Feeding help and what I have tried so far???

[MissterDog]

My avatar is the snake in question. Much larger than a dollar bill. You can see me holding him.

I am investing in a temperature regulating system for him but will not arrive till tomorrow. Could not find locally. Getting one that regulates both temp and humidity. Also my only heating method at this moment is the under tank heating pad. Is this enough? Do I need to get a heat lamp for ambient temp and then use the heating pad for the hot spot only? 4 attempts in 3 weeks. One was with regular white rat. The rest with African rat (was suggested by the pet store). I will get another hide the same shape and size as the one on the cooler side tonight.

You sure you mean a thermoSTAT and not a thermoMETER right? Kira already linked to a good budget friendly thermostat to get started on if you are tight on money. However if you are willing to spend more for a higher quality thermostat with better longetivity I highly recommend herpstats.

https://www.spyderrobotics.com/index...=index&cPath=1

As for African soft furs you'd be better off fixing your husbandry first and keeping with regular rats before pursuing asf. Unless you have readily available supplier they can be incredibly hard to come by on a regular basis and I've often heard of ball pythons being unable to switch back to any other prey once they've been established on afs. So be careful with afs unless you are ready to commit to only feeding asf and finding back up suppliers and hope they stay in business say 5-10 years from now. Just a possibility you may need to consider depending where you live.

But as others already pointed out your first focus is addressing your husbandry before feeding and answer Deborah's questions.

If you are only using a heat pad, which does nothing for ambient temps, then yes you may want to invest in a CHE lamp (on a thermoSTAT) to raise and maintain a steady ambient instead of dealing with fluctuations. And yes have your heat pad for a hot spot. Just keep in mind you will need BOTH your CHE and heatpad regulated by a thermostat.