Hello,

I'm a brand new ball python owner and this is an amazing forum with a lot of knowledge and experience.

Of course I have questions and tried looking through quite a few threads and didn't see this specifically asked, but if it was and I missed it, PLEASE forgive me and send the link as to avoid duplicate threads.

Why does it seem just about everyone, including the dealer I'm buying the snake from, say an enclosure has to be small for small snake and then larger for an adult? When a snake is born, it has the entire jungle to live in, not just a small area.

I'm going to order the Animal Plastics T8 (thank you Aaron The Serpent Merchant for the awesome write up) and in talking with Bob at Pro Heat, he recommended allowing the snake access to the entire enclosure as long as I provide it with several adequate hides (hot and cool zones). He made a good point in that with the radiant heater on one end and thermostat on the other it will heat the enclosure much like the sun heats the earth. 90 degrees in hot and 78-80 for the cool, allowing the heater to do it's job without the use of a "belly heater" as the radiant heat will also heat the substrate the snake will naturally find the "hot spot" to aid with digestion.

Thank you in advance for your input.