Beginner Help
I'm having a hard time deciding on a snake. My son wants a snake for his upcoming 9th birthday and I've always wanted one since I was a kid, but have never had one. He initially wanted a ball python after holding one at a birthday party. But I had been considering a corn snake.
What we think we like about a python: that they get thick and heavy, that they just chill.
What we think we like about a corn: more active (we like the idea of movement in our hands and such), more diurnal, requires not as much humidity as a ball (I think).
Once it is situated we intend to handle it daily and I understand BPs to be nocturnal so I worry about disturbing it during the day. I also worry about keeping the humidity up because we have a glass enclosure with a mesh top.
The picture is what we've got going on right now. Still trying to figure out how to stabilize it.
Plants are live pothos and snake plants in topsoil/sand/coconut loam with catappa leaf litter. We are considering going more bioactive but I haven't invested in bugs yet. A month ago I did throw in a bunch of wild rolly pollies from my garden (which I've read is frowned upon, but they seem fine and healthy).
Humidity is stuck around 53%, but I have yet to try putting cardboard or duct tape across the mesh to keep it in.
I have 2 govee thermometer/hygrometers.
Cool side is at 76°F and warm side is at 81°F, which don't seem ideal to me. I also have a dimming thermostat with a probe and where the probe hangs (over the slate rock) the probe says it's at 89°.
One of the domes is an infrared heat projector the other is just a red lamp I had already had just trying to see if it keeps the heat up.
I also have a UVA/UVB lamp but it's not turned on in the picture because as I understand it it's just for basking not heat (?) so I don't want to run it without a creature in.
There's also a grow light in a lamp above the whole thing but that's mostly for the plants.
The tank is on the floor, which I read wasn't great because snakes feel vibrations, but it's on the ground floor of a concrete slab and on heavily padded carpet in a low traffic room.
I'm waiting on another hide to come in and a "swimming pool" to put in the cool side corner.
I also have sphagnum moss to add, but I was waiting till closer to when we get a snake.
Main Questions:
What do I need to modify?
What snake would you personally recommend to me and my son, considering that we will probably never get a second? (So we're locking in for the next 20ish years.)
There is an expo coming up in our area next week, but is MorphMarket a safe place to buy?