New owner, slightly worried.

[Kleeborkk]

Hello! I just got a ball python 2 days ago and I am having some worries. This is the first snake I have ever had so I'm still very new to taking care of it.
The snake is about 2-3 months old from what I was told, its a male about 1.5 feet long. I fed it today and it took the food lying in the tank after about 3 mins of looking at it, and ate it quite quickly.

So here's why I'm worried. The snake seems to be having a problem shedding, it looks like the bottom has shed but the top is having a lot of trouble, it looks like its coming off in patches randomly, also, his face is half shed with some lingering around his eye. His skin is also very wrinkly when he balls up, I read this may be due to dehydration but I don't want to jump to conclusions, as a note, I have seen him drink a few times. I have read on here that I should help remove bad shedding but I do not want to jump the gun. His eyes are not milky at all.

The second worry is his hide, I bought him one of the repti-shelters from zoomed and he seems to hate it, I also did what another post said to do, sort made a makeshift one from a plastic bowl and he never went in that either (I put them over the heat mat), it seems like no matter where I put it, he always stays in this weird scuba diver head that a friend gave me, over the heat mat or not he will spend 90%+ of his time in that. I know they get quite stressed when they dont have a tight space to curl up in and this thing is most certainly not that. Normally his head is in it and the rest of his body is outside, pressed against the glass.

Next there is humidity, I have no way to gauge humidity at the moment but I will be getting a digital tomorrow, as of now, I am using a damp towel on the hot end and spraying water (not alot, but enough to keep it evaporating) Im not sure how sufficient this is and I'm wondering if there are any reliable humidifiers out there for a reasonable price.

Lastly is the temps, when i have the headlamp on it gets to about 85-93 on the lamp end, however I have to turn it off at night due to how bright it is, so the tank drops to about 74-80, is this a problem? Again, will be looking to get a better thermostat tomorrow to get a better reading of this, currently using a not so reliable one.

Thank you for reading this wall of text, I know some of this may seem dumb but I just want to make sure the snake is healthy.

[DVirginiana]

Sounds like your humidity is probably too low. If you can get some sphagnum moss, or even wet paper towels and put them in his hide that should be enough to get the shed off. If not, you can wet a paper towel and let him crawl through it while holding him and applying just a little pressure. Those usually work to get patches of shed off.
I'd try the humid hide idea first though since he's new and you don't want to stress him too much right off the bat.

[AFranzius]

To keep the night temps up in my tanks, I use red bulbs at night. It was worth the extra money for sure. Paying for the vet bills if your snake gets an RI (respiratory infection) is much more expensive not to mention heart breaking!

[Kleeborkk]

If I put a wet paper towel in his weird hide, will he get cold? I suppose i would have to move the substrate and place the paper towel directly on the or close to the heat mat to keep it warm through tonight. Or do you mean more along the lines of balling it up and putting it off to the side of the hide?

Is a red bulb also sufficient to use in the day time, so long as I have light coming in for him? I heard using a natural cycle light is ok so long as its consistent.

Thank you both for the help I appreciate it greatly.

[DVirginiana]

BPs don't need any specific kind of light (like UVB or anything) so red light during the day won't hurt. It won't bother him at night either; they can't see red light. As long as his hot spot stays around 90 and ambient temp is around 80 you don't need to worry about a wet paper towel getting cold. Or if you have another hide, you could put it in there (you'll want to have two hides, one on the hot side one on the cool side) First priority is getting the temps right, then making sure the humidity stays 50-60% (can go a little higher around shed time).

[Kleeborkk]

Ok, I'm going to get a red bulb today (any brand suggestions?), then Ill work on getting humidity up... The paper towels seemed to help a little bit, he looks more ready to shed but still too dry, should I do the soaking method?

[Kleeborkk]

I did the wet paper towel and slight pressure like you suggested and it got about 80% of the shed off of him, the rest is all on his head and about 2 inches from it and his tail, the bottom half (belly) shed on its own, this is all on top. I didn't want to keep going because he seemed super stressed and pissed on me (yellow discharge with a clump of something) and I also didn't want to force any off that didn't come off in the first few runs, plus he was getting cold.

He seemed to not like it so much.

[AFranzius]

When my ball python had dry skin I was instructed to double check the humidity in my enclosure and to soak him in warm water every few days. Make sure you take the temp of the water so its not too cold/hot.
I also switched my substrate from aspen to peat moss. I like the more natural substrate and it holds water nicely. I get it from home depot and its VERY affordable. Do you have a UTH or just lamps at the moment??
Lamps do tend to dry out the enclosure but there are ways to make it work

[SnakeBalls]

When my guy's eyes clear up I've been throwing in a warm moist washcloth. I tried moss but he just pushes it out of the hid anymore, I don't think he likes the smell. I'll leave the washcloth between his 2 hides. Works great if you can get him to figure it out, he should be rubbing his nose on it when he's ready. Definitely wait for the eyes to clear.. he will be much less stressed when you add stuff to his home.

I have echoearth cocohust as my substrate. I boil it every 2 or 3 weeks, depending on when he drops a load. Let it evaporate some and squeeze the excess water out. You will never have to worry about humidity gain, so long as you can control the airflow out of the top of the cage. And you probably wont need to replace it for years.

Here's what I use for bulbs.
Here's what my tank looks like.

Bear in mind, compared to many happy, thriving snakes, my setup is overkill.

You are only as good as your tools.. Laser-thermo and a hygrometer are a must, you can get away with no UTH (Though he will probably appreciate having one) but bare minimum I would get atleast one thermostat.

[Kleeborkk]

Oh wow that's a busy tank, looks really great. So I have a small UTH and a heat lamp right now, should my heat lamp be over the UTH or on the other end? Also, does those bulbs you linked give off light? The tank is in my room (small apartment cant put it anywhere else) and at night I need a bulb that is not too bright so I can sleep, I was looking into getting a ceramic heat emitter. Also, I see your tank is kind of blocked on all sides except for viewing in the front, does that make the snake feel more safe if he cant see out of the sides?