First carpet Python.Questions.

[John1982]

Should I Mount the heat mat on the bottom of the enclosure or on one side since she is semiarboreal? Or should I ditch the heat mat and go with a radiant heat panel?

Personal preference. Top heat will encourage more arboreal/perching behavior though.

What size should she be before I look into a more permanent enclosure? Or should I ditch the bin and get one ASAP?

Any size you like. Just be careful with sliding glass doors and smaller snakes. Depending on the brand, there can be a rather sizable gap that could allow an escape.

She is over 90%. IJ blood, so I am anticipating (read hoping) that she tops out around 5 ft. I have been looking at an animal plastics cage as her permanent enclosure. They have a specialty cage for carpet pythons, but it seems a bit small to me and is only 15" high. I could be off base here but I would think that a semiarboreal snake would need more height. I would like everyone's opinions on an appropriate cage size, height included. I do not plan on getting more snakes (famous last words) so a display cage is preferred. I would also like brand suggestions.

More personal preference. I have some 15" enclosures set up with perches and the height is fine. The problem with going higher is temperature gradients. If you're using belly heat and your house is on the cooler side, you could end up with areas too cool in something higher than 15 inches. If you want to go with more height, you should then seriously consider going with a RHP - which works out I suppose since you'll want to encourage more climbing activity anyway.

I have read that carpets don't need a water bowl big enough to soak in. The thought of going with a smaller bowl makes me uncomfortable but it would give her more floor space.

Either way works fine. A bowl large enough to soak isn't going to do much harm to their floor space.

When it comes to feeding, inside the enclosure or in a separate tub? If inside the enclosure, does anyone have suggested methods for getting her to differentiate between feeding time and handling time?

I seldom feed any snake outside the enclosure. The smell of the rodent should be enough to let your girl know it's feeding time. You can always hook train too to tap her out of feed mode and/or sleepy time.

What substrate is currently the most highly recommended? Something like ecoearth? Repticarpet or newspaper? Keep the paper towels?

I personally like newspaper because it's easy to clean and you know at a glance when it's soiled.