Hey all,

I picked up my first BP yesterday evening from a locally owned pet store (wanted to go to a breeder but oh well). He's about 3.5 years old and a rescue from his previous home. His previous owners placed a heat lamp in his enclosure and of course he ended up wrapping around it and burning himself in a few small places. The store had him for a couple of months and he has been healing just fine. Besides, I love his blemishes.

I had his tank up and running for about a week prior, working on regulating the temp and humidity before I actually got the animal. It's a 40 gallon and I'm using a UTH paired with a thermostat along with a 100W infrared heat emitter. The humidity is in the 55% range, though he had just finished his shed before I got him and I'm planning on utilizing the sticky at the top of this forum to get any stray pieces that may be left on (his eye caps were still on when I got him, though I'm not sure if they still are since he has been in his hide all day).

My temperature is about 79 on the cool side, and 91 on the basking side. However, directly under the infrared heat emitter I measured it at approx 94. Should I downgrade to a 75W bulb since I already have the UTH working on temp as well? I don't want to put too much heat out, though I suppose he could just go to his cool-side hide (identical to his basking hide) if he got overheated... thoughts?

His feeding schedule was once a week on Wednesdays. He hasn't eaten in about 2 weeks due to his recent shed, so should I try to feed him this Wednesday leave him be since he may still be acclimating to his new environment?

I've owned a snake in the past along with a plethora of other reptiles and mammals so I'm very much looking forward to taking care of this guy.