UTH isn’t recommended for Ball pythons anymore as they are honestly ineffective at best and lethal at worst. I’ve seen horror stories about snakes heat mats and even worse about peoples houses. Even with thermostats that generally tend to fail eventually. Either way ball pythons in the wild dig to cool off not to warm up so it generally doesn’t make sense for this species.

But yes I agree to put the probes closer together and closer to the bulbs themselves. All probes for dimming thermostats should be hung anywhere between 2-4” below the bulb that they are regulating. If not they’re basically useless. And most of the time you will need to set the temps higher than you think given how high up it is.

That’s why you should have these Govee Thermometer / Hygrometer 2 pack (if you don’t already) on the ground on both your hot and cool side for accurate temps and adjust your thermostats based off of that.

Here’s my pretty recent substrate / humidity copypasta

What I currently use is about (FYI this is a total of 4-5” of substrate)

2” at the very bottom of clay balls that they use in bioactive setups mixed with coco choir.

Then 0.5”-1” of plain coco choir.

Then about 1-2” of repti bark (fir bark) the first time you set it up you’ll want to pour a quart of water into EACH of the corners of the enclosure (yes. A gallon total).

After initial setup you should only have to pour about 1-2 qts total between all 4 corners about once a week.

I recommend against sand as a bottom water retaining layer as someone who tried it before and let me tell you OH BOY IS IT FUN TO CLEAN ON DEEP CLEAN DAYS

Also. You should have 90% of any screen top cages completely covered with either HVAC Tape or what I use is this clear PVC Sheet because I use a timed LED grow light for my light cycle.

Also. If you don’t have them. I recommend Grovee Digital Thermometer / Hygrometer 2 pack. Not sure how you’re measuring humidity but how you measure it is just as important as how you make humidity. These are super cheap and super accurate. Like 30 bucks for the 2 pack so you can put one on your warm side and one on your cool side.

I recommend Govee Digital Thermometer / Hygrometer (2 pack) on Amazon! Cheap accurate and this link is for a 2 pack so one for cool and hot side!

Govee Digital Thermometer / Hygrometer (2 pack)