I do have two hides that have only one opening each... they are blue plastic bowls with a small opening cut into them. I smoothed the plastic with a flame.
It's cluttered because a 150 gram baby is going into this fairly large 35 gallon tank. The yellow thing you can see in the tank is a thermometer, not a themostat (those are two very different things), and there is a under tank heater on the warm side which is monitored with a thermostat. I monitor the ambient temperature in the entire room so there is no need for me to place an additional thermometer at the cool end, because it would only tell me what I already know.
The largish half log hide is just in there because I had it on hand and because it added more overhead cover for a baby snake.
Did I sanitize everything? Well I hope you understand I didn't take the bedding from outside or anything lol. Yes the driftwood is something I am constantly collecting and I have it in all of my snake cages. I always bake the wood for several hours. The plastic plants were washed in hot soapy water in my sink. The moss is manufactured by Zoo Med. It comes pre-packaged. I soaked it in hot water, rung it out, and added it to the cage. I also always wash all of my cage furniture. I don't see why you would be asking me such a question?
The lid is EXTREMELY secure. When I received it I realized it was maybe a centimeter or less too small in both directions. Zoo med lids easily bend outwards a bit though. With traditional cage slips I just didn't get the tight fit I wanted, so I got the bungee cords. I feel like you don't understand how strong a pair of bungee cords are. Additionally, a ton of people here on BP.net have described how they use bungee cords to secure the lids on Sterilite containers, which they use to house large adult ball pythons. It's a common way to keep lids on very tightly (MANY snake keepers use them), and it'c cheeper and more reliable than small flimsy tank clips.
I do not have the desire, or the extra room, to buy a snake rack at this time. Most of my snakes are small and live in 20 gallon or small tanks in my bedroom. They aren't really "display snakes" but I do like having glass tanks so I can easily look inside and see what they are up to.
I promise you there is nothing wrong with this tank and the ball python will be very happy in it. I'm actually fairly offended that someone decided to criticize me thinking I don't know whats best. I've kept MANY species of reptiles and amphibians, and know very well how to care for a great deal of exotic species. I know a tong of people keep their ball pythons in 2ftx2ft cages lined with a single sheet of paper and nothing more than a ceramic dog bowl or maybe a cardboard hide, but that's not how I like to keep my snakes.
Once the snake gets bigger the smaller hides (blue bowls covered in moss) will obviously be removed, freeing up a lot of open space. And once the snake gets to be really big, I will obviously need to upgrade her to a larger tank size.
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