Last night I went to pick up a BP, not sure of age... its about 1.5-2ft long, and 1.75"-2" wide at its thickest. Nice healthy snake.. he said it had mites but he treated it. (not sure of sex either). Nothing around the nose/eyes, breathes ok.

It came with a 50g tank, light, and some general stuff for the cage. I bought a 40g under tank heat pad, and a 150watt infrared heat lamp, a large half log hide. It came with a nice rock type (heavy) water dish.

This is my first BP so I'm nervous along with a lot a bit of excited! On the warm side of the tank (where the hide/climb logs are) its about 88-91 degrees. On the cooler side (water dish, fake decoration plants) its around 77-82 degrees. About mid tank, its between the two. I have the heat pad set up mid tank (closer to warm side).

Humidity I'm have a HUGE problem. I know it needs to be around 50%, right now im at 17%. Last night it dropped down to 10%! The top of the cage is a open screen, so today i taped some tin foil (not reflective side aimed down) about 3/4 the way covering the cool side. I left room for some air to get out, and also for the heat lamp. The substrate (i think thats what its called, if im wrong, than the bedding) is like a mossy/dirt. I put some beak moss around the water dish (says its acceptable for snakes) and some around the climb stick on the warm side. I cant get the humidity to stay up! I didnt have a clean spray bottle yesterday, but I plan to spray it twice a day, once at night, and once in the morning.. possibly mid day also.

Im changing the water daily(and plan to) with cold fresh water. I have a stick on thermometer about mid cage, a digital humidity reader, and a digital thermometer.

Also, I plan on buying a type of snake bark bedding to put ontop of the dirt.. with intentions of increasing humidity.

The guy i got it from said he was just fed 4-5 days ago.. Im going away this weekend and when i return on monday, i plan to try and feed him(or her).

A few questions, can I leave the infrared light on all day/night? Its nice to see where my little friend is at night, and it DOES keep the right temp all day/night. Secondly, is the bedding i currently have ok? Its called T-rex Forest bed expandable substrate. Is it ok to put some type of reptile woodchips on top of this? Which kind of woodchips should i get?

Thanks a ton,

Derek