Hi everyone!! I received my baby banana ball python from underground reptiles this past thursday. He is absolutely beautiful and seems very healthy, but as a new owner I am not completely sure what is considered normal and what isn't so I wanted to ask some questions and make sure I'm doing this correctly!
So for his enclosure I have a 30 gallon, and I'm using eco earth coconut substrate. I have a hot side with a lamp and heat pad that stays at 90-95 (I turn the lamp off at night so the temp drops a bit) and a cool side that stays around 75-80 with hides on both. I live in texas so it is already very humid, and his humidity fluctuates from about 50-70%, but there is no condensation on his tank so I think its okay?
The first day he was here he was clearly stressed out and climbed all over the vines hanging around the enclosure seemingly looking for an escape route. After about a day of that he settled in and started using his hides, and on friday he ate a F/T hopper very enthusiastically!! So now it's been about 5 days of him living here and he stays in his hides for a lot of the time but he also likes to adventure around the tank.
My first question is: does my enclosure sound okay? Is there anything I should change about it?
Second question: is it normal for him to like to adventure around so much? I know BP's are nocturnal and he does like to come out at night but he also likes to come out during the day. Like it is currently 11am here and his light is on and he was in his hide this morning but now he has climbed up to the top of his enclosure and is hanging out there. Like I said, he stays in his hide for a lot of the day but he seems more adventurous than I expected him to be as a ball python, so I just want to make sure everything is okay!
third: when he arrived, I noticed that he seems to have some messed up scales on his back? I'll attach a photo to show you what I mean. It kind of looks like some sort of injury (the company said that he ate live anf f/t mice so maybe he got an injury from a live mouse? idk) but I want to make sure it isnt an actual medical problem. The photo kind of sucks because I didnt want to keep him out of his tank for too long since he's still adjusting.
Fourth: when I picked him up to take the photo yesterday, I noticed a little black bug on him. I didnt see any others and he hasnt been soaking so do you think its a mite or could it just be a random bug?
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