my first ball python, any tips?

So I'm going to be getting my first ball python in the coming months and this is what I have for his setup. I'm going to get a male normal or pastel.

For his housing I'm going to use a 16 qt sterilite tub until he's big enough for a 28 qt.

For substrate I will be using newspaper.

I am going to use reptile basics hides, one smalle for the 16 qt and a medium for the 28 qt. And an appropraitely sized water bowl. I am going to put crumpled up newspaper and an extra folded sheet on the cool side for cover.

For heating I will be using a 6x11 ultratherm under tank heat mat. I am going to monitor the temp and humidity with a digital dual thermo/hygro.

That's about it for my setup. Any suggestions or tips?

You forgot the single most important piece of husbandry equipment: a thermostat to control the heat mat. An unregulated heat mat can prove to be very dangerous for your new addition.

It's nice to see you're doing your research and asking questions before getting your BP! Kudos! :gj:

I don't have a thermostat on one of my heat mats, but it is small and it is mounted to the table under my tank, not my tank itself, and I have carpet in my tank and aspen on top of that. And checking it with a heat gun and it is stable everywhere on the hot side at 90 degrees. But it is definitely easier and safer if you use a thermostat. My other two mats for my other tanks have stats and once you find the perfect setting, its very easy.

What kind of lid will you have on your enclosure?

A temp gun is an incredibly awesome tool to have, especially when setting up a new tank.
I have to mist my tanks with a spray bottle, so you may need one of those.
Feeding tongs
Prevent a mite is handy to have just in case
Timers are nice to have for me because i use them for their lights. Makes it easy to keep them on a schedule.


I know a lot of people on here are fine with keeping their pythons in tubs with just a hide and a water dish, and it's completely up to them. All of my snakes come out at night to explore their environments, so I like to actually give them something to explore. In my larger tank, I have 2 inch pvc pipes set up that they can slither through or hide in during the day. And I rearrange them about once a week. My 600 gram male seems to enjoy them, and is usually quite curious when I am rearranging them, and comes out of his hide to check it out as soon as I'm done each time. Just one more way to interact with my pet. Just some tips. Snakes are very enjoyable to keep as pets. It's nice to be able to interact with them without disturbing them, for their sake.

The lid I'm using is the one that comes with the tub. I drilled holes in it for ventilation. Good tip about the pvc pipe, I'm going to try to do that. Thanks!

Read. Get several books a lot of which can be downloaded to a Kindle or iPad for just a few dollars. Everything else sounds like a great start. One thing I'll mention and see if anyone else agrees or not is that unless you have a hatchling a few weeks old you may want to start with the 28q tubs. I've found that if you place hides in both the hot and cool side and a water dish in the tub along with some crumpled up news paper on the sides (or even black construction paper taped on the outside) they will be fine. I recently added a Coral Glow to my rack that was born on July 5th and he's already over 122 grams so I now have him in a 28 quart tub.