First timer - first BP! Intro

[CALM Pythons]

Hello all! Just wanted to say hi since I've been lurking these posts a lot lately while preparing to receive my first baby BP. I am a first time snake owner, but have loved them since I was a kid ... of course my Mom never entertained the idea of ever letting me have a reptile. Luckily my husband was easier to convince after a while, ha

She is a female Black Pastel (her pic is my avatar), born mid Sept 2016, and I just received her today. She seems pretty sweet and wasn't jumpy at all when I handled her to put her in her home, although she has been very actively exploring her terrarium rather than relaxing... so I assume she is a little bit stressed

Her last feed date was last Thursday on the 2nd, so trying a feed tomorrow would be good, correct? And just keep it on a weekly rate?

the only other issue I seem to be having is keeping temperatures more consistent... they haven't gone WAY out of range or anything, but I'm using a combination of UTH and heat lamp, trying to find the happy medium between the two to have both ideal ground and ambient heat. I think I'm close to figuring it out... I purchased a light dimmer and also a stand so that it's not right up against the screen, hoping that keeps the light from heating up a little too much (my main issue -- it starts out a good temp, but left too long goes a bit too high for my comfort, so it makes me nervous to leave her alone)

Any tips or questions, I'm open! I've been doing A LOT of reading for a good week before this (including on this forum), so hopefully all will be good

The light dimmer goes on the UTH. They heat up to 140 degrees and will cool the snake. You want your UTH to be the Hot Spot 88-91 and the Heat Lamp to be the ambient cool temp 76-81...
For a 10-20G tank a 60 wat CHE (Ceramic Heat Emitter) will make it around 80.
You should run a thermostat for the CHE/Heat Lamp. Here is a Sticky you can follow for Aquariums.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...-With-Pictures!