How To Set Up A Ball Python Enclosure

Congratulations on getting your commencement ball python (Python regius). Earlier you lot bring your snake dwelling house, yous need to prepare a tank for your brawl python to live in. A ball python is a tropical snake, then information technology needs a comfortably warm and boiling enclosure. You want to give your pet snake plenty of space to motility around in without leaving it feeling stressed and vulnerable.

A ball python nether iii anxiety long volition need an enclosure that's around 20 gallons in size, while ane over 3 feet long will need forty gallons of space. Drinking glass, plastic, and wood are good options for your snake's tank. Exist sure to keep the warm end of the enclosure between 85 and xc degrees Fahrenheit, and the cool cease no lower than 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Replenish your ball python'due south tank with a quality substrate, hides, a source of water, and plants or branches.

You want to create a home where your ball python will thrive. If this is your first time owning a ball python, there are details you need to learn to get it right. Hither nosotros lay out everything you need to know about setting up your ball python's tank, giving you lot plenty of unlike options.

Setting Up A Ball Python Tank

It'south time to create the perfect abode for your brawl python. We volition commencement by discussing the tank itself, and then nosotros volition give you some ideas for setting up an enriching environs within.

What Tank Size?

According to the Journal of Veterinarian Beliefs , while a snake may seem a rather sedentary creature, information technology nevertheless uses a significant amount of space. A ball python needs room to move effectually and explore.

How big an enclosure your ball python needs will vary based on how big the ball python is. A ball python on average will grow to exist betwixt 3 and four feet long. Notwithstanding, it can grow to be as large every bit 5 feet long. A female ball python will grow to be larger than a male due to sexual dimorphism.

This snake is happiest when information technology has room to move around on the ground and besides some room to climb upwards as well. Here is a quick overview of tank size requirements for a ball python:

Historic period Group	Ball Python Size	Tank Size Requirement
Hatchling:	Around 1 foot long	ten gallons (about 20 ten 12 x 10 inches)
Juvenile:	2 to 3 feet long	20 gallons (nigh 24 x 16 ten 12 inches)
Adult:	three to 5 anxiety long	twoscore gallons (well-nigh 36 x 18 x 16 inches)

If you get your ball python when it is a hatchling, be sure to upgrade it to a larger tank every bit it grows in size.

What Type Of Tank?

Yous have many options for what blazon of tank to provide for your ball python. Permit's take a expect at the different materials ball python enclosures tin be made of, so you tin can make the best determination for yourself.

Glass

Many owners avoid glass enclosures because it is difficult to maintain a consequent temperature or humidity. Glass is not good at keeping in heat.

Yet, the ability of glass to dissipate estrus makes it easy to create a comfortable gradient of temperatures for your ball python – a warm side and a cool side. It is of import to give your snake a thermal gradient.

Glass enclosures also look very nice, giving y'all a clear view of your brawl python. Glass is easy to clean and keeps itself dry out within, discouraging mold growth. Be conscientious when moving a glass enclosure, considering information technology tends to be heavy and naturally is not very durable if dropped.

If you go your brawl python a glass enclosure, it is a skillful idea to cover ii or 3 of the tank's walls with an opaque material, such as material or construction paper. This will help your ball python feel secure in its domicile.

Exo Terra High Drinking glass Terrarium

As an example of a glass terrarium, cheque out this Exo Terra High Glass Terrarium. This terrarium comes in a diverseness of sizes perfect for small, medium, and large brawl pythons. It has front-opening dual doors for easy admission to your ball python, with a lock to prevent a serpent escape.

Plastic

A plastic enclosure is more than durable and lightweight than a glass tank, great if you expect to have reason to movement your ball python'south home effectually. Plastic is also relatively easy to clean and holds heat and humidity in well.

A plastic snake container opens in the front and is already opaque on all sides except for its front. These enclosures are attractive to wait at and therefore very pop for people with a pet serpent.

Wood

Many ball python owners choose a wooden vivarium for their snake. Wood is a good textile when it comes to keeping temperature and humidity levels high.

It can exist harder to run into your snake within through the opaque walls, but your ball python will feel secure with solid walls around its home. Also, many people like the mode that the wooden structure looks in their house.

Whatever blazon of tank y'all choose, brand sure information technology has a secure lid. A front-opening enclosure is easiest to keep securely closed, merely many enclosures have a screen top instead.

The problem is, a ball python is a curious animal that loves to poke around, which can lead to it getting out of the enclosure. Clamps and locks tin can hold a lid securely in place, preventing your ball python from escaping.

What To Put Inside The Tank

Now that you lot accept a dwelling for your ball python, it is time to furnish information technology. A ball python needs substrate to crawl on top of, hides to take cover nether, and other furnishings as well. Allow's get over these categories 1 at a time.

Substrate

A brawl python is nigh comfortable with a substrate which holds in moisture well for humidity purposes, without condign damp or outright wet. Also much dampness against your ball python'south abdomen can lead to medical conditions such as calibration rot.

Prophylactic substrates for your brawl python include the following:

Paper products, such equally paper towel or newspaper
Orchid bark
Cypress mulch

The following substrates can be harmful to your serpent's skin and lungs and should be avoided:

Cedar shavings
Sand

Provide your ball python with enough of a layer of substrate for information technology to couch around in if it then chooses.

Hides

Your ball python will not enjoy feeling similar it is exposed out in the open. It is a good idea to provide your snake with a few places to hide.

two or 3 hides in the enclosure should exist plenty, as long every bit at least i is on the warm side of the enclosure and 1 is on the cooler side. This will allow your ball python to feel comfortably hidden no affair what temperature it needs at the moment.

A hide tin be anything that a brawl python can completely hide itself under, as it would hide in a log or a cave in the wild. Y'all can make your ain hide at dwelling by cutting some holes into an old cardboard box, plastic container, or even a ceramic flowerpot.

Exo Terra Reptile Den

You can likewise buy a hide pre-made for your ball python. This Exo Terra Reptile Den looks similar a natural rocky cave. Information technology is a stable structure that will provide a skillful hiding place for your ball python without you having to worry about the rocks falling over and pain the snake.

Water Source

Your ball python needs a source of fresh, clean water all the time. This can be a simple water bowl. Just be sure that the basin is large enough for your ball python to completely soak itself in if it then chooses. At the same fourth dimension, do not put in a bowl so deep that the python will become trapped inside.

Supersede the water with fresh h2o every twenty-four hour period. Tap water should be fine, but if you lot are concerned about the safety of your local tap h2o, bottled water will work as well. Exist careful non to requite your serpent distilled water.

Clean and disinfect the water bowl at a minimum of once per week. If your ball python urinates or defecates in its water, clean out the bowl correct away.

Live Plants

You lot can create a naturalistic surroundings for your ball python. If yous put living plants into the enclosure, you will create a truly wild snake domicile.

An article in Veterinary Clinics of N America: Exotic Animal Practice explains that a naturalistic vivarium setup has ii purposes. It recreates the essential elements of the ball python'south natural habitat. Information technology also creates an aesthetically highly-seasoned display.

The live plants non just provide a lot of hiding spots for your ophidian to experience secure in, merely they also help maintain humidity levels for your snake. Yous should merely demand to mist the plants each day to proceed them good for you.

Living Environment Weather condition

At that place'southward more than to setting up a ball python'south enclosure than what you put inside information technology. You lot are creating a healthy environment for your snake, and that includes making certain it has the right kind of atmosphere.

Lighting

Your ball python is a nocturnal animate being, then it will be nigh active at dark. In order to help your snake maintain its natural rhythms, it needs a proper twenty-four hour period/dark bike of lighting.

A ball python needs about 12 hours of daytime lighting and 12 hours of darkness. This may come from the natural lighting in your firm. If not, yous can set up a lamp on a timer.

Many such lamps double as basking lights to keep your brawl python's enclosure at the right temperature. If you are using a lamp for both heat and light, get a lamp with a blood-red calorie-free setting and then that it will non bother your ball python at night.

Temperature

The brawl python species comes from the African grasslands. Information technology gets very warm there. Your chore is to mimic that African warmth in your snake'due south enclosure. Exist sure to attach a thermometer to each side of the enclosure to go on track of the warm and absurd temperature gradients.

Warm Side: 85 degrees Fahrenheit to ninety degrees Fahrenheit
Cool Side: 75 degrees Fahrenheit

Be careful not to let the temperature of the enclosure fall below 75 degrees Fahrenheit at night. You tin control the temperature in your snake'south tank with a heating mat under the tank, a ceramic oestrus emitter, heat tape, or a basking light.

iPower 2-Pack Reptile Heating Pad

For a heating mat underneath the tank, check out this iPower Reptile Heating Pad. 2 heating mats come in this gear up, and then you can set 2 different temperatures for the two sides of the enclosure. The mats too accept an adhesive side for a potent grip to the lesser of the tank, so they will not slide effectually.

Whatsoever oestrus source you choose, make sure that information technology is well out of your snake'due south reach. A ball python tin can accidentally burn itself by touching a hot lamp, rock, or mat.

Humidity

A brawl python is built to survive in a humid tropical environment. A useful tool hither is a hygrometer – a tool for measuring humidity. Attach the hygrometer to the side of your ball python's tank and use it to check the humidity levels.

Enclosure Humidity: l% to 60%

If the tank's humidity is also low, you can raise it past adding a larger water dish or misting the inside of the enclosure each day. If the humidity is too high, in that location may be standing water in the bottom of the substrate.

We hope that these ideas for setting upwardly your ball python tank have fabricated you even more excited to create the perfect home for your new snake. Recollect, taking good care of a snake is a big responsibility, but you lot are in for a lot of fun too.

Source: https://www.snakesforpets.com/ball-python-tank-setup-ideas/