about a month ago, my mom came home with a 4ft bp around her neck. she told me that some man was walking around with it at a yard sale at this apartment complex. she asked him about the snake, because i have been wanting one for about two years now. she thought maybe he knew someone who bred them, etc. the guy said that he found it in an apartment (he's a maitenance man), supposedly the people had been evicted or what not, and had just left the snake there. oddly enough, he asked my mother if she wanted it.

to make a long story short, the guy gave us the 75 gallon tank along with three live mice that were in it with the snake. the tank was literally FILLED with bugs. i think there may of been black and white mites, too. the substrate looked like it had never been changed, it seemed like the previous owner just added more and more over top of the soiled. there were pieces of mice that he had eaten prior to that, as well. the maitenance man said that when he found the snake, it was very cold. there weren't any lighting system, or any UTH. the whole thing was filthy, needless to say.

after putting the snake in a sterilite that i had made about a year ago (i had been saving up money to buy the actual snake, i had everything else purchased and ready to go, just no snake), i also put the three mice in a different cage. i sterilized the 75 gallon tank and eventually moved him back into it.

in the 75 gallon tank i have: 1 hide on the hot side, along with a medium sized water dish. there's a huge water dish in the middle, and two hides on the cool side. also, a large piece of driftwood throughout the cage. for substrate i use paper towels, although i'm probably going to be using newspaper eventually. i have been using paper towels to make sure i don't see any mites. i have a screen top. for heating i've been using a human UTH, and infrared lighting. the temps are:
hot- 98.8
cool- 76.3
humidity- 58%

are my temps alright? is there anything i could be doing better?
also, do i need to have a thermostat or rheostat (sp?)?
on my heating pad there are three temperature settings -low, medium, high
i keep it on low.

i just wanted to hear what everyone thought, because this is pretty much my first snake. also, he shed about a week ago, and it was perfect. it all came out in one piece. and he has eaten all of the mice already. i tried to feed him a medium sized thawed rat, and he didn't take it.

sorry for such a long post.