Quote Originally Posted by JhaRhod View Post
Hello BP members

Today i went out with my kids to the pet store and we all got to handle a red tail boa, Colombian motley (both babies) and an adult BP and a baby BP about 1 year old. remembering your guys advice i had to refrain with all might not to buy that baby boa ($120) but wanting to make some kind of progress on this as bringing my daughter was a bad idea.....obviously she wanted all four snakes we held! but i asked her to pick one and she chose the adult BP. instead of buying the snake i bought a 20x12 aquarium with locking cage top and the aquarium has a heat pad installed on the bottom that takes up just a little less than half the tank. i also bought an exo-terra glow light with an infrared 50w bulb. the tank is 12.5" tall and the bulb chart says the heat coming from this light at that height is 73 *F. is that ok? and also, im almost ready to pick a snake what else should i get for him/her to make the snake very happy?

I really appreciate your guys/gals help
You need in addition a thermostat to regulate the heat coming from the heat pad, a couple of hides for the bp also. One for your warm side and one for your cool side. I would exchange the 50w bulb for a 75w bulb and use it as a hot spot. The next thing is setting up a way to keep your humidity regulated inside the aquarium. Humidity needs to be at around 45% - 50% except when the bp is in a shed cycle when it should increase to 60%. You should purchase a temp gun to monitor your temps and a humidity gauge for the same. Acurite brand is readily available at Walmart and comes with a probe. The temp gun is a hand held thermometer that works by laser. Amazon has some good deals on these items as well. On this forum there does exist a step by step instruction and checklist on setting up a show display aquarium to house ball pythons. Good luck and welcome to the ball python community. Peace.