I could be completely wide of the mark here but I'm wondering if he's just too warm and that climbing your hand is just his way of getting out to find somewhere cooler !?!
Now I'm Aspergers & dyslexic so it's quite a struggle to read through so many solid blocks of text so I've scanned the main points that jumped out at me .. if your dimensions are correct the snake is in a tub measuring 12 " x 10" x 6" which is far too small for a Royal in my opinion . That's about the size of an ice cream tub and I don't see how he can have a suitable heat gradient in something that small tbh ..
I have no idea what that gadget is you're using to read temps !? Is that another name for a digital temperature gun ?
So moving on .. it's generally accepted that Royals need two identical hides - one one warm area the other in the cool side ... you say it's due to the size of the container which again raises the issue of the tub being too small .
Now you mention a temp for the warm side but then give an ambient temp for cool side .... trouble with taking an ambient temp for the cool side is that the surface temp will presumably be a lot higher thanks the ambient temp so that is also an issue to my mind . Apart from anything else I think the poor little fella is just too warm to be honest - just for starters .. hense the heavy breathing and not feeding .
Apologies if I've misread or misunderstood something ...
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