his tongue and exploring my hands at the air before I set him in. Once in the tank he immediately set off on exploring. Does that sound normal? He honestly seems more curious about me than afraid - even as I type this, his peaking up over his hide watching me intently, not even flinching as I stand to walk away or reach toward the glass.

One slight concern I have, though, is the fact that his "default" position, now that he's stopped exploring and has hunkered down partially in his hide, seems to be the "S" strike position, even as I just walk by from a distance and there's nothing around moving near his cage, he seems to keep a second of his upper body coiled into an "S". I've seen pictures of balls who seem to do this sort of pose a lot without any sign of aggression, so I've mostly written if off, but for a baby in a new enviornment, I didn't know if that was more a sign of stress?

His breeder included a card with all his feed dates - He's been taking f/t hoppers, and his last meal was on the 8th, which means he's about due to be fed, but I've read that it's best to let the snake de-stress in a new environment before handling them at all, so I didn't know if I should attempt to feed him or not. He's been flicking his tongue as he explores the cage, a behavior I've read can indicate hunger - but I've also read it might just be him trying to scope out the new area. X__X I most certainly don't want to starve out my new baby, but I also don't want to cause him any undue stress. Advice?

Other than those two major points, I think I'm fairly calm. I've seen him yawn twice, which struck me as a little odd, but both yawns were hours apart and he's shown no other signs of any potential repertory infection (;_; thankfully, it really freaked me out at first). My family has been kind of violently opposed (not really /violently/ but strongly voicing) their opposition to my owning a snake (because they're 'gross') so I really want to do the best I possibly can to show them that BPs can be amazing, healthy, interesting pets - which would be far more gracefully done, I'd imagine, if I didn't make any rookie mistakes right off the bat.

Thanks so much for reading all of this!
- Meg