Need some advice

[u/Different_Travel_152]

So this past Friday I got my first ball python and I had one of the guys at the store help me on what to get and he only gave me a heat pad and everything I’ve read has said that bp’s need warm air and not just the heat pad and with only the heat pad the cage is staying between 68-70 degrees so I’m trying to figure out how big of a bulb I need for the tank if anyone could help it would be much appreciated and if anyone has any questions that could help lead to figuring out just what he needs it feel free to ask

[u/Few_Page6404]

Your snake has a lot more requirements than just temperature. Read through the Resources links on this subreddit.

most pressing: Your snake needs temperature, humidity, security, food. Some of this will be trial and error for you. I suspect you will struggle most with humidity, most new owners do. Keep a nice thick bed of substrate so it can retain water and humidify the tank over time. Pouring water into the substrate is much more reliable than constant misting by hand. As for temperature, I keep a long tank so I can have a temperature gradient, with a hidey spot on each end. Aim for 75-80 F on the cool side and 85-90 on the warm side. Ball Pythons don't do a lot of basking, so he'll need a warm hide to help with digestion, but if he wants to chill out, he needs a cooler hide as well. Humidity should be ~70%. It will fluctuate with temperature changes, and when they are shedding they appreciate more. That's not usually a problem, since the hides themselve can be a bit higher in humidity than ambient in the tank. I have two kinds of hides. For the hide he spends most of his time in (the warm side) I use a PVC pipe connector hide. My snakes seem to love it, and it's easy to clean and prevents scale rot from them laying in overly damp substrate. For the cooler moister side, I use one of those plastic snake hide with no bottom. That one tends to be moister because it traps it in from the substrate. Snake uses whichever they prefer in the moment.

[u/Different_Travel_152 → u/Few_Page6404]

The humidity isn’t the problem I’ve had spiders before and I know it’s 2 completely different worlds but I am good with the humidity management part I have 2 hides in his cage on both the warm side and cool side it’s just like I said in my first thing it’s the heat I’m worrying about and I have some zoomed forest floor substrate in the bottom plus moss too help with humidity if you would like I could send a picture of the cage so you could see what I got goin on