Ball Python
It takes the name from curling into a ball with its head tucked inside. West African, slow moving, and bred into a wider range of colour morphs than any snake.
Photo by Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0
Overview
The ball python is a small, heavy bodied African python from the grasslands and open forests of West and Central Africa, and it is the most kept snake in the world for good reasons. ADW gives 1 to 1.5 m for adults, with the largest wild animal recorded at 1.83 m, so a full grown one is a snake you can hold in two hands rather than one that needs a second person.
It gets its name from what it does when frightened. Rather than strike, it pulls into a tight ball with the head at the centre, and waits.
Temperament
Slow, deliberate and defensive rather than aggressive. Balling up is the whole defensive repertoire, and a well started captive bred animal usually stops doing it within a few weeks of regular handling.
In the wild they spend most of their time on or under the ground in burrows, which is why a ball python in a bare open enclosure behaves like a stressed one. Give it two hides, one at each end, and it uses them. Hunger strikes are common and normal in this species, particularly through the cooler months, and a healthy adult can miss meals for weeks without losing condition.
Care and grooming
Frozen thawed rodents, every one to two weeks for an adult. Prey is thawed under refrigeration and then warmed to room temperature or above before offering.
Live rodents are the avoidable risk. A rat that is not eaten will bite, and veterinary sources describe prey induced trauma running from superficial wounds to deep punctures needing surgery, with infection and death as the end of the untreated version. The nutrition is identical either way, since the snake is eating the same tissue.
Living and exercise
Four feet of enclosure length for an adult, with a warm side at 88 to 92 F, a cool side around 78 F, and humidity at 55 to 60 percent. The thermal gradient is not decoration: a snake regulates its temperature by moving, and an enclosure that is one temperature throughout removes its only control.
UVB is optional and there is reasonable evidence they do better with it. What is not optional is a secure lid. A snake that can lift a screen will.
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