Sand? Feeding? Humidity? Newbie, help please. :)

Hi. I am a new owner, as of yesterday. The pet store has me set up with a 29 gallon glass tank, 10lbs of sand, a climbing log thing with fake plant vine, a cave, a water dish and a 75 watt white light heating lamp.

We have a pad that sticks onto the glass to keep the tank warmer, but we have the tank on the ground and are afraid to use the pad under the tank with the carpet. We are currently looking for shelving so we can use this.

The temp says it is about 82 degrees in the tank, and I am sure the humidity is rather low. We have a humidifier next to the tank (sort of) and it says our room humidity is 45%. (I do not have a hydrometer...the pet store said I didn't need it, but now I am thinking I probably do).

What I am mostly concerned about is A). the heating in the tank and B). the sand.

I don't want my snake to be cold, is a 75 watt heat lamp sufficient? The cage is near a heat register and that keeps half the tank's glass warm to the touch as well.

The snake was fairly active last night, explored some and got a drink of water, but so far today s/he has not come out of the cave.

From what I have read, pretty much no one uses sand with their ball pythons. The pet store had sand in his cage there, and gave me sand to put in his cage at home. Is this a bad choice, or a personal preference? Please help me understand why it is bad if it is (I really like the look of sand, but if another bedding is necessary that is fine too...just would like to know why:)).

The pet store said to only feed the snake once every two weeks. (S/he is small, just over a foot long) and that they just fed it last monday. They also said they think the snake is starting a shed cycle. I notice some dry patches on it, but no blue/hazy eyes.

Okay...sooooo....experienced people, advice? Suggestions?

I really did search before I posted, so I am truly sorry if this is another annoying newbie post!

Hi! Welcome to the site and congrats on your new addition!

First, I'd recommend you read the caresheet here. It will answer a lot of your questions, including ones you don't even realize you have yet! ;)
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules/...warticle&id=59

To answer your specific questions...

Heating: everyone will have slightly different requirements, depending on the temperatures in their home. As long as you maintain the proper temps and humidity, how you get there is less important. You will probably find that it is hard to maintain in a 29g tank. Closing off most of the screen top with several layers of aluminum foil taped down (from the outside, don't put tape in the tank) will help. Insulating 3 sides of the tank will help also, both in keeping the tank warm enough, and also it gives the snake more of a feeling of security. Make sure you are measuring your temps and humidity with a good digital thermometer/hygrometer. The stick-on dial things they probably sold you at the pet store are known to be inaccurate. Also, your heating devices MUST be controlled, preferably with a thermostat, but a rheostat (dimmer) can work if your home stays at a pretty constant temperature and you check it frequently.

Sand: sand is specifically recommended against for some species of lizards, because they can eat little bits of it and become impacted. I'm not sure you'd have that issue with a ball python, although perhaps some would get ingested with his food. However, it WILL become a cleaning nightmare! BPs pee a surprising amount, and I just can't imagine how you'd be able to keep a sand substrate clean. I'd think that every time your snake pees, it will go straight to the bottom since the sand won't absorb it at all, and the entire bottom layer of sand will then be wet and dirty. YUCK!!

I personally prefer using newspaper. It doesn't look the best, but BPs don't make great display snakes anyway since they prefer to hide most of the time. Newspaper is cheap, and anytime it gets soiled at all, you just take it all out and replace it with clean fresh sheets.

Some options for "prettier" substrate are aspen and cypress mulch. Both of these will absorb the pee reasonably well, so you can spot-clean the wet spots as necessary, and periodically do a complete change.

Sand=bad, heatlamp=bad.... Under thank heater hooked up with a thermostat is the safest and easiest way to control temp in tank..... As far as animal staying in hide that is normal... hot spot for my bp is about 92 degrees cool side about 80 that is Ideal in my oppenion. Getting the tank off the ground will help with the heat, heat lamp will dry out enclosure and can cause burns. If you cannot find a good thermostat you can make one out of a dimmer switch and a coulple of extension cords.... as far as substrate (bedding) I like shredded paper, regular paper or even news papaer is good and cheap both, there are some more attractive beddings available at the pet shop (reptibark ect...) Hope this helps I had the same issues, a pet shop employee is usually under educated or completly clueless, and thier job is to sell you stuff..... After learning that and doing some research I found that this web site can save you some major $.....