Hey guys. I just recently got my first ball python, and even though I’ve done hours of research, I find it hard to find steady answers on what the proper temperatures are. I currently have it set to where the warm side ambient temp is 85-87 and cool side bounces from 75-77. Is this okay? Or am I doing this way wrong. Humidity is not a problem at all, that seems to be the easiest thing to maintain, but I do live in Kentucky where the humidity is usually 80% in the summer and 40-60% in the winter. I just need to figure out these temps so I can make sure my baby girl thrives in her home! Any help is much appreciated. Thank you!
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They sound good! If you can, I would raise the cool side to around 80 degrees if you can (isn’t a big deal if you can’t).
I would also just like to welcome you to the community! If you have any other questions please feel free to ask! Also we love pictures!
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How do you heat? Under tank or from above?
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Here are some pics! I think I posted them correctly, I guess we will see lol.
Thank you for the welcome! I might need to add another lamp with a CHE or something to get that cool side up a bit. She seems to be doing fine but if you think going to 80 on the cool side would be beneficial then I will strive for that! I use a DHP for her warm side, seems to work great over there!
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I am using above heat, a heat lamp with a deep heat projector!
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Yes the pics turned out perfectly! I think the second picture is adorable with her little head sticking out like that! Btw what is her name?
Also if she is eating and shedding well I would not change anything tbh. As long as those two objectives are met that’s the most important part. What’s the old saying? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! 
Of course you do what you feel is best! Again, great pics and she is very pretty! 
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She’s been with me for a little under three weeks now, so I have yet to see her shed, so we will have to see how that goes! But she is acting fine and is eating perfectly. She actually has a crazy food drive lol. Sweetest little snake but when she smells that rat thawing, she comes out looking for it! 
So I wanted to name her Stevie in honor of the great Steve Irwin but my wife has been calling her Gertie, so that might be her name lol. She is gorgeous, isn’t she!? She is a pastel het hypo according to the breeder I got her from, but I’m not too worried about the morph, I just thought she was really pretty! I couldn’t have got luckier, I thought I would have to work with her a bit but she is the most friendly and social little noodle. She is a little over 6 months old, so hopefully we have a long life together!
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Well either name is fine and she could actually have 2 names, one for your wife and one for you! Imho you could not have picked a lovelier BP and I think she has a great home with you guys!
If she is eating well then she feels safe and your temps are good. What you also want to strive for is a shed that’s all in one piece, or at least close to it. Then you will know the humidity is correct as well!
Thank you for sharing her with us! Keep us updated on her progress! 
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People have different opinions on the topic tbh, and it seems that there’s actually a pretty decent variety of temps that could work. It also depends on the size of the enclosure as you obviously won’t be able to get as wide of a gradient for smaller enclosures, so people that use racks/small tubs will likely have their ambient be a bit colder. I go for about 88 ambient on the warm side, which makes the warm hide about 86. 90 plus/minus a couple of degrees seems to be the most common from what ive seen, in relatively big enclosures (36 inches or wider). It should never get above 95 though.
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In that case if you wanted to try getting the heat up a couple degrees it could be good. Not to say what your current set up is at now is bad or unhealthy!
In my opinion the top-heat sources are a little harder to control with ambient room temp swings, so if the room could swing lower I’d like the extra couple of degrees of wiggle room. I very much remember those kind of battles when I first started with the snakes!
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Stick with the temps you have. You are right in the sweet part on the hot side. Eating good and keeping it down showes the temps are good.
I am guessing you are using a glass tank. It is the hardest to keep setting correct. So if you are this close, I would leave it adding more will probably do more harm then good. If using a tank, and the top is not covered, doing so will help with the temp and humidity. But is sounds like you are set for now.
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It is currently in what they call an “ecoflex” enclosure, 36x18x18. It’s a mixture of wood and plastic composite from what I understand. It’s only temporary, she will be in a nice 4x2x2 PVC enclosure by the end of this month. But yeah she seems to be doing just fine at the temps she’s at! She seems healthy and is eating, drinking and doing everything else a snake should do! Yeah I have seen so many different answers. I’ve seen people keeping them in the 90s then the low 80s and then I’ve even seen some say they just keep them at room temperature and they’re fine. Seems there’s not one way lol.
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Your cage gradiant is usually determined by room temp and hot spot. I would get a hot spot of 90° and as long as your low side doesnt drop below 70° i think your good. Your temps seem warm enough and when you get your bigger enclosure you can probably get a wider temp gradiant. Main thing is your animal has an option to move to cooler or warmer area based on what they need to regulate.
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It’s my personal opinion that we keep most of our reptiles too hot. I don’t let my ball pythons get over 86* and 84 is my preference. My collection is fairly large and I experience no issues with digestion or growth at 84* and my fertility rate is close to or right at 100% most years.
They don’t necessarily interpret the hot spot correctly as evidenced by the amount of burned animals in the hobby. I’ve had the probe fall off of a rack before and every snake in it was intentionally setting on a dangerously hot hotspot of 120*. They don’t exactly make the wisest decisions when heat seeking.
The main reason I prefer a lower temp is because as exothermic animals they don’t exactly have control of their metabolism. The hotter you keep them the faster their metabolism moves. Given that they seem to be unable to properly assess the hotspot temp, if they’re only offered a 90* hotspot they’re going to use it, and thereby keep their metabolism running wide open. Offering then a gradient is great in theory but I’ve found that when they seek the hotspot they don’t generally hang out in a middle zone that’s an ideal temp. They sit right at the center of it. They do this at 84* and of course they do the same thing at 90*. They “see” heat, they go to it 
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The probe failure also brings up another thing most of us do when keeping reptiles, which is running heaters with WAY more power than is needed. The most common setups will turn the enclosures into a literal oven in a thermal runaway. 120F is a lucky break for most setups. You hear the horror stories of melted tubs and entire racks perishing. I always cap the power output on my thermostats to correct that fact and recommend others to do it too.
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This sounds like such a good idea. How do you do this?
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Thank you all for all of your advice! I appreciate it much! Ironically enough, I hadn’t seen her come out of her hide in a couple days so I just checked and sure enough, she’s in blue! So now we will see how her first shed with me goes, I will update on her progress now that I’ve implemented all of your suggestions! Thanks so much guys!
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Question! Now that she is in blue, today is her feed day… Should I still attempt to feed her?
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It is a feature on Herpstats. I think the VE ones have it too? I think it’s called “Max Power” on the Herpstats. It’s a % setting where 100% is like you plugged the heater directly into the wall, and you can scale it back so even if the thermostat thinks it’s really cold if will never supply more than the % you set.
These kind of thermostats seem really expensive and they have so many specialized features you’ll never use all of them, but the safety features are worth every penny if you ask me.
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She probably would eat at her size, but unless you really need to grow her fast for some reason I’d just skip personally. No harm either way
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