Some conflicting advice...

I'd probably be in your same boat if I was more of a BP veteran. I'm really tempted to use the newspaper. But I'm also tempted to build Vic a post-nuclear apocalyptic themed terrarium & I don't know how it well would fare... It's probably best I learn what it is to clean a tank before I switch to newspaper. It's probably inevitable with the pros, 'eh?

Hey, it's perfectly understandable - your first ball python, you want to make him a palace! Just don't make it too palatial, remember that smaller is better. Don't overwhelm him with too large an enclosure and you should be fine. We can help you "tweak" the rest! :D

Just remember with anything you put in your snake's home you will at some point be chipping a big dried urate off it so make your life easier and pick things easy to clean or soak. Dried urate is akin to portland cement by the way LOL.

Also nothing the snake can get into but you can't easily get it out of if the silly thing gets wedged in there.

As far as the nipping or striking it is something that all snakes can and will do. Some do it very rarely, some do it a lot more often and some just really never bother. You just don't know what they will do but eventually you learn your snake's unique cues and you'll react appropriate to that specific situation.

We have a snake here that while always hissy has never struck out. The other night he made a very credible attempt to bite my husband and he was not fooling about. He's in blue (shed cycle), it's the height of his first breeding season and I'm sure he was just NOT in the mood to have a big human hand in his enclosure giving him fresh water. No biggie really, just part of owning these fascinating creatures.

Develop handling habits and eventually your snake will come to know that you aren't going to eat it and it can't eat you. They tend to be most jumpy as babies when they are just as much prey as predator in the wild. Most calm down as they mature, some don't. We have 15 snakes of various sizes and species (plus 1 we adopted out), I've been bitten once. Most times they will hiss or jab out but it's really not a serious attempt to bite...just a "hiss off" attitude. :)

It is great advice, to keep the enclosure simple and easy to clean, especially with a new snake who could possibly have mites.. I would actually recommend newspaper as a substrate.. it is so easy to clean, and also easy to monitor fecal/urate matter and quantity, to see how things are going in that department.