Quote Originally Posted by jhumphrey View Post
Ok, so I bought a ball python. Not sure how old it is or even what the sex is. I was always intrigued by the ball python. Just a beautiful animal. Now I have one and I want to make sure I am doing my "husbandry?" correct. I have it in a 10gal glass terrarium. I have two lights one for day and one for night. I have a reptitherm uth heating pad and a small hide and a faux tree plant and a watering rock. I am using ecoearth as a substrate. I am having lots of trouble keeping the ambient temps up and the humidity. I have a screen top and I have tried covering most that I can with towels to try and keep everything in. How can I fix this? I have thought about just going to plastic tubs, but how would I set that up and is it a good choice. There is a lot of controversy over that issue I am seeing. Also, I tried doing the F/T route for feeding but he/she just wasn't interested. I did a live yesterday and it took it within less than 10 seconds. Also, I keep seeing people posting things such as pastel .1, what does this mean. I am very interested in delving deeper in so i can properly care for my new friend.
How deep is your substrate?
what size UTH do you have?
average temps in the room you keep your snake?
These will all effect the temp from the UTH to the inside of the tank, too deep of substrate makes it harder for heat to get through it, small UTH with a low room temp will effect the temp as well. UTH were made as a secondary heat source to use in conjunction with a bulb, they work well in racks because they are surrounded by the wood. if your room temp is in the 70's you'll be lucky to get a 90 degree hotspot with any kind of substrate. That being said, I would still recommend getting a rheostat/dimmer or thermostat with a probe as a precaution in case there is a short that causes a fire or for some reason your house gets into the high 80's and 90's.

you can get a sterilite-like tub with a lid from any store that sells them, drill a couple holes on the sides from the inside out(to keep the rough edges on the outside of the tub), add substrate and hides along with the UTH and thermostat on one side of the tub. place it on a solid surface(wood, metal, tile) you can buy some rubber stoppers to elevate the tub a bit. Thermometer with a probe or temp gun and a digital hygrometer to monitor the temp and humidity. You do not need a "day" light so you can save some electricity and run a red bulb or ceramic bulb all day, the room gets enough light on it's own, the daylight is for your viewing pleasure.

you can also get a piece of Plexiglas from your hardware store(some will cut it for you) drill a couple holes and add some drawer handles on top and use this to cover your screen top. You didn't mention the size of you snake but I would personally get a larger tank.