New owner and my snake is so.. mean?

[Craiga 01453]

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.

Happy to help!

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.

Agreed 100%.

Since your BP will burrow and push substrate aside you want to measure the actual enclosure surface, not the substrate.
My BPs push their substrate outside their hides, so I barely put any in those spots anymore. I just go super thin in the hides and let them do their thing.