New BP mommy with questions. HELP

[WilliamSnakespeare13]

Ok so I finally figured out how to post. I think.
Ive had my BP for a couple months now. But there’s still a lot of questions I have.
To begin, my ball Python is about a year and a half. He’s a Pastel Banana BP. Doesn’t have a problem eating really, he always goes for the mouse (I feed him frozen hoppers), he misses when he strikes a lot. But eventually gets it. But he does try to attack me during or after he’s fed. Like he’ll snap at me when I walk by the tank, I’ve read that it’s because he’s in his “feeding frenzy” which I do believe because when being handled he’s never tried to strike me. It does just get frustrating though when he misses the mouse on the Tongs and the mouse falls right by his face but he still tries to strike at me instead. So I guess my first question is if that’s normal???
Second, I live in a basement, so humidity is basically nonexistent. I have a humidifier that I leave between my bed and his tank and it’ll raise humidity but the moment I shut it off Bc his tank shows a good humidity level, the levels drop back down drastically. Anyone have advice on how I can keep the levels up in his tank? It’s a square shaped 20 gallon. Is moss ok? Also I’ve tried misting spray. Doesn’t help enough.
And my last question, (sorry for the rant), is that I used to have a red heating bulb. I heard those aren’t the best Bc the lighting. Well it broke anyway and it was late and the only place open had a ceramic heating bulb. It keeps good temp and there’s no light but I just wanted to make sure those are ok for BPs???

If you’ve read this whole thing, thank you. Lol and any suggestions will be greatly appreciated

[Toad37]

Missing the mouse and striking you is normal he's just in feed mode still just don't handle for up to 24 hours after feeding. He's a year and a half and he's eating hoppers? He might need a bigger rodent size than that. As far as humidity I've never had any luck whatsoever with glass and I've never used a CHE so I'll let someone else chime in on that. And btw, welcome!

[WilliamSnakespeare13]

Thanks!

Also, I forgot to mention. I haven’t noticed him using the bathroom. Idk if it just blends with his substrate? Or if he’s just not going. But he’s still eating and shedding fine. for substrate I’ve been using coconut husk from the brand “Kritters Crumble”

[Toad37]

When is the last time you noticed he defecated or passed urate?

[Bogertophis]

Hoppers are roughly the size that hatchling BPs can & do eat, so your BP is likely under-fed* & hungry. Don't take his striking thru the glass personally...snakes mostly do NOT recognize us visually, they need scent & touch...so when he does that, he's just pumped up for food & going instinctively after the motion, hoping it's more preyheading his way. (*pics would help us assess that)

BPs have heat-sensing pits all around their face for a good reason: they see motion, but then they AIM for the warmth, & what most here find helpful is (after thawing in cool water) warm the rodent using either by dipping (especially the head) in very hot water briefly, or using a blow-dryer (again on the head mostly, so the snake will aim for that), or by doing both. When a snake misses the prey, they are more attracted to our warm & moving hand (holding tongs) than to the rodent laying there...this is NORMAL. It's up to us to communicate in ways so that the snake gets it right: by making the prey very warm (& offering promptly, before it cools off) this should solvethe problem.

Moss is great! I like using sphagnum moss, soaked & then drain off the water so it's thoroughly damp. You can put it in an area of the cage or use it in a "humid hide".Misting usually doesn't work well to really raise the humidity (other than briefly)...you'll want to use a substrate that does. (what substrate are youusing?)

Many here swear that glass tanks don't work for BPs, but they do IF you make a few modifications: assuming you have a screen top? you need to cover most of the screen that the air flows thru...that's why the tank dries out (compared to the plastic bins & custom PVC cages that "hold humidity well", just keep in mind that the only reason they do so is that the air-flow is greatly reduced. In some cages, they don't even have vents, only the tiny bit of air-flow around the door allows for air exchange.

With a screen top on a tank, people just cover most of it with anything that is safe near heat fixtures (like your CHE, that's ceramic heat emitter) and impervious to air-flow...such as tin foil or plastic, even a sheet of plexi cut to fit. No matter what heat devices you use, you need to connect them to a thermostat- especially for BPs, as they can be clueless until seriously burned by intentional proximity to the heat. BTW, glass doesn't hold in the heat all that well, especially & depending on your room temperature, but you can insulate the glass with various things (back, sides, bottom, & even the lower part of the front). This not only helps hold in the warmth needed, but also allows more privacy for the BP.
(insulate with cut-to-fit foam-core poster-board, styro-foam, corrugated cardboard, sheet cork, self-stick carpet tiles, 1/8th" plywood, etc...many inexpensive things work just fine to keep in the warmth & are easily installed on the outside of the glass)

[WilliamSnakespeare13]

Probably Over a month

[Toad37]

Probably Over a month

As bogertophis said, he's probably underfed and just reserving any thing he can. BPs are very resilient creatures. This can be fixed by offering the right prey size. A year old I would be offering rat weanlings or pups but I can't tell you what to feed since I don't know how big your snake is. And if he's of Coco husk he's probably peed you just haven't seen it.

[Bogertophis]

Probably Over a month

When you feed younger rodents, they are more digestible than older ones that have more hair & larger bones...therefore, it's not uncommon for snakes to eat a number of meals before needing to defecate. Snakes bodies are very efficient... But also, a BP that's a year & a half old should be eating larger rodents long before now, but cannot advise exact size without seeing size of your snake.

[WilliamSnakespeare13]

Yeah I wanted to upload photos but I haven’t figured out how to do that through my phone. I just figured out how to post Also, I’ve had a snake before but it was a king snake. His poop was very liquid like. Idk if pythons are different so I’m looking for the wrong thing. Lol.
When I got my BP they said they just feed him one mouse (hopper) a week. So I thought I was doing the right thing. I’ll try and change over to something larger. One side of his tank does have styrofoam background that it came with and I also place a small towel for now on one half of the tank and it also is over half the screen cover.

[Toad37]

The easiest way to post pictures is to download the taptalk app. It's a free app that will let you post pictures.