Quote Originally Posted by Argentra View Post
Once they discover that the hides are good and safe they're un-pryable. Most new snakes don't seem to know what the hides are for, or aren't sure about the safety, so they avoid them. Every new snake I've brought home has spent the first week or two curled up in the corner behind the hides. Heck, my new adult Het Albino female is curled up in the center of the tub with her chin resting on her branch(in the store, she was kept in a medium sized acrylic display box due to lack of room) since she's so used to open spaces. Her tub is covered, tho, to make her feel more secure.

As for a thermostat, if you're short on money I would suggest you order a ZooMed ReptiTemp 500R rather than spending your money on a maddening dimmer. Trust me, I fiddled with dimmers and rheostats for months at first before discovering that the ZooMed stats are just fine for short term use. They typically run about $20-30 and do a great job keeping temps once you get everything dialed in properly. Of course, you'll want to save up for the good stats (Johnson or Herpstat) ASAP, but the ReptiTemp will give you peace of mind about temps until you can get a better t-stat. The best site I know of for those stats is ReptileSupply.com.
I'm not so worried about it anymore. He really seems to be quite the happy guy, and the only one ever in the room he's in is me, and I'm not running through the sight of his cage constantly so he shouldn't get stressed out outside of his hide. I'm just surprised, after reading so much about freshly brought-home babies being so timid and stressed, that he's really the opposite. I guess I won't know for sure until he feeds (Sunday), but as far as his shyness and other signs of stress, there are none. He's incredibly friendly, and you'd think he's already been tamed. He's pretty active, especially now that I've turned all the lights off. So I'm excited, and relieved.

As for getting the temperature under control, I bought a dimmer for one, and I do plan on getting a thermostat eventually, when I upgrade his tub/move him to a tank when I have more funds. If I'd have read that post before I bought the dimmer I probably would have taken that route. The dimmer of course doesn't give me a temperature reading, so I just have to regulate it with my hand. Between the dimmer and the bottom of the tub I have a piece of cotton cloth, just to make sure the direct heat doesn't get too hot for his belly. Between that and the dimmer, the UTH is doing well. To get the temperature up a bit more, since I was clocking it anywhere from 80 to 82 degrees F on his warm side, I bought a clamp-light, and put it above the tub facing downwards on the warm, and a 75 watt nocturnal basking light, and it seems to be doing a bang up job keeping the temperature adequate, anywhere from 88+ (I've been having to turn it on and off because if I leave it on I don't know how hot it would eventually make the enclosure). Plus, it does a good job of keeping the humidity at a decent level. Because it seems that when my temperature is getting too low, the humidity is getting too high, so it evens things out quite nicely. I'm going to buy a lower wattage bulb, though, in hopes of being able to keep it on for longer than about 10-15 minutes at a time before having to turn it off. Very hands-on.