Okay, let me make some things clear: I was told the information by a man who's kept ball pythons for longer than I've been alive, so he's faced the issues and he's told me what he has worked best. He encountered someone in the group who sandwiched his probe in between the UTH and the glass and had the thermostat set on 120° to get a 90° reading and that made him panic, and it made me panic too. I don't personally like having two different numbers going on just to hope that my snake is going to be okay. I'd rather have two similar numbers, but that's just me.

My ball python rarely ever uses his warm hide as a bathroom, normally he goes outside the hide to relieve himself, and if he does use his warm hide, he never stays in it and always waits until I clean and makes sure it's properly disinfected before he goes back in. I only have a UTH on his warm side and his water dish is on his cool side and it's heavy enough that he can't tip it over.

The way I have this set up with the hot glue mat, which isn't a full sheet, but does have spaces so heat can sleep up, the probe is not being able to be moved or readjusted by my snake and he is unable to borrow into his substrate. I check it almost hourly when I'm at home and first thing in the morning and right before I got to bed just to make sure it hasn't moved or any temperature fluctuations or anything like that. My ball is actually fairly good at thermoregulating himself.

I plan on updating and upgrading as soon as I can, but until all this hectic stuff calms down some, I'm stuck with this. Compared to January-March this year when I first had him, this is an upgrade as I'm now able to ensure right temperatures. When I first got him and I didn't have a temperature gun, my probe was placed at the bottom of the enclosure under a thin layer of substrate and it was cold under there and as soon as I got my temp gun, I saw that the top of that thin substrate was only in the upper 70s low 80s while the thermostat was set at 90. Right now, only one spot of his hide, where the probe is at, reads 90 and the rest is in the upper 80s and he usually stays in the back of his hide instead of the center, so he usually experiences 86-88 most of the time, but he will move over the probe if he feels the need to get warmer. If he wants to get cooler, he'll go over to his cooler hide till he deems necessary.

I wasn't trying to cause a hectic moment. I was just asking for everyone else's experiences and then stating my own. I feel like if I stated that I've been using Aspen bedding, which I plan on changing ASAP, and I've had humidity levels in 60%-70% without misting and making sure the bedding is bone dry and mold free and I've had perfect sheds and meal acceptances from my ball (except when he's in shed or something seems wrong with the rodent, which has only happened a couple of times where the rodent's stomach popped upon him striking and coiling it and he dropped it afterwards), I'd get critiqued on somehow in some way. I plan on making changes, I really do, but I wasn't asking for a full blown critique, not that I can't handle it.

I was just stating my experience and that was it. I'm not claiming that what I'm doing is correct or anything, and I know I need to make some changes and I plan on doing so, but if anything I was sharing how I overcame the issue of "the probe will be moved" situation, which is exactly what I asked the experienced keeper in the first place that he didn't answer me on and exactly what I experienced that first night. So far, almost three months later, I haven't had a situation, but as soon as I do, I'll resolve it, that can be assured.