Substrate question

[Sno-x Snakes]

OK, this is a new one for me. The 8 month old carpet I just got thursday doesn't seem to like the aspen as a substrate. I set her enclosure up with Eco earth, when she arrived she had some aspen in with her, like she'd grabbed some on her way out of her previous home. The first night we left her with the eco earth, in the morning noticed she had moved it around to expose bare glass in a few spots. We decided to add some aspen in, to deepen the bedding so she wouldn't accidently contact the glass directly over the flexwatt. In the morning she had cleared another spot of the aspen, was curled in the cold spot on the eco earth.

Boyfriend, being helpful, stirred all her bedding together.

She has now cleared another bare glass spot, her body temp is 80, with the glass under her reading 77-79(temp gun)

The warm end is sitting around 88-90. Is that maybe too hot? Thought that was the normal range.

Help! She's driving me crazy. We're getting a new batch of eco earth ready, but that stuff takes forever to dry out. Could we spread it out on a cookie sheet in the oven, no heat, just pilot light, to dry it quicker?