Hey guys, I bought my snake two weeks ago but just brought him home yesterday because I was getting everything dialed in for him. I am going to explain my setup and questions as good as possible but try and bare with me. By the way this is a great site!

OK, I have a PVC cage with sliding front glass doors as you will see in the pictures below. The cage is about 3’w (maybe a little smaller) by about 18" deep and about 18"tall.

1. Hot side (not even sure if the snake thinks this is the hot side which I will get to) has a large UTH all the way to the left of the cage. The thermostat probe is taped to the bottom of the cage underneath his hide under the substrate. I have a digital thermometer based on the cool side back wall with it’s probe taped right next to the thermostat probe under the hide. I am getting a reading of 95 on the floor of the cage onder the substrate but only about 84 on top of the substrate (under his hide). I was told by Kara that the snake will burrow down under the substrate to get on that heat so my fingers are crossed, how could I second guess Kara being a first time BP owner? This is my biggest concern, I am hoping that as long as the bottom of the cage is reading 95 or so he will eventually use it.

2. Cool side. I was having problems bringing my ambient temps up to 80-83 using just the UTH on the hot side so I installed a Radiant Heat Panel (pro-products) on the cool side which you can see in the picture below. That brought the ambient temps right up to about 82. I have the RHP probe taped directly in the middle of the back wall of the enclosure which you can also see in the picture.

3. Temp readings. I have a digital thermometer velcroed on the side of each hide. The ambient temps on the hot side are 80.6. The ambient temps on the cool side is 83. The temp reading from within the hot side hide sits around 93 or so. Again, this probe is placed directly on the inside bottom under the hide above the UTH.


4. I know I am a little anxious here seeing I havent even had the snake home for a full 24 hours yet but I just want to know if things are normal or not, or atleast get an idea of what to look for. Last night when i brought the snake home I put him in his cage and he did what I expected him to do. He explored the enclosure sniffing around a bit. He went in the cool side hide, then the hot side hide, then back to the cool side hide which is where he’s been pretty much ever since. He did come out as soon as the lights went out last night and just sat half in his cool side hide and half on top which is under the heat panel. I am just wondering if it’s normal for him to stay on the cool side or might something be up with the hot side?

Any advice or just some good ball bython behavior feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again with any help.

Here is the tank.