My daughter requested (and received) her first ball python for her birthday last month. We purchased the recommended set-up from our local reptile store. Before bringing her beautiful pastel banana boy home we had a problem with ambient temperature as well. She has an Exo-Terra 24x18x12 cage with an Ultratherm 6x23 UTH. What we ultimately concluded was that our substrate, Exo-Terra Forest Bark, was too thick and was actually acting like a layer of insulation on top of our UTH. We reduced the depth of the substrate over the rear of the cage (where the UTH was located) to 1" and left it at 2" toward the front of the cage. That seemed to correct the problem.

Her boy has been home for two weeks and seems happy in his new habitat. He has readily eaten his last two meals and seems to enjoy cruising around his cage at 2am. The only mistake we are certain we have made so far was buying "pretty" hides that he would grow into. When he began to show a preference for sleeping under the many plastic plants in his cage we swapped pretty for inexpensive smaller hides. He clearly prefers them.