Rookie walking

[David802]

I have 2 accurites and i swear one of them is wrong. Is there a better one out there? It always measures my hot side above what it is. I can tell by touching it. My UTH only has a dimmer on it at the moment but I swear the thermometer is off. I don't know. Also a 50watt red lamp with a dimmer that stays on all the time. I've had him for a month and so far he has eaten, basked, and pooped regularly. I am definitely more stressed than he is (which is fine with me, I want him to be happy) He has 4 hides and uses all of them and hides a lot! He hasn't gone through a shed cycle and honestly I'm a bit terrified because I'm constantly battling with the humidity. Money is not an issue, any suggestions?
hot side thermometer says 95-98 (like I said, I don't think it's that hot)
cool side- 82
humidity usually around 40% 30 gallon tank with screen top
I feed him live in a separate enclosure.
This is my first reptile so I will take any and all advice that you've got! Thanks in advance!

KK, I don't know about whether or not accurites fail a lot, but EVERYBODY uses them here lol, so I'm guessing there generally pretty accurate, if it says its 98 I'd believe it.

That leads me into my next thing, your hot temps should be 92-94, so you’re a little hot there, cool side is good, you might try getting rid of the heat lamp as it seems like you don’t need it.

There are a couple of things you can do for your humidity, you can cover 3/4 of your screen top with foil or tape, this helps hold in the humidity while still getting enough air in there to circulate. Another thing you can try for the humidity is to get rid of the heat lamp, if your warm side is to hot and the lamp is on the warm side that may be able to kill two birds with 1 stone. You can also make sure that the water dish is placed over the UTH as that will warm the water up a bit and help raise the humidity.

Lastly don’t bother moving to a separate enclosure to feed, the whole thing about snakes getting aggressive when you stick your hand in the cage if you feed them in the cage thing is a myth...

It is my opinion how ever that its good to know that a snake will eat in a separate enclosure, I've fed in a separate enclosure twice now because I hadn't had time to clean there cage the day before and I like to handle my snake as little as possible on feeding days, putting her in a box with a mouse and waiting for her to kill it, then cleaning the cage while she chows down is great in my opinion, some snakes wont do it because its to stressfull being moved but if your snake will eat in a separate enclosure it is nice to have that option on feeding day if you’ve been really busy before hand.