In case you haven't read any of my other posts, I had several pythons (ball, burmese, retic) 20+ years ago. Husbandry info at the time was non-existent so all were kept in glass tanks with a water bowl, driftwood, astro-turf (fake grass) and a light bulb on one side for heat. They all THRIVED and grew and lived long healthy lives in spite of everything I didn't do based on today's standard of care.

My big mistake was finding this forum because you're all making me nuts now that I know what I should be doing. Ignorance is bliss!

This is from the Glass Tank Setup sticky thread:

There are three temperature 'zones' you need to pay close attention to in your enclosure, they are:

A) Warm side belly temperature. This is the temperature of substrate (bedding) on the warm side of the enclosure.

B) Cool side belly temperature. This is the temperature of the substrate on the cool side of the enclosure.

C) Ambient air temperature in the enclosure.

The temperatures you require in these three zones are as follows:
Cool side = 82F.
Warm side = 92F.
Ambient air = 78-85F.
Where I am now after lots of fussing around:

I have a UTH (store bought, no thermostat) on the hot side and the infrared thermometer reads around 93F on the floor. The cold side has no UTH and it reads low 70's on the floor. Ambient air is room temp 67-71. I had the red heat lamp on the hot side but that made the floor temp 120F, according to the infrared therm but it was not hot to the touch. I moved the lamp over to the cool side which raised the floor and ambient temp on that side to mid 80's. I put the water bowl on the hot side on the edge of the UTH and the water temp is 72F. Humidity is fine. I have cardboard covering the hot side half of the top screen to hold in the humidity and some of the ambient heat from the lamp.

How you measure these temperatures is also important. You can measure the ambient air temperature using a 'stick on' thermometer. Use a digital thermometer and place it close to where the snake will spend most of it's time. To measure the belly temps on the warm and cool sides, you will need either a thermometer with a probe, or an infrared temperature gun. Dial or strip type thermometers are not accurate and should not be used.
I do not feel 100% comfortable with what I have to measure temps. I'm getting different temps from everything I use. I need recommendations for a probe type thermometer, a thermometer I can stick on the glass and a temp gun. I need to know that they are really accurate so that I'm sure I'm setting everything set up correctly.

BTW, the BP's are my son's, not mine. He would like to spend more time with them than I do so any help would be appreciated. Sorry for the long post.

JohnNJ