New BP owner - looking for tips, tricks, and information about odd behavior?

[CantHelpIt]

This is wrong in every way!!
You measure your temperature in the surface that your animal can touch. Snakes can and will burrow so if you are getting 90 degrees on top, you are getting cooking temperatures under.
Temperature needs to be taken under the substrate when you are using any UTH options. There also is no need for that deep of a substrate, 1/2 inch is more than enough.
If I am remembering right, the 114qt is the same dimensions of a 41qt but way taller? The height is not needed and may hurt husbandry as far as heating and humidity. For a one that small, a 6qt is enough and net step to a 28qt.

You didn't read my post did you I said that
To be fair I said it in a less straightforward way but I said measure floor temps because someone else said measure on the aspen

[PitOnTheProwl]

You didn't read my post did you I said that
To be fair I said it in a less straightforward way but I said measure floor temps because someone else said measure on the aspen

My apologies, I zeroed in on the section I highlighted and evidently put my blinders on.

[CantHelpIt]

My apologies, I zeroed in on the section I highlighted and evidently put my blinders on.

No worries, I assumed so.
To the op, Like Pit said, theres no need for 2 inches of aspen.
I've found corns love to burrow, ball pythons not so much. Your snake would do just fine on a 1/2" layer, they'll likely move it all out of the way and is one of the reasons many people simply keep them on paper

[scalypasta]

The thermostat came in a couple of hours ago, so it's working on heating him up. Once the thermo says it's at 90, if the hotspot on the inside doesn't read at 90 I'll raise it a few degrees. I did find someone local who breeds their own feeders to sell me better mice, and in the meantime I'll try PetSmart and see if theirs are any better. I'm working on getting smaller hides but I've already spent $350 on his care, so it might be a bit. For now I gave him a few more cardboard tubes which he seems to be enjoying.

I originally just put enough aspen to cover the bottom and make hills around a couple hides (to make them feel a bit more like tunnels), but during the day he was burrowing around the hides instead of going in them. In the mornings I see tracks of wet bedding between the hides and the water bowl, and he uses the tubes now, but for the first several days all he wanted to do was burrow and stay there. As the first bit of bedding settled and sunk, I added more so that he could tunnel to his heart's content- that's why it's at a base of 2" now. I'll be cleaning his tub this weekend, so if you're absolutely certain he shouldn't need that much bedding, I could cut down on it some for next week and see what happens.

Considering that Saturday will make a week that he's been here, what would be good as far as stress quarantine goes? He seems curious and ready to explore, and the only times I've interacted with him directly all week were weighing him once, trying to feed him once, taking a few pictures, letting him smell my hand, and handling him once (initiated by him). Chronologically it seemed like I was barely interacting with him at all, but altogether that does sound like a bit of a lot, so if he needs more of a quarantine in the next week... How much? Total lockdown, or just don't handle him unless he's trying to climb out like he was the first time I handled him? How do I keep him from climbing out if I can't handle him? He's spent the last day or two trying to climb the inside of the tub even when the lid is closed, and he does a pretty good job of it.

The ambient humidity in general where I live is 50% this time of year, so I don't think I'll have any humidity problems except maybe too much humidity, in which case I'd look for a smaller water bowl. If anyone has tips on finding hides that are big enough he won't get stuck but small enough he'll like them, that would be helpful too.

If I worked out a system to put live plants in his tub, would that be a good way to take up space so he doesn't feel intimidated by the openness? I wouldn't go full bioactive (at least not yet) but I could find or build a couple of pots small enough to fit. Maybe a bonsai tree or something that would spread out in the vertical space, and an ivy or something to cover groundspace? I wanted to get him a log to climb and hide in, but I'll have to slow down on spending for a bit, so that would take time.

Thanks everyone for your help. I really thought I had done enough research, considering I spent almost a year researching before I got him, but obviously I still have some things to learn.

[scalypasta]

As a side note, how do you tell if a BP is underweight? The breeder was obviously not keeping up the ad (it said 80 grams hatched 08/13/15), and everyone I spoke to online said theirs was a good hundred or two hundred grams bigger at his age. So I was really expecting him to be closer to 300 grams, not 130. The first half or so of his body looks pretty slim as well, the portion right behind his head isn't much bigger around than my fingers. But maybe that's just me.

[CantHelpIt]

If he likes to burrow then theres nothing wrong with 2" of aspen, just be sure the tub surface is only 90 so that he can't burn himself.
As for handling I would suggest waiting until he's eaten at least twice for you.
Too large of hides can usually be stuffed with substrate, moss, paper, anything to fill up the open space