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Why this guide exists

This is the care guide I wish I'd had when my first ball pythons arrived. It's what I actually do in my snake room, checked against veterinary references, product labels, peer-reviewed papers and the breeders I trust, with every source listed at the end of each chapter and in the Sources chapter.

Disclaimer. I'm not a veterinarian and I don't hold a degree in animal science or animal care. This is a guide I compiled and use with my own ball pythons. Where I say "our practice," that's what we do here, not a vet's instruction. For a sick animal, a reptile vet is the authority, not this page. Find one through the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians.

How to read it

Every number in this guide is one of three things:

• A vet reference or a product label. Cited with a link. If the label and a forum disagree, the label wins.
• A published study. Cited with the journal and a link.
• Our practice. Marked as such. These are choices that work in our room, and other experienced keepers may do it differently.

Where good sources disagree with each other, the chapter says so and tells you which way we went.

The animal in one page

• Species: Python regius, the ball python (royal python outside the US). Native to West and Central Africa, from Senegal east to Uganda and South Sudan, in savanna and open forest [1][5].
• Size: adults are usually around 4 feet, some past 5. Females run longer and heavier than males [2][3][5].
• Lifespan: 15 to 30 years is normal with good care (LafeberVet says 20 and up), and older animals are on record; the Saint Louis Zoo's female laid eggs at about 62 [2][3][4].
• Activity: they're most active at night and at dusk and dawn, and they hide by day [3][5]. We offer food after dark.
• The ball: when frightened, a ball python coils into a tight ball with its head tucked in the middle. That's where the name comes from. It's fear, not aggression [2][5].
• Status: listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN (assessed 2021, published 2022), with collection for the pet trade among the pressures, and on CITES Appendix II. Buy captive-bred [6].
• Sex: boas and pythons have XY sex chromosomes like mammals, not the ZW system most people assumed for snakes; it was shown in a boa and a Burmese python and is taken to hold for ball pythons [7]. Sex is set at fertilization, not by incubation temperature.

Sources for this chapter

1. The Reptile Database, Python regius
2. LafeberVet, Basic information sheet: boas and pythons
3. ReptiFiles, Ball python care guide
4. Saint Louis Zoo ball python, reported by IFLScience and Mental Floss (2020)
5. Wikipedia: Ball python (habitat, size difference, activity, and the origin of the name, citing Mehrtens, J. M. (1987), Living Snakes of the World in Color)
6. D'Cruze, N. et al. (2022), IUCN Red List assessment for Python regius; US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ball python (Python regius) (CITES Appendix II)
7. Gamble, T. et al. (2017), "The discovery of XY sex chromosomes in a boa and python," Current Biology 27(14), doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.010