Ever since my Zebes moved to his new tub setup I noticed he moves between his cool and warm hides fairly regularly. I thought this was unusual since in his old enclosure he would almost never leave the warm hide. And then it hit me. I messed up on his old hides and never gave him a bigger one for the cool side once he got older so he was forced to stay on the warmer end. I think I meant to but when I went to the store at the time there was only one of the bigger hides I was using and it just never crossed my mind afterwards.
Wasn't too worried about it since I had ordered better plastic hides from Reptile Basics compared to his old log hides, but due to not measuring beforehand they didn't fit properly. Again, wasn't worried since I was already planning on making a tub setup to move him to before his T10 enclosure arrives whenever when. Except I came down with what was basically mono (slightly different virus but same symptoms) shortly after so the project remained dormant for two months. So he was stuck having to remain on the warm end for over two months and I even noticed at times he would remain halfway out the log and even laid half his body on top of it to try and avoid the heat.
In short, I just feel awful in retrospect. Some of it was beyond my control like the illness but I still feel irresponsible and am now worried if any lasting damage was caused. I know I'm probably being overly hard on myself but making any mistakes with him is such a sticking point due to experiences with my previous snake where I didn't do much right and ultimately rehomed it, a choice that will forever haunt me. Thus my steeled resolve to do everything correctly and by the books.