Hi everybody! I'm new to Ball Pythons and to this forum. Just yesterday I bought a Black Eyed Leucistic BP from pythonregius.com. I named her "Ghost". She is a beautiful snake! I just wanted some feedback on some things I was curious about. After dropping $1400 on her I want to make sure I'm doing everything right.

For starters, when she was delivered to me yesterday she was very cold when I took her out of the baggie she came in. The night she was shipped to me it got pretty cold, and no heat packets were packed with her. I instantly put her in the basking spot of her enclosure where she layed for a good half hour before moving. She explored a little bit, then found a nice high place in the tank to hang out. One thing I noticed is that she seems to be taking semi-deep breaths. She isn't wheezing or yawning indicating a respiratory infection. Just what seems to be deep panicked breaths to me. So I want to make sure that is not something I should worry about.

as for the past day she has been chilling in her cave with the heat pad, and hasnt moved much. I've noticed she seems to throw a hissy fit (literally) when I put my hand in the tank. She has struck at me a couple times so far. even when I'm observing her from outside the tank she strikes. But if I'm not mistaken it may be just because she is getting used to her new home. I'm trying to give her some space to acclimate

As for her setup, I've got her in a 40 breeder with a deep layers of coco husk mixed with eco earth soil. She has plenty of vines and plants. As for lighting I have a 75w red bulb. her heating seems to be where it needs to be, but I was worried about how deep of water I should have for her. What I did is I glued a peice of glass to modify the tank to have 1/4 of it have water in it. It has a waterfall filter and a fogger to keep up humidity and water quality. I was just wondering if 3 inches would be too deep for a ball python. Could I go deeper if I wanted? I just dont want her to drown.

Just let me know if any of this throws up red flags with you guys so that I can make the proper adjustments to her needs. Thanks!!

-Joe