New Owners here!

[mrSocks]

Hi my Wife and I picked up our first snake this week, he is a 10 year old ball python, about 4 foot long and roughly 2700 grams. COnsidering it was our first snake we wanted one that was fairly tamed and calm. My wife has owned many reptiles before and has a full understanding of them. But when we went and picked him up he came up to his tank and was all curious and sniffing us and everything. He has been home fore almost a week now and is very skittish and lethargic. Hopefully he will get over it soo, but when we got him he hadnt been cared for too good, his tank only had a heat pad, water bowl, and a rock. She also has a heat rock in there! . He ate last Friday and his shed was not very complete(whenever his last cycle was). But now we have his tank fairly nicely set up, 2 thermometer one on the hot side and one on the cold, a hygrometer, 2 hides one on each side, a msive water bowl, some rocks out of the garden that I disinfected. I am a litle concered on the heating aspect and im not sure if my setup is adequate. But the tank is a 30 gallon bredder, i have a 150 watt infrared heat bulb on the hot side with a dimmer to regulate the heat, a UTH, and the basking temp is around 88-92 and the cold side i just have a regular 60 watt incandesent light bulb from walmart haha but it holds out around 80-84 with an assumed ambient temp of arounf 85. Does this sound adequate set up for him? Oh I am using Reptibark for substrate, and im noticing a problem with humidity, I cant keep it up but im assuming its from the lights. I will post pics later cause my Adobe is acting up. Hope to get some input, Thanks !

[The Serpent Merchant]

Is the UTH being regulated by a thermostat? Without a thermostat UTH's can get hot enough to kill a snake.

Otherwise as long as the hot side is around 90 and the cool side is around 80 you should be fine. (no part of the cage should ever get below 75 or above 95 degrees)

Do the thermometers that are in your cage have probes?

[PorcelainxDoll]

Sounds good. Just make sure you have a thermostat to regulate the heat pad. It is not optional to not have one
Other then that thing sound good.

Are you using digital thermometers?

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk 2

[cinnamonpython]

your set up sowens perfect older ball pythons tend to be a little less active

[mrSocks]

Yea one of the thermometers has a probe, I put it on the hot side for the sake of not burning him,the other one i got a petco but i sets to do the trick, i check it with a digital one occasionally if i feel the need to.And for the UTH I have enough substrate on it to not burn him, almost 2 inches haha. But I am a little scared of handeling him, like i can stroke him and rub him but he kinda pulls away and goes into a S, not a ball or anyuthing. but Im thinking of giving him more time to adjust before we start to get him out of his cage. I think since its our first snake im terrified of getting bite and I dont want to stress him out to a degree.

[The Serpent Merchant]

A thermostat is not optional... ball pythons will dig down into their substrate from time to time. a UTH can and will get to 130+ degrees (it only takes 108 degrees to fry a BP's brain) If you are using that much substrate then your UTH isn't doing anything at all They are only effective when the substrate layer is 1/2" thick or less.

You really only have 2 options:

1. unplug the UTH and let the heat lamp do all the work

2. Get a good thermostat to regulate the UTH and thin out the substrate layer to 1/2" thick or less

Here are some good thermostats, stay away from the junk sold in pet stores. They are unreliable and overpriced.

Budget: http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR.../dp/B000NZZG3S

High Quality: http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

[JKPCONSTRICTORS]

for the UTH I have enough substrate on it to not burn him, almost 2 inches haha.

If you have two inches of substrate the UTH is pretty much useless. You don't want to go deeper than 1/2" to 3/4". But, as everyone else is saying, if you want to do this right and avoid problems that thing needs a thermostat hooked to it.

[Edit]... ^^^the above post beat me to it. I must type slow...

[mrSocks]

Whre would i place the probe on the thermostate, under the substrate inside the tank?

[VooDooDoc]

To help with humidity cover up the top some, plexiglass or even foil does the trick. It will also help with ambient temp.

OP you mention using an incandescent bulb form walmart on the cool side. Your snake won't like that very much. They are nocturnal so bright white light is not the best thing to use. At the very least make sure its off at night. The infrared bulb is fine to leave on all night though. Some folks on here say blue is better though.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Whre would i place the probe on the thermostate, under the substrate inside the tank?

Generally the thermostat probe will go between the UTH and the bottom of the tank. if the UTH has already been stuck on, you can just attach the probe to the underside of the UTH. You will then have your thermometer probe under the substrate centered on the UTH telling you what the cage temperature is.