Facts About Ball Pythons You Should Know

Ball pythons do well in captivity. They can be kept in a large glass cage with cypress, moss, or newspaper. Humidity should be near about 50%. These snakes prefer high temperature. They have sensitive skin. You can use a heating pad. You should make water available all the time. You should change the water regularly. They eat only two or three times every week. You can feed them frozen or thawed mice.

Ball pythons are dark brown in color. Sometimes they can be close to black. They have blotches of red, reddish brown, yellow-orange etc. The color and the patches vary according to the geo-location. Ghana ball pythons have yellow-orange coloration. It is very popular among python enthusiasts.

The current ball python population in captivity mostly originated from breeding stock in Ghana and Toga. Ball pythons are kept in captivity and bred from long enough. They are popular as pets for more than one century. Altered colors are produced by selective breeding. Now it is easy to produce a wide range of color morphs.

Ball pythons are found in the territories of sub-Saharan Africa. The range covers a wide swath of central Africa + parts of east Africa. This territory covers Senegal, Sudan, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, the Central African republic, Uganda, and Zaire. They are found also in Chad, Niger, Sierra, Guinea, Liberia, Leone, Ivory Coast, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Benin.

This species of snake is threatened across most of its range. They are food and source of leather for local communities. Trapping, hunting, habitat destruction, and collecting the snakes for pet-trade are the reasons for this. Most pet ball pythons are bred in captivity in the US and other developed nations. But there is a black market trade with these snakes.

These snakes prefer open air habitats. They live in savannahs and other grasslands. They live in sparse forests, overgrown fields, and along the edges of agricultural areas. They seek shelter in small mammal burrows, hollow logs, or termite mounds. They are mostly ground snakes. They can climb trees and shelter in hollows if available. They are attracted to large rodent populations. They hunt in barns, tilled fields, and village outskirts frequently. But they do not stay in an active agricultural field.

Female adult ball pythons grow 4.5 feet long on an average. Males grow 3.5 feet. The longest ball python was 6 feet long as per record. They have a small head, a stocky build, and smooth scales. Both male and female adults have spurs on both sides of the anal vent. Males have larger spurs. You can determine their sex by the hemipenes. Hemipenes confirms the male gender.

Female snakes produce a clutch of 6 or 7 eggs each year. They find an abandoned rodent burrow for the eggs. She stays coiled around her eggs throughout the incubation period. The incubation period lasts for 3 months. Coiling around the eggs modifies the humidity and temperature. It protects the clutch also.

A pet ball python is not capable of killing any human. But it can injure one. They are very docile as a species. But individual ball pythons can be aggressive. They can attempt to bite their owners too. But this aggression can be handled over time with proper handling. But there is always a risk. So you should buy a baby ball python as a pet. Because altering its behavior is very tough.

Salmonella and other bacterias are always threats to serpent owners. The best method to keep it away is to keep the cage clean and use hand-washing after interactions. You should do a thorough research before buying one snake. Be alert about black market trade, research about the seller, and be aware of sick and neglected snakes.