New Ball Seeks for Way Out at Night. Is This Okay?

[Virgil]

First of all, I would like to mention I'm very green to all of this. I have a six-week old male ball python who came from, what I've been told, an excellent breeder. I bought him on Saturday and it is now Tuesday night. He hides all day in his favorite hide, which for whatever reason is a Kleenex box filled with rocks. He won't touch his actual reptile hide, except to lounge on top of it at night. Once the sun has gone down, around 7:00pm, Virgil (that's his name) likes to come out of the Kleenex box and search around his enclosure. He likes to stretch up and try to get out of the tank (that's what I assume he's doing, why else would he try to touch the top?). He doesn't show much interest in the corners of his tank, and doesn't try to slither up the walls. He likes to wrap around his fake grass and reach up as high as he can before tipping over. Then he'll curl up behind his hide (not the Kleenex box, but his actual hide), put his head on top, and watch me while I do homework. Sometimes he'll go back to trying to get out, sometimes he's been content to just watch me. I've been trying to keep him as stress free as possible, and he's getting his first meal tomorrow. I'm concerned as to why he keeps trying to touch the netted frame that closes his tank. Is he stressed? Is the tank too hot? Too cold? Does he just want out to explore? Curiosity? Hunger? I don't know enough to come up with an answer myself, which is why I signed up on this site.

Facts about Virgil and his living conditions:
~He's 6 weeks old, and about 18 inches long. I don't know how much he weighs yet because the scale I ordered hasn't come in yet.
~He's currently in a 10 liter tank that opens from the top. I'm going to try to upgrade to a 20 liter tank as soon as I can afford it, which will probably be in January, sadly. I got his current tank on a promotional discount since I bought it at a reptile show.
~I'm concerned that I'm not taking the temperature correctly, but I put both the thermometer and the humidifier-meter (whatever it is called) on the back wall of the tank, directly in the center. The temperature is usually between 78-80 degrees, and the humidity has been around 50-55 percent, right at the dead-center of the tank. He has a UTH on one side of the tank, where his Kleenex box and fake leaves are. On the other side of the tank is his reptile hide and his water dish and his fake grass. The water dish is as far away from the hot side as possible. The bedding is aspen.
~Both of his hides have been lined with newspaper until he grows larger to give him a snug feel.
~He's situated in a bookshelf, so it's dark on three sides, and open air above him for about a foot and a half before the next shelf begins.

Other small questions I have:
~Is a Kleenex box an okay hide for now? Why does he not like the hide actually made for snakes?
~Any other tips for a first-time snake owner? I've owned cats before, and have worked with horses for most of my life, but snakes are a first.
~How much should I handle a young python so that he becomes socialized without being stressed? Is starting at 5 minutes a day once a week and slowly moving up to 10 minutes 5 days a week okay (no handling on digesting days)?

Am I doing anything wrong??? I really, really want this snake to be happy. I've wanted to own a snake for a very long time, and since my roommate won't allow cats, I thought that a ball python would be perfect. He's been keeping my midterm stress down just by letting me watch him, and I want to return the favor and not stress him out. I want him to live a long and happy life with me, and I'm suddenly feeling completely lost.

Thank you so much for all of your help, and I hope I didn't ramble too much.

[redshepherd]

Is your thermometer/hygrometer the digital kind or the round analog kind? The analog kinds can be so inaccurate that they're useless, so you should get the digital.

Investing in a temp gun (around $20) is important imo, so you can measure accurate temperatures wherever you want in his tank.

Ball pythons don't really need to be socialized extensively like that to be a good pet- even just 10~20 minutes for only two days a week would be fine. If he's shy now, it's just because he's a hatchling. They're easygoing snakes (99% of them...), and naturally become calm as they mature.

If your kleenex box is the only hide on top of his heat pad, that's probably why he's there. They spend the majority of their time in wherever the warm hide is.

Ball pythons also like hides with only one small opening and where their entire body can be hidden otherwise, so you wouldn't be able to see anything except maybe their head poking out. If your reptile hide doesn't look like this, it might be why.

They're nocturnal, so they become active at night to explore and push at the top of their tank or do whatever else they want. It is normal. If he was doing it for many hours even during the day too, then it might signal an issue.

Your heat pad is hooked up to a thermostat to keep it from getting too hot right?

[Virgil]

My thermometer/hygrometer is the round analog type, and I do not have a regulator on my thermostat, nor the temp gun. If you would be so kind as to recommend a certain brand you like, I'll order them right away on Amazon. The great news about being a college student is that I can get almost anything within a couple of days (except, apparently, that scale). If there is somewhere else I should order supplies from, please let me know. Virgil appears to enjoy the current thermometer/hygrometer from the simple standpoint that he is still tiny enough to balance his head on them. He makes me smile often.

I've actually been concerned that maybe the heat pad isn't hot enough, because I can barely feel it through the aspen unless I dig down. Maybe I have the bedding too thick? I was told by the man I bought tank from to make sure the bedding is extra thick there, so that in case Virgil digs down, he won't get burned. Is this correct? Either way, I'll get the regulator. I've been keeping a close eye for a pink belly or other signs of overheated scales.

The Kleenex box is on top of the heat pad, but even when the other hide was on top of it, he would only sit on top of it. That's why I switched them, because I got concerned since he wasn't exhibiting that hiding behavior. I think maybe that hide is too big for him currently. It's opening is rather wide... Half of the Kleenex opening is sealed off with a bit of paper, so it is just large enough for him to get his body through, and the top half is lined with newspaper so that he feels secure in a smaller space. He enjoys peering at me from inside the box when I start moving around in the morning, but is usually back hiding by the time I'm having breakfast. As far as I know, he doesn't come out again until night, which I assume, because I never come home to find his grass knocked over. I was initially annoyed with how easily the grass gets knocked over with his weight, but it's become a great tale-tell sign of him moving around when I'm not about.

I'm glad it appears he is exhibiting normal behavior, but I have one more question: is it normal for ball pythons to just dip their chins in the water bowl? Virgil, when he stops moving around and is about to settle on top of his cold hide to watch me, dips his chin in the water bowl. He doesn't drink, just taps the water so that he has a drop hanging from his chin, then goes back to his business. Is this normal, or is my snake weird?

Thank you so much!

[redshepherd]

A thermostat is 100% required equipment. The risks can be fatal without one. Most would say to unplug your heat pad for now until your thermostat arrives. An unregulated heat pad can randomly go up to 120 degrees or over and burn your snake, even if you've never "felt" it before. Here's a cheap one on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/MTPRTC-ETL-Ce...art+thermostat

But if you want to play it safe, get a herpstat. The jump start thermostat has a wide temp fluctuation too and isn't 100% reliable in the long run, but it's still a million times better than nothing.

Acurite digital hygrometer/thermometer: https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00613...ite+hygrometer

Temp gun, not exactly required, but good to have to monitor temperatures and surface temps wherever you want to measure them: https://www.amazon.com/Nubee-Non-con...words=temp+gun

Feeling the heat pad with your hand isn't an accurate way of detecting temps, because anything much warmer than our body temperature is already too hot for a snake. They only need a 90 degree hot spot, which feels like nothing to our hands.

I'd actually make the aspen thinner over the hot spot, just barely covering it, so that if the snake digs down to the glass (which he will), he won't get burned, while it's too cold on the surface... That's what I do.

No need to keep an eye on burned scales if you get a thermostat for your heat pad.

The chin dipping thing is normal... They do some funny things!

[Calider]

A lot of people feel like their snake is trying to escape or is unhappy in its enclosure just because they are so much more active at night. It is normal for a bp to lay around curled up all day and then suddenly come to life at night. In the wild, they stay hidden all day and go out to hunt / search for mates at night. And as far as the head movement, it is probably normal. If your BP is a certain color morph, it might have the wobbles, like my spider girl Sassy. This is fine as long as it doesn't inhibit feeding, the worst thing about it is that they have bad aim and you might get tagged when hand-feeding, but as long as they are eating and moving normally, it is nothing to worry about. A lot of people have trouble transitioning their snakes from a small hide to a larger hide because most snakes prefer a very tight hide with not much space to it... They want to feel the walls from every side because this way they know that nothing else is hiding in there with them; they feel safer that way.