Not hiding and breathing more obviously

Hey there. Let me start by saying this site has been the most useful thing ever!!! I am a new reptile owner. I have a 3 year old male(?) bp that we obtained from a previous owner about 1 1/2months ago. He has been doing great, eating nicely. I feed two mice or one rat weekly (we live in a rural area and it can be hard to find rats). The previous owner was feeding live and I am going to try to transition to frozen thawed but didn't want to shake up his world too much at once. I feed him in a separate feeding tank (again this is what the previous owner did). Had some concerns about passing stool but has since had several large stools. I don't handle him often. Maybe a few time a week. Have a 55galon tank that he came with and use an under tank heating pad, above tank red light lamp. Thermometer in the warm end on the cage bottom (over the heating pad) reads 91 F, cold end 71 F. There are 3 hides (one in hot, mid cage and cold end). The humidity runs %48-50. My concerns: two days ago he startled me because I couldn't find him-he had burrowed under the shavings of his cage which he hadn't done the whole 1 1/2 months prior. Then, today I found him curled on a portion of the tank with all the bedding pushed out from under him at the warm end of his cage. He is not hiding. His breathing is just more obvious than I have ever noticed it before...rate seems a little fast (maybe 8-10 in a minute) and deeper more exaggerated. I have to say...maybe he's just sleeping and I 've never watched his breathing while sleeping before because usually he is hiding. No nasal discharge, no sores. Eyes bright. What gives? Why would he be changing his usual behavior/not hiding like usual? What are your thoughts on the breathing? Am I being crazy? Thanks so much for any advice or thoughts :) Love this site!!!!

Your cool side needs to be in the 78-82 range. 71 is much too cool, and because of that you may be seeing the beginning stages of a respiratory infection. If your snake is burrowing near the heat pad then it wants more warmth. If you do not have a thermostat to regulate the temp on your heating pad then your snake is in a dangerous situation. It's burrowing to close to an object that can heat up to over 120 and severely injure your snake. Look into the HYDROFARM THERMOSTAT on Amazon.com. Once you get your temps right and properly regulated then if the symptoms continue or worsen then it's time to see a reptile veterinarian.

Thank you. Yes, I do have a thermostat but I keep playing with it trying to get the temperature regulated-was going too hot! Will continue to adjust it and see if this resolves this new concern. Thank you so much.

I raised the tank off the heating pads slightly but increased the temperature hoping to keep him from burning himself but provide more warmth. He has burrowed under the bedding down along the colder side since my previous post. As a sort of separate aside: I gather that bps generally shed every few months and he hasn't since I got hime...this couldn't be behavior associated with an impending shed could it? From what I've read, the eyes blue and the color looks lighter around that time which is not yet the case with him.