Here's a collection of research I have done as well as my own experiences as a reptile own. In here you will find care sheets, tips, advise and other reptile related info!
Species- Royal python/ ball python Scientific name: python regius
Native to: Africa Habitat: in humid termite mounds and animal burrows found in savannas and grass lands. I see a lot of people putting sand in their ball pythons tanks, that's a big no no, despite being from Africa they are NOT desert animals but rather sub tropical and prefer a more humid substrate. Diet: mice and rats. Ball pythons tend to be picky eaters and may refuse frozen thawed. Temps: ambient temperatures should say in between 83- 85 degrees, with a basking spot of 90 Humidity: it should stay at a constant 60% but can be raised during shedding
Cage set up There are a variety of possibilities. The easiest being a being a sturdy plastic bin to a more difficult to maintain tank set up. I'll start with the bin set up
Plastic bin Get a sturdy plastic bin with a good clipping lid. The bin should be longer than it is tall as ball pythons a terrestrial. Rinse out your bin really well so it's free of dust or any residue. Melt air holes into your bin using a soldering iron or pliers to hold a heated up nail. But substrate in bin, either coco husk chips, paper towel, printless news papers, aspen, or cypress mulch. Don't ever use pine or cedar as they are toxic. Place a hide or two in. A water dish just large enough to the snake to fit in. I recommend a ceramic dog dish because they don't get tipped over easily. Place your temp and humidity gauge in. Don't use the crapy ones from the pet store, they give bad readings. Go to Walmart or homedepot and get a acurite digital gauge. It's much cheaper and works way better. Place heat pad or heat tape under the bin. Make sure you have a temp probe and temp regulator on it, so you can control its temp and prevent your snake from getting burned. All that's left is to put your snake in. If you have multiple snakes, I recommend looking into buying a snake rack.
Glass tank For a glass cage, your going to struggle with keeping the humidity up, but not to worry I have all sorts of tricks for that. Keep in mind when picking out a cage that ball pythons don't like large open spaces and aren't t good climbers. So pick a cage that is long rather than tall and don't place any high up climbing branches. Anyway first things first, make sure you have a clip on lid on your cage and not just one of the mesh that Simon top the cage, because YOUR SNAKE WILL ESCAPE!!!! They are escape artists and if you don't have a secure clipping lid I can guarantee you it will find a way to escape! So once you have a good cage picked out, your going to need to pick an appropriate substrate to use from what I mentioned earlier. For a cage your going to want something that hold more humidity, so paper towels and printless news paper may not be a good option. Rather go with something like coco husk chips, cypress mulch or aspen. Since z cage is much more out in the open with Lea privacy for your snake your going to want to black out 3 sides of the tank with paper so the cage is only visible through the front class. This will make your snake feel more comfortable. Now your going to want to add some hides, a water dish and other bits of clutter. For your hid doing use the wood logs, they get mold easily and tend to be really rough and may cause irritation to your snake. Plastic and ceramic hides are much better and easier to clean. For the water dish I recommend getting a ceramic dog dish that is just big enough for your snake to go in. The ceramic dog dishes are hard to flip over and will prevent your snake from making a soggy mess of its cage.. As for clutter you can add fake vines, low level branches or if you have bioactive set up you can add live plants. For heating your cage, do not use lights as it stresses ball pythons out and really drys up the air. Instead use a ceramic heat emitter(CHE) on a dimmer so you can control the heat out put and a regulated under tank heater. The only time you should use a light is if you have a bioactive cage because your plants need UVB. Also keep in mind the larger the cage the more clutter and hide you will need.to help keep humidity in, cover half of the lid with plastic rap and make sure it does not come in contact with the CHE or it will melt. Lightly misting the cage daily also helps.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND BALL PYTHONS SHOULD NEVER BE COHABITED TOGETHER!!!!! They are solitary animals, putting 2 together will only stress them out!!!!!
Feeding
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Ball pythons are notoriously picky eaters. Some will only eat mice, will some will only eat rats and others that refuse to eat frozen thawed. So it's super important you ask the breeder what the snake is feeding on before buying it! Most BPs will only eat live so I'm mainly going to focus on live feeding. There is a whole big myth and misconception with feeding snakes out side there enclosure. Don't do this!!!! The only thing feeding out side the cage does is one cause the snake unnecessary stress and two may cause snake to stop eating. A lot of people, including many veterinarians think that feeding in a separate cage will reduce cage aggression, BUT THIS IS A MYTH!!!! Cage aggression does not exist with snakes because their brain is to primitive to make the connection between where they are fed, nor can they recognize who is feeding them. Anyway when feeding love it is most important to remember that the snakes food has teeth and claws that can very easily harm your pet! Never leave live food alone with your snake, oven seen some horrific things rats have done to snakes. Watch and make sure your snake kills the rat/mouse. If you see the rat bitting the snake while the snake is constricting, put a pencil in the rats mouth so it can't keep bitting down on the snake. Ball pythons should be fed some thing that is not much larger than the width of the largest part of their body, once a week. Do not handle your snake for at least a day after feeding or your pet may regurgitate its food.
Authors note: that s it for now, I may update this if I find new info to add. If you have any suggestions or noticed I left something out, please let me know!!! I will make a video on feeding snakes. Also the above pictures belong to me! They are photos of my bumble bee ball Python Cerberus
