Welcome to BPNet, glad you've joined us and it's wonderful you and your daughter (and hopefully soon your wife) are entering the wonderful world of snake keeping. Ball Pythons make a great first snake with, as you've seen, some tweeking of their environment.


My only addition to the great advice you've gotten so far is to not spend a fortune on a fancy digital device. Just head over to WalMart (or Lowe's or Home Depot) and grab an Acu-Rite. They are in the outdoor thermometer area and retail for around $11.00 plus 1 AAA battery. Lowe's and Home Depot sell a similar product but under a different brand name. Just pop the actual unit in the cooler end of the enclosure (velcro it if you want but NO tape please near snakes)....then run the probe on it's long thing cord over to the warmer end and just tuck it into a hide over there (you can bury the cord or run it out and then back into the enclosure).



Also when you are adding addition hides think barely bigger than your baby snake curled up, dark, easy to clean...doesn't have to be anything fancy or expensive...here's one of our bigger females in her hide. It's just a big heavy rubber dog dish flipped over and an entrance hole cut in but the snakes love them!



Please feel free to ask tons of questions. Everyone was new to this hobby at some time or other so don't feel shy about asking for help or direction for your own research into the care of those wonderful creatures.