I need advice on my terrarium

[sur3fir3]

wait to feed. at least 1 week.

[Smoothskin805]

So I got some new things this evening and I am redoing the tank, as far as heating.
I have seen a lot of things saying to put the thermostat underneath the substrate above the heat mat. Thought?
to me personally if the thermostat probe was between the mat and the glass I feel like there would be a false reading. The heat needs to be hotter on the mat so it can travel through the glass and substrate right?
my girlfriend ordered a ceramic lamp with a dimmer switch. I ordered a heat gun.
For the time being, should keep my CHE on the thermostat?
Should I get another thermostat just for the CHE?

[Smoothskin805]

It is not yet perfect, I know there is more to do as far as heat management. But this is what I have so far.

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[Snakemom85]

A lot of people suggest putting it between the mat and the glass but I don't feel like that gives accurate reading on the temps inside. I have mine on top of the glass under his hide. His hide is has a bottom on it so I do periodically open it and check the temp inside the hide with my heat gun. I usually run the mat a couple of degrees hotter than the hide needs to be to get the correct temp. I do suggest you get some digital thermometer/hygrometers because those little round analog ones are notoriously inaccurate.

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[Moose84]

So I got some new things this evening and I am redoing the tank, as far as heating.
I have seen a lot of things saying to put the thermostat underneath the substrate above the heat mat. Thought?
to me personally if the thermostat probe was between the mat and the glass I feel like there would be a false reading. The heat needs to be hotter on the mat so it can travel through the glass and substrate right?
my girlfriend ordered a ceramic lamp with a dimmer switch. I ordered a heat gun.
For the time being, should keep my CHE on the thermostat?
Should I get another thermostat just for the CHE?

The thermostat probe needs to be between the mat and the glass. The snake will just bulldoze the probe in the tank and get it wet and it will end up failing. You need a heat gun to check the temperature on the glass once the thermostat is set up and has been running the mat for a couple hours.. And yes, you might have to set the thermostat higher than 90 degrees to get the temperature right on the heat gun on the glass.. One other thing.. If this snake is young you will want to be really careful about constantly messing with his cage like you are doing.. It's a big tank for a little snake and you might run into feeding issues if you are constantly messing with his set up...

[Valyndris]

What I do is put the probe between the heat mat and the glass, I need to turn my thermostat to 100 to get it to 90 in the tank. That could differ of course and that's what the temperature gun if for, to get it just right. Glad you are doing everything you can to make your ball python happy.

[Smoothskin805]

I suppose I will wait a couple of days before I change anything else in the terrarium for heat management. That way smoothskin will calm down a bit and my heat gun will be in my possession by then.

I'm curious if my guy is stressed though. He hides during the day with his head looking out of the hide, and during the evening he goes for a stroll in the tank.
Is he stressed, hungry, or chillin'?

And thank you all for your help thus far. I am glad I joined the forum. You are all very helpful and polite.
My girlfriend joined some Facebook group and asked the same things I did in the beginning and every single reply she got was very rude and not helpful at all.
Thanks again.

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[Tmacsballs]

Pretty much all the above advice is obv good as most on here have more knowledge than myself. I will say however vivosun makes a half decent thermostat thats digital and even has 2 outlets totally programmable for about 20 bucks if u look hard enough. Ive had one now for a while my male is 7 years old ive had it for a while. i also have one of there reptile uth mats (they specialize in house hold planting type crap so they have heat mats intended for germination of seeds n stuff n they have thermostats intended for those applications but recently came over to the reptile side of things). Point is there equipment, as far as im concerned, is on par with any other cheaper digital thermostat just priced appropriately (generally 2 or 3 times cheaper)n they work.

Thats the recommendation id like to add as its effective n cheap. If u can afford a vivarium or herpstat id absolutely go with that instead. My opinion go cheap or super expensive cause all the garbage in the middle is analog and overpriced with a big box name on it made cheaper than anything u can think of. Retail stores need to mark up 60% min to make it, so think about that lol.

Everything looks awesome man, you dont need to over think it either. if u like the uth on the side thats fine, but realize the gradient of heat will not be as proper as it should nor as controlled. I know a lot of people that put them on the side for bio active setups n if u have thicker substrate it works. Lets say its on the right side, u have the uth on that side of the tank set for 90 degrees. Where do u place the probe? If ur placing it lets say on the left side of his hide on that side it will be way to hot near the glass, if ur palcing it in the middle of the hide it will have to heat up to prob 115 near the glass in order for it to be anywhere near 90 6 inches away from that. So that is where the problem lies. If u want to use it as additional heat set on a dimmer switch to the temps u like thats fine. Id use it under the tank for sure man. Ur supposed to buy one 1/3 the size of the tank but for real as long as his hot hide is to the correct temps it can be exactly the size of his hide as the rest is irrelevant. He will very rarely if ever be warming up outside of his hide if its the correct temps anyway.

Theres no right or wrong way it def doesnt need to be exact or this would not be a beginner snake that does so well in captivity. Id personally say 5 degrees on either side of whats recommended and ur still doing better than the average person with a ball python and ur snake will absolutely thrive. Stop overthinking it though. If he is eating , pooping, and shedding correctly with no issues and mainly only coming out of his hides during duskish dep in ur animal, ur pretty much doing everything right. (Mine wont come out for about 2 to 3 days after eating usually.)

When something is wrong with the setup, or ur snake, they will be ripping around in the tank like a nut usually. Also if something is wrong with the animal they generally wont feed and u should always check the tank everyday (not saying u dont already) for poop n notice inconsistencies. Just because snake (A) has a hard poop n snake (B) his poop is a little looser, if there always like that its normal for each animal to be a little diff. You would want to take notice to a bunch of blood or his insides still hanging out because its super constipated n trying to poop, stuff like that. Take notice to u feed on fri he generally poops wed or something like that n now its feed day n theres no poop yet n hes acting weird and seems uncomfortable, u can start to put together what might be going on based on ur observations.

Just learn to read him ur doing everything perfectly just get what everyone else is recomending a thermostat and put the pad under. You DONT need anything else so stop overthinking that part of it lol.

I personally write down everything my snake does, poops, sheds, eats n what color rat i feed n if he grabbed it instantly or not. When i clean the bowls, n clean the entire setups n what my average temps have been lol. Id recommend if ur collection is small to def do that. It could save ya one day when either u or a professional (vet or breeder whatever) is asking u what has ur snake done in the past what rat has he always grabbed instantly so we can see if we can get him eating right away ya know stuff like that, it only takes a second. ATM i just do it on a sticky note in my phone by the month, i add the date n what i did simple as that. im going to format it better soon and add an exel on my phone to fit my needs, if someone could send me a template thatd be dope. Anyway ur doing great he will be with u for a very long time u have a lot of time to learn ur snakes behaviors.

Id say it took me a solid 4 years to get a good read on mine. I can honestly say i know when he is hungry, when he wants his tank cleaned, when he wants to come out, rare but i swear he actually wants to come out sometimes. When he is def not in the mood to be bothered. I've only ever handled him 2 days a week max, i feed on thursdays so sun n mon n tue are the only 3 days i will take him out 1 of those three days generally unless he isnt feeling it, if for nothing else i will weigh my animals usuallyonce a week. I also schedule tank cleaning those days unless absolutely needed. Otherwise he is left alone. He has never so much as even looked at me like he wants to bite me defensively let alone ever done it. Just my way of doing things. Also just because an animal doesnt bite does not mean it is a fan of being held every other day or every day they cant talk to us so if u think for any reason he wants to be left alone do it. Now when they are hatchlings and/or brand new to u. Id give the animal n month to get acclimated to its new surroundings than he is getting held 2 times a week whether he likes it or not till he knows ur trustworthy n he is trustworthy to u n all will be good. Sorry to rant jeeze lol.

[Moose84]

I suppose I will wait a couple of days before I change anything else in the terrarium for heat management. That way smoothskin will calm down a bit and my heat gun will be in my possession by then.

I'm curious if my guy is stressed though. He hides during the day with his head looking out of the hide, and during the evening he goes for a stroll in the tank.
Is he stressed, hungry, or chillin'?

And thank you all for your help thus far. I am glad I joined the forum. You are all very helpful and polite.
My girlfriend joined some Facebook group and asked the same things I did in the beginning and every single reply she got was very rude and not helpful at all.
Thanks again.

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All normal behavior.. You will find out if he is stressed out when you go to feed him for the first time.. It's not always a dead give away but if they aren't eating at that age, more than likely something is bothering them..

[Tmacsballs]

One other thing i do for bedding is i have the hot side stay mostly dry as well the other side is the cool more humid side. The way i accomplish this with coco is with eco earth. Im just a fan cause i feed in the tank n never had an issue, forest floor, aspen, and also the big husks coco all have been sticking out of my snakes nouths at one point or another but this has been fantastic.

Eco earth in the block form (because its the cheapest), then get the bag of it, that is slightly damp but way drier than the block will be and very fine. i love it, its soft looks good smells good its awesome stuff n ive tried it all. First time i went to coco my 7 year old male was literally divining thru the stuff had the majority of his body covered with his head poking out if a snake could tell u he is happy he was doing it that day. I hate the course chunky coco crap that everyone is pushing now. Its rough my snake will get almost like dye marks under him in a few spots from it when he is balled up, hes heavy n i can tell he doesnt like laying on it n having a chunk digging into his side im sure of it.

Anyway the sides with the blue cheap homemade hides are the cool humid sides. The sides with dry coco and store bought hides are the hot sides. My animals have changed for the better. Since changing to this setup. Even if u wanna use the chunky stuff cool try this though pick up a bag of this dry stuff. One big 24 qt bag will last u with that size tank prob 4 to 8 (more towards the higher number) of changes. Also pick urself up a sterolite container that u water the coco with to break it up and use only distilled or at least filtered water n u can store left over in that as well. I only say this cause the left over will not go bad (ur adding a ton of bacteria n crap with tap water believe it or not) n u cant put the lid on it lock it n the rest is ready to go.for however long u leave it. u can also let it dry out n just use that instead of buying the dry bag but this take preperation n i prefer the dry bag for hot side as its superior to the block for sure. Then u put the moist stuff mostly on the cool side the dry stuff on the warm side. I dont have humidity issues n i live in ne pa and have the 7 year old normal male 2 kilos in a 40b critter cage n the other pic is my pastel banana g stripe maybe 10 months old 450 grams in a simple sterolite setup which he loves.i have a bio active terrarium exo terra that im getting my plants going n isopods n springtails its about 5 months old now its a 36 x 18 x 24 which he will go when he is bigger, i know the height isnt needed but it is for the plants i have. Anyway try this if u want since hes already used to coco n u will never have an issue with scale rot or anything like that. U will moisten the cool side to keep the humidity to what u want n thats it. Perfect setup for a ball python im telling u, u wont look back. I do a complete clean out n change every month max (i know it can go way longer but i have 3 snakes so idc about the money part of it). I clean water every 2 or 3 days unless dirty and clean his hides prob every 2 weeks. I ise chlorhexidine for cleaning his hides n stuff dawn for water bowls (idc about opinion here i want them clean ni have never had an issue using that) n f10 sc xd and the chlorhexidine when i clean the tank out as well as rinsing it after n then a light more diluted chlorhexidine to finish it off so it stays killing bacteria even after im done. Get thise 2 cleaners for sure or at least chlorhexidine, amazon a gallon for under 15 bucks to ur house it will last so long it will amaze n can be used many other applications. Awesome products man. F10 is way more expensive but worth it for sure. My hides used to still wreak until i got the f10 that stuff is legit. If ur close enough to me i will give u both lol.

Just came to the conclusion idk how to add a photo so let me know if u wanna see the pics n tell me how to n i will lol. Im terrible at life.