New owner and my snake is so.. mean?

[bcr229]

Thanks so much for the reply!

I have it set a little higher to 97 because I noticed when I had it set at 92-93 my temp gun was only reading inside there at about 83. Since turning it to 97 it's been sitting at 87-88. If I had to take a guess I'd say it's probably due to the amount of substrate I have on top of it which I'd rather have a bit more than a bit less.

Move the substrate aside and take the temperature of the glass over the heat pad. Ball pythons burrow so they'll move the substrate aside. You can also put a very thin layer of substrate over the heat pad, as it doesn't take much to absorb the minimal waste from a BP.