My 15 year old kid has a ball python she does not take good care of (in my opinion). I don't particularly like the thing, but he's a living creature, and I want him to be well cared for and "happy" (not that he ever complains). So, this means *I* end up doing most of the work and care to keep him well. I'm working hard right now to change his environment to make it easier on ME but I don't want to decrease the snake's quality of life. That sounds ridiculous as I type it out, but it is true.

One of my concerns is the aspen substrate we currently use. It gets wet from the snake using the water dish, and the kid doesn't move it around to the hot end so it will dry daily like I do. Therefore, when the kid is doing the daily water change, she leaves damp substrate inside his cool hide which is near the water dish. Theoretically, this could stay wet in there until the next monthly complete clean and substrate change. I've never read anything about keeping substrate in a hide in a constant damp state, but it just doesn't "seem" right to me. It just seems unhealthy to me because of mold etc and the snake constantly lying in the same damp place when he wants his cool hide.

Another issue is that I have decreased vision and find it hard to see and clean out all the urates in the aspen. And the kid can see FINE, but she can't see all the urates easily all the time either.

I'd like to replace the aspen with something like newspapers, reptile carpet, paper towels, etc but the kid does not want to take away the snake's ability to burrow. We've tried Eco Earth but that was a real pain.

I've never seen this particular snake burrow, but I admittedly don't stay up and watch him all night. He does have two identical hides, one in each side of the enclosure.

I assume each BP might have different preferences, but I'd like any opinions and knowledge anyone can share with me about changing a snake from a loose substrate which can be burrowed in to a substrate like newspaper which they cannot?

And does anyone have any information on if it is harmful to leave damp/downright wet aspen inside a hide for days or longer?

For the purposes of my question, ignore the issue of humidity. When I see he's entering a shed state, I raise the humidity in his enclosure. That isn't a problem.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to help me out.