Just got my first ball pythons!(pics!)

I've really wanted to get into ball pythons...and finally convinced my parents to let me get some. I got a STUNNING(people were drooling over her!) female pastel, 206 grams. And a beautiful male pinstripe, 176 grams. I'm hoping to breed them in a year or two when they're ready to make some lemonblasts. I do have a few questions about them that I wanted to ask from some experienced breeders. Here they are:
What substrate would be suitable for them? I currently have them on aspen, but everyone says different things about humidity. Some people say humidity doesn't matter, some say it does. Should I just use newspaper? I've read nearly every single website and tons of books on them, and get different opinions each time. They are currently housed in an aquarium, but I'm hoping to save up for a rack.
Since I want to breed them in the future, what would be the healthiest and most effective feeding schedule for them? The person I bought them from said they are currently feeding on rat crawlers. For example, once a week? twice a week? twice every ten days?
Lastly, would it be okay to house them together?
I would love to get some feedback. Here's some pictures!

great pick ups... where did you get them from if you dont mind me asking

I got them at the manassas show. Im not sure of the vendors names off the top of my head, but if you want I could get the name. They gave me an awesome deal.

Nice snakes! A couple answers to your questions.

Yes, humidity is important. I like it to be between 50-65%. If its too dry or too moist, you can run into respiratory infects, mold, bacteria growth etc.

Best substrate will depend on your choice and experience. For an open top tank, I would say stay with the aspen because it will saturate and soak up water when you mist and help stabilize humidity. You can also take a Tupperware with a lid, cut a hole and make a humid hide for them to use when they need it. I wouldn't use newspaper yet unless you can obligate to the extra misting that would be required. Also, newspaper that is misted too often can have your snake sitting in water and it could develop belly rot.

For feeding, the simplest and easiest way to stay on schedule is weekly, although I feed snakes of that size every five days until they get a little bit bigger.

Don't house them together. There are too many problems with that to list everything that could go wrong. Some examples are breeding too young or complications during feeding.

Good luck!

Also, they have a smaller cut of the aspen you are using called Sani chips. Again, it's all preference, but I started using it for my smaller snakes this year in case the shredded gets caught up in their mouth. I havent had this problem with the bigger snakes. I use the aspen in your pics for all my larger snakes and paper towels for hatchlings. I use newspaper for breeding so nothing gets pulled into the males hemipenes.

Great looking snakes that pastel has fantastic colors.

Some answers for you questions, for substrate i either like to use aspen or paper towel. Aspen is my choice for its easy to clean, looks good, and can give your animal the right to burrow if need be. The only thing i suggest is that you keep a deep water bowl in the enclosure since aspen tends to be dry (Works fine for me, full sheds everytime). Some other good options would be cypress mulch for a higher humidy, paper towel for an easy clean up, or unprinted newspaper, all of which work just fine. For a feeding schedule i feed most of my snakes once a week unless i want to put some extra size a particular animal in which case ill feed one to more meals a week-10 days. In your situation i would stick to one good sized meal a week. This way it would be the most healthy for the animal along with a steady diet but its completely up to you.

I hope this answers some of your questions and feel free to ask more on what your unsure of.

BEAUTIFUL snakes, congrats and wish you luck!

yeah i need that info looking to ad to my small collection..

THank you so much for the information everyone! I'll definitely use it for reference.
I have another question now about racks...(for ball pythons)
My dad said he could make one for me, so I was wondering how to make them. Are there any DIYs handy that are reputable? I/m wondering more about the heat tape, too. Any specific website to buy it on? If my dad made the rack out of wood, would it be safe to use the heat tape on? Or would he have to spray something to protect the wood? Is it easy to manage temperature with heat tape? More general, how exactly does it work? Sorry for all these questions!

Usually the best wood to make them out of is pvc. Pvc is a light and durable board that works quite well but may be either rather expensive or hard to work with. Another option i use is melamine particle board. Great for racks, it is very strong and holds up to humidity well. Downside is its very heavy and sometimes splits, cracks or chips easy. Thats if you want to go the DIY route.

If your looking to buy a good starter rack would be a rack made by reptile basics. Great for the price, it comes with heat, tubs, shipping, fully assembled and made from pvc. Great place to buy for quality racks at a cheaper price. www.reptilebasics.com

You can also buy heattape and a thermostat from their as well.

Hope this helps!

Reptile Basics will have most of what you need, if not all.

Here's a pretty good write up I used years ago. It's outdated and you can't really find the parts, but it gives you a good direction.

Home Depot sells precut pieces of melamine that are the perfect size for 41qt sterlite tubs (appx 18"x36"). You can use eight of the appx 18"x36" sheets and make a seven tier rack with the below DIY. I used the 12"x48" melamine strips for the sides but you can use 2x4's or any other wood and guy as high as you want.

http://www.reptilianprojects.com/ladderrack.html

Thank you all for the advice! I am looking at the racks on ReptileBasics and I'm trying to decipher which rack is the best for their size. I was looking at this one http://www.reptilebasics.com/iris-mcb-s-rack-wide-version but I'm not sure if the tubs are too big. I also saw this one http://www.reptilebasics.com/iris-shoe-box-rack-12-or-16-tub-sizes.
I'm thinking the last one is the best size, but I want your judgments to be sure the snakes wont be stressed and will have a suitable environment. I am also wondering if you can adjust the temps from built-in heat the racks have?
Here are some better size reference pics of the snakes I took so you all could help me determine a good size rack w/ tubs.
The dimensions of this tub is 9 inches long, 6 inches Wide, and 4 inches tall. And again, I really appreciate the help!

Do you have a weight scale? To know how many grams they are? They look to be about 100-200 gram range

Nice

Yes, pinstripe is 176 grams and pastel is 206.

The hatchling rack should be perfect for em. the tubs they use are longer nd alittle bit wider then the ones in the photo. Great little tubs they can live to be about 300-500 grams in there

Thank you for you help!

Anytime glad to help!