That's a lot of questions from a SnakeLess Person.

[Zamor]

Hello guys! First of all, i want to say thanks even before askin something. I went for 2 weeks reading like every single sticky and the most recent pageS of threads.
Now, i guess is time to make some question, i did rather make a big post than spam almost every section.
Take note: English isn't my first language, so this could make you cringe lol


1- I never had a snake before. Or if i would say better, i didn't take care of him if not watching him slythering around the tank. My parents were'nt really informed on how to keep such an animal, and it was a painfull experience ( i think more for the snake than for us ) and he got relocated after 1 year. That's why i decided to literally read everything. Btw, the question is: How actually hard is to keep a snake? Compared to a.. idk, bird, cat, would u rate it easier or harder?

2- Basing or your previous answer, how hard it is to keep multiple snakes for a first time owner?

3- I remember how painfull it was keep the animal in a tank, with substrate and such. It was literally a 100L acquarium with some soil ( i don't remember the actual substrate ), the classic log ( ouch ) and IIRC a heat lamp or somethin similar and umidity not checked by anything. The poor thing had just a bowl of water and that's it. Now i don't want to do the same mistake and obviously i educated myself about husbandry and such, but i have no space to get multiple dedicated tanks and i don't want to get in troubles wit humidity keeping and soil to change, so my thought was to build a rack system of my own. The question is: how to keep air circulating if i guess the actual tub have to come pretty close to the "building" itself to not let the snake get loose? Holes in the sides? 1/2 cm of difference between the tub and the building? They don't need it?

3- In a rack system, do all the flexwatt get attached to a single thermostat to see the temperature or every tub has their own thermostat? There isn't risk of heat building up making a danger for the animals?

4- Same question as before, but about humidity.

5- Does any plastic tub make the job or it will be needed an actual kind of plastic? A full colored plastic ( like, solid grey for say ) would be still good or does the snakes actually need the tub to be opaque/clean to get the natural cycle of light/dark? Do any of you have suggestion on what to use from Ikea/Leroy Marlen ( if that's a thing for you americans )/big companies actually aviable in italy? We lack a lot of those big chains that i often see in your posts, so it is just to get an idea.

6- My plan is to use a room of 12 mq on my covered terrace. I live in sicily, Italy, where we have actually 43 C° and during winter we go to 3-8 C° for 2 weeks and then usually around 10-15 C during the rest of the season. Given you those condition, over than insulate the room with a 3 cm polystirene ( or something similar, u get what i'm saying ahah ) will i need to actually conditionate the temperature of the whole room or the flexwatt will be ok to take care of the snakes?

7- Which percentage of m/f do i need? Let me explain myself. I'm not getting in it for the money, but for the animals themself and because i love to play with the genetic, until we are allowed. I was a breeder for guppy and betta show, and tryed even with bird ( unlucky both couples were killing their sons, so i gave up after of a couple of cruent images i did rather not assist anymore ), and meanwhile i was playing with their beautiful colours and shapes, it was self sustaining because of the selling. As i'm not a multimillionare, i'd rather start a breeding project that will at least cut the expences in 4-5 years.

8- given the answer to the previous question, it would be better having a male "high end morph" and few females with lower "quality" ( i feel bad using those terms, they aren't a product ) or maybe get few low ends morphs and work towards the high one with my own breeding?

9- Considering the multiple snake i will have a day, i'd like to breed my own feeders, just because i already know how much it iwll cost getting them from a pet store in my zone. A LOT. Btw, does rats require special care beside extreme cleaning, always water and food, not overpopulation in tubs, normal animal caring etc? Like, temperature wise, normal room ambient would be good? I had some mouse and rabbits before, they didn't ask anything than a female to make babies, but idk how it actually work in a large scale of things lol

10- if someone here is italian, could you help me finding F/T sources, forums, fb group, w/e? Not that i don't like the english stuffs, but i'd like to see where we italian are


I guess that's all. At least, for now, i just did a quick writing of the first questions i got in mind xD If u got until here, gz to you, you are the mvp! And sorry again for my bad english lol

[RickyNY]

Zamor, I'm going to give you some answers...but I'm also new to this. We'll let the experts chime in soon.

1. Not harder, just more complicated. Ball Python stress out easily and stop eating if your temperature, humidity are not correct. If you handle too much, if the tub is too big and snake does not feel safe.
2. I would start with only 1 snake until you become very good at meeting its needs. So if you make mistakes and the animal suffers, there are not multiple animals suffering or dying.
3. Multiple Flexwatts can be attached to one thermostat as long as you don't exceed the Watts of your particular thermostat. Yes heating is a problem, you need to have air circulation on the bottom of the Flexwatt. Your tubs need holes for air circulation inside the tub. How many will be determine by your humidity, more holes less humidity, less holes more humidity. But you cannot go without holes, they need air exchange.
5. The color of the tub doesn't matter.
6. You need to condition the temperature of the whole room. Flexwatt only provides belly heat.
7-10: I can't help you with this ones, not a breeder and I don't live in Italy.

Good luck with your plans

[JodanOrNoDan]

You have a lot of questions that many beginners have. The good news is that they all have been answered before multiple times. My best suggestion is to to read all the sticky threads in the various forum sections, especially the Ball Python husbandry section. Once you read those you will realize why this is the quicker path for you to gain the information you want.

[Zincubus]

1 - snakes can take up as little or as much time as you want
2 - easy as long as you do plenty of research / reading up on the snake you're getting .
3-5 - I'd never consider any kind of rub - I have 21 snakes and 25 viv setups

7-8 I know less than nothing about breeding as it doesn't interest me at all - mine are all pets /display snakes.

9- I have only ever fed thawed frozen - I could never feed LIVE and the thankfully it's not allowed here in the good old wet and windy UK .