First I'd just like to say hello! This is my first post on this forum and just wanted to introduce myself. I currently live in Southern California. I used to keep reptiles when I was in high school and into my early 20's. In the past I have successfully raised a pair of bearded dragons from babies who I ended up breeding and successfully hatching several clutches. I also had a pair of Fischer chameleons, a monkey tail (Solomon island) skink, a pair of rainbow boa babies, a red tail boa, burmese python, king snakes, and various other lizards. That was a while ago, and since then because of the fact that I moved around a lot, school, and life in general prevented me from continuing the hobby. Now I have the time, money and space and money to pursue the hobby again.

A lot has obviously changed with ball pythons over the years! When I was into keeping reptiles in the past they were mostly wild-caught, mite-riddled and picky feeders. I was blown away at how much that has changed! I particularly like the mojave ball pythons, and am considering a pair of mojaves or a mojave and a lesser platinum because I am just fascinated with the blue-eyed leucistics! I am looking to keep just one pair that I would like to breed, and have no desire to get into it on a larger scale by any means!

So that brings up the topic of how to house them. Even though I am only going to have one pair, I do intend to breed them, so a single rack that would house the parents and babies/juveniles is what I am leaning toward. I have watched countless youtube videos on homemade racks, and in all honesty I am leaning toward the Ikea PAX shelvng and bin systems, simply for the convenience, with a few modifications to accommodate flexwatt heat tape and a rheostat. I was thinking each adult would have their own bin on a shelf, and then on lower shelves the babies/juveniles would be set up in smaller bins. Since it would be such a small set up, I would just purchase their food frozen in bulk. Seems much easier than all the crickets I had to keep when raising the bearded dragons (feeding and caring for 30+ babies was a lot of work!) I am also trying to determine the best way to heat, either with back heat, or belly heat. Back heat would be a little less labor intensive to install, but in my opinion belly heat seems more efficient and effective for the animal, or perhaps a combo of both?

So what do you guys think? Any ideas, recommendations or suggestions for someone looking to get back into keeping reptiles, in particular ball pythons? Thanks in advance for your suggestions and taking the time to read my post!