Quote Originally Posted by Crowfingers View Post
I have never used any kind of belly heat - I have 2 CHE's on different thermostats (one set to 93 and one set to 85) this keeps the hot hide at 88-90 on the inside and the cool hide at 79-81 depending on room temp fluctuation. He also has a 'medium' hide that stays about 83-84 at all times too. Despite what everyone says about ball pythons not basking, mine comes out and curls onto one of his branches, rocks, or on top of the hides for a little bit almost every night, most often after eating. He's 3 years old and I've never had any problems. I also have tons of natural rocks and logs and the rocks absorb heat really well and he likes to rest on them as well.

He was in a glass tank until he hit 800ish grams when I upgraded to an AP cage. The biggest problem was humidity, and I had to get creative. As long as your heat sources are on thermostats and are within the correct range for a BP then he should do fine. Just watch your humidity with the lamps. Also, pick up a temp gun, one thing I learned is that the thermostat can be turning on and off at the proper temps, but the INSIDE of the hide may be cooler than the top depending on how thick the plastic is.

I have one hide that I experimented with by cutting a giant hole in the top, sanding the edges, then hot gluing repti-carpet over the hole to maintain the darkness. This helped with heat penetration but was harder to keep clean.

***This set up works for me, but my guy is not shy at all and has always been active at night. I have a T11 so there is room for three extra large "rock cave" hides from exo-terra as well as a 12 inch terracotta pot that is a hide, two java wood logs, and a ton of rocks, water dish and such. If your snake is more nervous than mine he may not come out as much either.
Thats wonderful Sounds like a good setup you have going on there!
Ive been hearing about these temp guns for the first time within these last couple of days. How on earth do those things work?