Just some questions..New BP owner

Hey guys,

I'm a new ball python owner and I just had a couple of questions mainly about tank setup, heat, humidity ect..

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Here is a pic of the tank. The light is a 75 watt. I have an uth on the same side as the light (left side). My BP went through a bad shed a couple days ago and I believe it was due to the lack of humidity..even though he has a humid container ( right side blue lid filled with damp sphagnum moss. He also crawls under the container for his cool hide.) His water dish is in the middle but he had never soaked in it. Last night I covered the lid with foil and duct tape and cut out two rectangles for ventilation. It did raise the humidity to about 50-51 but it dropped the temperature. I plan on getting a probe thermometer tomorrow because I have been hearing that it's the uth temperature that is the most important. I guess my questions are is a light even necessary if the uth is providing the correct amount of heat? The guy I bought the snake from said he doesn't even use a light in the summer but uses one plus the uth heater during winter. I have a temp and humid gauge that I bought at Petco ( don't know how accurate they are) and it's saying the temp is about 75 on the hot side. I'm new to this whole thing and just want a good environment for my BP so I am open to suggestions and comments. Oh and it is a 20 gallon tank I believe. Thanks!

go to walmart and get an accurite thermometer.
UTH is the way to go, the light is killing your humidity.
Also if you move the water dish a little more to the left, the heat lamp will up the humidity a little too.

Congrats on getting your first bp! Do you have any pictures of him to share?

Well, it looks like you're off to a good start. I do have a few suggestions...
Instead of covering screen tops with foil I find that placing a damp dish towel over 3/4 of the screen does wonders for humidity. Are you misting the cage?
No, a light is not necessary if the UTH keeps the the hot side warm enough (lights also tend to suck up humidity, which may be part of your problem). Definitely get a digital thermometer with a probe; I've had those circular ones be off by 20 degrees. Right now the thermometer stuck to the side of the cage is reading the ambient temperature, which is fine at 75. For the hot side, you want to aim to get the surface temperature under the substrate at 88-90 so that he can digest and stay warm but not get burned. A digital thermometer with a probe placed under the substrate directly above the UTH will give you this reading. I definitely recommend putting some sort of controller (preferably a thermostat) on the UTH because they tend to fluctuate in temperature.

Good luck with him! If you have any other questions, we're here to help. :)

What are you using for substrate? I always recommend putting new snakes on paper towels because if they happen to have mites you can see them a lot easier on paper towels. Also, clean up is easier and you can monitor bowl movements to make sure they are normal for a new snake and you don't need to worry about them ingesting any substrate if you plan to feed in the tank (have it be f/t or live).

Congrats on the new addition!

http://i56.tinypic.com/95tzbp.png

Here is a pic of him :)
Thanks for all the tips.

I'm just worried that if I turn the lamp off the ambient temp might drop and cause the cage to get cold. I keep my room pretty warm so that might not be a problem. I'm not sure. I have tried the damp towel and it worked fairly well but it would fluctuate the humidity when it dried up. The duct tape/foil kind of keep its more constant. As for the substrate I'm using it's called carefesh natural. I also laid about two rows of paper towels under the substrate so he wouldn't burn himself on the glass where the uth is placed. I checked right now and the humidity on the cool side is 48-49 and the ambient temp is staying at around 74-75 so maybe I won't use the light in the day. Would you suggest I maybe turn it on at night since temps drop a little?
I also feed thawed out hoppers in a separate container.

Carefresh is a great substrate for rodents, it stays dry and eliminates a lot of odors; but for a snake it's not ideal because it dries out the air making humidity more difficult to maintain then it should be. I'd recommend something like coconut fiber or "eco earth" I think it's called at your local petco; not that you need to though, but if you stick with the carefresh, take off a good 2-3 inches! Haha you have that thing packed so high even large rats would be going "Wtf man we're trying to live here!" lol.

Your ambient temperature is a little low, but nothing dangerous; I'm surprised it stays that low with an UTH on though, perhaps that's another side effect of using carefresh stacked that high though. Using lamps dries out the air as well, but you gotta do what you gotta do lol, but try what I said above and maybe you won't need it to keep the temps up. The paper towels under the substrate isn't really needed, and probably does more harm then good really (carefresh keeps a lot of nasty things from growing out of control, paper towels do not), and you don't need to worry about burns if you use a thermostat or a dimmer switch + probe thermometer (thermostat is the better/more expensive route, but with only one snake the dimmer switch + probe is what I use and it's perfectly fine).

Oh wow.. uh yeah.. I don't why I piled it that high haha! My bad. I took a lot of it out and the humidity raised quiet a bit. It's around 68 now. I am going to go buy thermometer and probe and some eco earth tomorrow. What are the recommended temps for humidity, ambient and the uth? Also can I use newspaper instead or paper towels under the substrate so he doesn't have to touch the hot glass that the uth is attached to?

Okay a few things here

1. As stated, reduce the amount of bedding to just a thin layer. In fact I would just get rid of it completely and use paper towels, newspaper, or aspen. If you continue to have humidity problems get a thin layer of eco earth.

Humidity should be 50-60% and around 70% during shed cycle.

2. What is the temperature in your room?? It is normally safe to say that the temp in your room will be identical to the ambient cool side temp in the aquarium. The heat lamp should be raising it higher so if your room is 75, then your temperature gauge is off by however many degrees the heat lamp has made the temperature increase. as mentioned, getting an accurite digital thermometer will help you monitor temps better than those cheapo dials.

You want to aim for 78-82 on cool side ambient and 90-92 from the undertank heater. THe probe from the accurite will be measuring the temp on top of the glass in the center of the UTH, and you should have a thermostat plugged into the UTH and the probe on the UTH OUTSIDE of the tank.

3. your snake will not get burnt against the glass by an UTH if you are using a thermostat. If you aren't using a thermostat, you need one right away. Your snake even then most likely will overheat before it burns.
You said you are worried about him touching the hot glass ... this is not a good sign and the glass should not feel hot to the touch, it should feel barely warm to our touch.

The uth is a zoo med I think and it just sticks on and plugs into the wall. It didn't come with a thermostat, control switch or anything like that.

No, you are supposed to plug it into a thermostat. not plug it into the wall. Get one asap. They get very hot without one.