1st BP

For sure, Ill go try and return it real quick, Hopefully they will take it back.

They wouldnt take it back, so I re-velcroed(spelling?) the temp/humidity gauge right onto the plastic where the heat pad is and slid the back of the hide against it, ill take a pic tomorrow but its reading currently at 87 on the basking spot, with 80% humidity (He had a little bit of a wheeze when I got him and I saw no bubbles in hit mouth so I up'ed the humidity ( hope this was the right thing to do ), If I see no improvement in 2 days to the vet my new found friend goes. I would take him tomorrow but I have a VA appointment I cant miss. I fed him today, He devoured a rat pup, then crawled into my lap and fell asleep, I dont know if thats normal but I put him back in the tub and he went into the hide for about a hour then was out and about crusing around the tub. I figured I shouldnt handle him till about 24 hours after eating, Is my research/common sense correct?

You're on the right track. For a three foot ball though you could give him a larger meal. Unless I'm just mistaking my version of pup for yours. I've got 3 foot yearlings on rats that have been weaned for a couple of weeks. The rats are somewhere around 6-8 inches nose to tip of tail. A pup to me is a crawler eyes still closed on mothers milk. It does still depend though on your animals girth. I usually feed the same size rat for how big around at the largest point the snake is. If the snake has a bit of a wheeze watch it carefully for any signs of it getting worse. You could try bumping up the heat maybe two degrees at most as well. Some snakes have a natural whistle in their nose when they are expelling a hard breath of air. Also a stuck nose shed could cause a whistle. A wheeze is more constant and consistent. It will be there with every breath. Hope this helps.

Thanks so much for the wheeze thing, I misted the heck out of the bin to bump the humidity and the temp of the basking point is 2 hot(97), what do I do? Hes not moving off of it, I take him off he goes back? Hes hot side hide is over the heat pad and he is laying on the out side of the hide,

It should normally be 92.f when I see a suspect RI I bump it to 94.f. There is a variable depending on each set up and equipment of a degree or 5 so you are going to have to get a thermometer that is really accurate and play around with it. Try placing the probe on the substrate and see what temps he's feeling. There's no exact way to tell unless you are using really accurate thermoms and thermos. I didn't read through some of this thread so maybe I'm just stating what's already been said. I wouldn't go as high as 97 like I said you're aiming for like 94-95 but there is that unknown variable.