Cypress substrate and UTH

[Pilch]

I've had the snake about 6 weeks. He is not a baby, probably 4-5 years old and 2.5-3 ft long. I actually have him temporarily from my daughter who is prepping to move, but it's a multi-month process that just started recently. He was eating regularly before, but he has not eaten in probably 3 months or so (at least 2 months before he moved here). I attribute that to a) coming out of winter months, b) moving to a new home, and c) he shed recently. I try to feed him every 2-3 weeks. He's not showing any signs of illness or weight loss that I can tell, and he's pretty active at night or when I take him out of the tank to clean it. He has a pretty gentle disposition, not aggressive or jumpy, likes to climb my arms and shoulders. I'm just trying to be patient. So maybe substrate change is not a good idea right now.

I've actually had trouble getting the temps up with the IR lamps that came with the tank (the whole rig was put together by my daughter), which is why I put the heating pad in. I've got things adjusted where the surface temps on the warm side measure around 90-92 (I got an IR laser thermometer), and the cool side is right around 80 but dips to 77-ish at the very far end, like the last inch or two of the tank. There's a thermometer as part of the humidifier that measures ambient temps right around 80 on the warm side. There was a bit of trial and error over the last week where temps were all over the place-- the combination of lamp placement and UTH thermostat settings were all over the place from hi 70s to hi 90s, but I think I have it dialed in (ended up having to turn one of the lamps off entirely). I'm sure he was not happy about the temperature swings, but I think we're stable now for the last few days.

Oh, and there are both warm and cool side hides for him, water dish is on the cool side.

Really appreciate your guidance! This is what I was hoping for joining this forum.