Baby BP likes it hot?

[Violanna]

Hey all. So I’ve had my girl about a week now and I have her enclosure fully set up. She was super happy at first when I just had the UTH and day and night lamp(items I had on hand as she was a surprise present and I keep reptiles often). But the second her thermostat and CHE came in and I got the enclosure to optimal settings 85-88 hot and 75 cool she started losing her mind!! She was trying to escape, she was wandering the enclosure day and night and refused to go in the hides. The humidity also went up to 85% so I removed half the foil on top. Well she was still freaking out until I added the day lamp on top of the UTH and CHE. The day lamp wasn’t on a thermostat so just maintained constant heating. Once the temps on the cool side got up to 80 and hot side 85 she finally settled and went in her hide to nap. At night we switched to the night bulb which is higher wattage and when the hot side got to 90 she moved over to the hide on that side. Also for reference she is a tiny baby only 90g so she is in a 10g tank and on top on an accurite thermometer I check temps with a laser thermometer at least 5x daily.

is this normal? It’s been 8 years since my last BP and he like normal 75/85 temps. I. Just dunno if it’s ok to have temps so high for long term or if there could be a reason for this. Oh and humidity hs dropped back to 70% so far. I’m shooting for 65% before I take steps to maintain it.

[Lord Sorril]

Congrats on your new snake!

Roaming (during the day) is a symptom that the ball python is very hungry, exploring a change to the environment, or is displeased with something and is searching for a way out.

While I see some of my ball pythons sometimes submerge themselves for weeks at a time in their water bowls: too much humidity in the air can be very harmful. If you are struggling to maintain balance...I recommend you make a humid hide and place it in the 80F zone of your enclosure and not even try to regulate humidity in the entire enclosure.

Also, both your UTH and CHE should be controlled by thermostats. The probe to the UTH thermostat can be placed directly on the heat pad on the outside of the enclosure sandwiched between the surfaces and the temperature output calibrated by using a IR Temp Gun on the contact surface inside (for measurement). I always recommend that all heat sources should be regulated by a thermostat, or at the very least a rheostat that is adjusted on a regular daily basis.

[Violanna]

I’m not sure if you didn’t read my whole post or not. But I mentioned that I already do everything you suggested. I’m not new to snakes or reptiles in general. I currently only have a tortoise as well as the BP. And I hand made their enclosure. Everything is on a thermostat except the day lamp, which is rather not use at all. I only added it to heat the substrate and lower the humidity. But as soon as I did she calmed down. Which tells me she felt too cold even though her temps were perfect. Just curious if it’s normal for a young BP to prefer higher than usual temps. Also I didn’t mention but she already ate 3 days ago.

[Matty88]

75 oncold side is to cold, try and maintain an ambient temp of 80-82F on cold side. My ambient temp for my entire enclosure is the same 80-82F with a hot spot of 85-90F. And my humidity is always hovering between 60-70% day and night. My ambient temps at night sometimes dip to 78-79F due to room temps being cooler at night. No issues here ☺️

[nikkubus]

Part of the wandering might have been because it's a brand new environment and she is used to a shoebox tub. A 10g (especially with a light) is probably a really scary "upgrade" to get used to.

Heat wise, I keep the hot spot at 90 year round for hatchlings up to breeding size. Adults, I drop them in winter but it's 90 this time of year.