New ball python keeper, really need some advice!

[200xth]

It's under a lot of substance, and I felt it just the other day, with everything on top of it, it's really just leaving a warm spot. I don't think it's burning her. When I picked her up from the breeder, he told me to watch for pink on her belly and if some shows up, the heat pad is too hot. No pink has came up, and she spends most of the day in her hide on top of the heat pad. I would imagine if it was burning her, she'd stay away from it. I'll definitely look into getting a thermostat once the holidays are over!

They can burrow into/under the substrate. They will lay on something that is too hot and get burns at times so relying on her to get off it if it's too hot is a crap shoot at best. Your breeder's advice is essentially, "Check her...if she's burned it's too hot" which is extremely obvious and too late.

She's your snake, but I would recommend getting the thermostat sooner as opposed to later.