I own several different species of snakes & have spent a long time observng & documenting their behaviors.

I have found that snakes such as garter snakes, cornsnakes, the black ratsnake, milksnakes, and the California kingsnake have a definite cleanliness instinct & tend to consistently choose a spot to defecate that is furthest from their den boxes. I know these species are ground dwellers.

In contrast, my ball python shows no cleanliness instinct at all. She will defecate anywhere in her cage, even in her den box.

Looking at other species, I've noted that most species that are "den animals" and return to the same place consistently to sleep, etc. for the most part also have a strong cleanliness instinct & defecate away from their dens. Species such as most flying birds for example, that in the wild are in a situation where they can defecate almost anywhere & their waste drops away from them, tend to show very little cleanliness instinct apart from the cleanliness instinct many birds show during nesting season. Many birds remove the babies waste from the nest & many baby birds have an instinct to wiggle their rear up & over the edge of the nest when defecating so their feces drop away outside the nest.

I've been unable to find much information at all on what sort of environment & habits the ball python has in the wild. I suspected they might be arboreal, which could explain the lack of cleanliness instinct. However, upon reading threads on that topic, I've seen it stated that ball pythons are not arboreal.

Does anyone know just what the environment & habits of the ball python are in the wild? Are they a species that tend to have specific denning spots they return to, are they wanderers, or what? Or do some ball pythos in fact, possess a cleanliness instinct as the other species I've observed?