Care Sheet for Ball PythonsAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 4.00 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 01/27/2007 |
Main Category: | Snakes |
Sub Category: | Ball Pythons |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Tiger python |
Years Experience: | 1 to 2 Years |
Species: | Ball python |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | any ball python morphs |
Sexing and Characteristics: | The only way to sex a ball python is to get it probed. though there have been rumors that you can tell by their tails or their spurs they are not true. You must get them probed. Make sure you get it done by someone who has done it before and will not hurt the snake.
Ball pythons have a dark background with many brown splotches on their back. They also have a stripe on their eye and on the end of their tail. there are also many captive bred morphs. They like to spend their days hiding and their nights out and about climbing on logs or just looking around the cage. |
Mostly Active During: | Night |
Substrate and Water Needs: | Ball pythons must have water at all times. I have also realized that any chance you have you should change the water because it spoils and becomes nasty. Ball Pythons love to soak in water especially when they are shedding or gravid. They also enjoy a drink quite often but won’t take one with dirty water present.
For substrate there are several uses. I use aspen for my ball python and he seems to love it. You may also use newspaper, which is easy to clean but not so attractive, you can use cypress, aspen, or other kinds of reptile wood chips which can keep humidity in and look good but they are harder to clean. Or you could use cage liner. It is also easy to clean and looks fairly good. You also don’t have to replace it for a while.
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Lighting and UVB: | Ball Pythons don’t need special lighting or UVB. they do, however, do well with a photo period which can be achieved by a clip lamp. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | The temperature in a ball pythons cage should be around 80-85 on the cool end in the day and 90-95 on the hot end in the day. During the night time those temps can drop a few degrees. For humidity, it should be around 50-60% and while the snake is shedding you can and should raise it to 70-75% Humidity can be gained by adding cypress mulch, putting a towel over the cage, using a bigger water bowl, misting however often as needed, or using shagnum moss which works well to bring up the humidity and as a decoration. You can also have a humid hid with moist moss inside. That helps alot with shedding. |
Heating and Equipment: | There are a couple of things you may use to heat the tank or tub. One easy way is to use an UTH (Under Tank Heater) If you put it on one side of the tank than that would take care of it. You may also use heat lamps although they may not be as reliable. |
Caging Provided: | For juvenile ball pythons you should house them in a ten gallon aquarium until you can see they are getting too big. Then you can move them to a twenty gallon tank for probably the next few years or until they reach a size of around 37". Then you should either get a thirty gallon breeder tank, something slightly larger than that, like a 40 gallon, or you can custom make a tank. which is somewhat easy and looks good. Some people also use the appropriate sized tub for their snake and that works fine as well. |
Diet: | Carnivorous |
Description of Diet: | These snakes should be fed mice or rats from when they are babies on up. The general rule of thumb is that the mouse/rat should be no bigger than the largest section of the snake. Baby/adolescent snakes should be fed once a week and older snakes can be fed once every two to three weeks depending on age and size. |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | Ball Pythons don’t need any extra supplements unless it is sick or malnutritious. If it is healthy than it is fine. |
Maintenance: | The snakes water, as i earlier mentioned, should be changed at least once every three days and preferably once a day. The substrate should be cleaned as needed. and about once a month different items in the cage should be taken out and washed with a reptile friendly disinfectant. |
Some Words on this Species: | Ball pythons are a real joy to keep. i get to go to bed every night knowing i’m gonna get to see mine crawl all around his cage. It is so amazing to see how they mice/eat or anything else. they never cease to amaze me and the fact that they are so beautiful makes it all the better. i hope to have mine for years to come |
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