Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm thinking of getting a Ball, and I just had a few questions... would a 30 gal tank be sufficent for it's life time?

Would Bed-A-Beast (Coconut Fiber) be an okay substrate?

Do Ball Pythons need climbing branches and other things?

Can someone post pics of thier Ball Python enclosures?

I don't like to use aquariums for snakes, reptiles cages work best. Animal Plastics has nice cages and racks , check them out. I have a friend that uses the coconut shavings and he claims they work for balls , but I just use newspaper or paper towels for the rubbermaid tubs. Balls don't need things to climb on they will climb some but don't need to they are ground dwellers in the wild. Anthony McCain-McCain's Reptiles.

DragonDavy

For starters, a 30 gallon aquarium would probably be a little small unless you got a below average sized male (males are smaller than females) or you plan on having him out of his cage for a majority of the time. A 40gallon breeder would work better for a ball python (costs more, but you'd have a happier snake). As for a substrate, I use a Cypress mulch because it's non-toxic, holds moisture, it smells good, and it tends to clump to feces and urine. As far as something to climb on, my pythons are extremely inactive during the daytime (ball pythons are nocturnal) and just hide in their various hide boxes, but at night in complete darkness they will roam around the cage and climb around everything in it. Make sure you've got a decent size water dish, hide boxes on both sides and something for it to climb on at night.

As far as my cage setup, these were built by a friend who breeds Columbian boas. They measure 4'x2'x18". They're heated by 2' of 10" heat tape on one side and have an ESU light fixture screwed to the top of the ceiling so they have the proper lighting. I've got 2 Ball Pythons on the bottom (you can see the adult male) and a 5' Irian Jaya Carpet Python in the top cage. Let me know if you've got any other questions.

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1.0 Anery Columbian Redtail Boa
1.0 Striped Irian Jaya Carpet Python
0.1 Gray Banded Kingsnake
1.1 Ball Python
1.0 Sunglow Striped Corn
1.1 Leopard Gecko (Male-Albino, Female-Reduced Pattern)
Various Fish

Hey brother, Balls are awesome snakes!! Hope you decide to get one. I suggest using an UTH ( under tank heater ) on one side of the tank. Then put a hide on the hot side and on the cool side.
Here's my opinion on the questions you asked.

- 30 gallon has MORE than enough floor space for at least a couple yrs worth of growth. If you want to spend 300 bucks to get a reptile cage go ahead, but I would suggest sticking with the glass aquarium/screened topped set up. You can always upgrade later on in the snakes life if need be.
- Coconut subtrate rocks!! I usued to use Reptile Bark, and then I decided to switch to the coconut, it holds humidity very well, works well when it comes time for him to shed, so when u spray the subtrate down then put the hide back over the heat source, it will actually "rain" inside the cave/hide.
- As far as the climbing thing, yes, they are ground dwelling snakes, but, that doesn't mean they don't enjoy climbing. I mean the way I look at it, when we were younger we used to climb trees in the backyard and we're ground dwelling creatures too!!

The pic of Xavier's Enclosure is kinda old, I added some leaves to his climbing vines and I have a larger than needed cave for him now,

Hope that helped.