my cage setup, is this good so far, my first snake

[brikwall96]

hey, my name is hunter, and im a first snake owner, the pic i posted below is a picture of my snake enclosure. it is a 10 gallon tank, and has an under the tank heater right under his hide. i have a 60 watt infrared bulb, and a water dish, thats it, any suggestions of what i could put in it, or any modifications i could make to make him happier? he ate once and shed once and crapped twice since ive had him.



http://s1093.photobucket.com/albums/..._8252774_n.jpg

[JLC]

Welcome to BP.net! ...and the wonderful world of ball python addictions!

How are you controlling the amount of heat put out by the UTH? They can get hot enough to burn. They need a thermostat to keep them at just the right temperature.

Also...you need a good thermometer and hygrometer to measure the temps on both the cooler side and the warmer side of the enclosure...the hygrometer tells you what the humidity is. The little stick-on things you have on the glass are virtually worthless.

The half-log hides are not really great for ball pythons. They like to live in tight little caves. And a hide on both sides of the enclosure helps the snake feel more secure as well. Then they don't have to choose between which temperature zone they want to lay in and feeling secure in their hide.

[Alexandra V]

Like Judy said, you need to get a thermostat or rheostat to control your heating devices if you don't already have one, and you'll want to get two hides that are exactly the same and not log hides, as well as a new pair of thermometers with probes so you can get the surface temperature accurately, since your snake doesn't hover three inches off the floor of it's cage LOL.

Also, on the repti-carpet that you have in there, it's not bad but you might want to switch to paper towels/newspaper or aspen/cypress bedding because that repti carpet is damn hard to clean when it gets soiled and is a breeding ground for bacteria.

[brikwall96]

thanks guys so much! thats an old pic, and i have a thermometer right above the log, also, i have a background on both sides of the tank, and the back, this blocks out light from one side of the log hide, ill go out soon with my mom to get some heating meters, humidity meters, and all other meters needed, also, i wash his tank once a week. which is good, also. right now, he has some skin on his head, he got everything else off, but just on the top of his head, and around his eyes. his eye caps have come off yesterday