While I was surfing through the internet I found an interesting article by the German animal protection organisation. I'd love to hear other people's opinion on it (the points they try to make) so I translated it to English.
But before you comment please keep in mind that this is not a professional translation and a lot of the words that were used in the original don't have a direct translation in English. English is also not my native tongue so please don't criticise the organisation for the choice of words because that's probably my doing.
This is the link to the translated text if anyone is interested (I only translated the yellow box): https://www.tierschutzbund.de/filead...ython_2014.pdf

This is the translation:



  • Ball pythons are relatively shy snakes and are sensitive to stress. They are therefore not suitable for beginners in the keeping and breeding of reptiles (in terraria). Common issues are mouth rot, respiratory ailments or parasite infestation. What's more, owners underestimate that ball pythons can exhibit aggressive behaviours and can try to bite it's owner.
  • The ball python is, just like all snakes, carnivorous (meat-eating) and needs food animals for it's diet (e.g. mice). In the eyes of animal welfare this is a huge problem and leads to the conclusion that one should pretermit the keeping of snakes.
  • Food animals can be offered frozen but this has to be questioned. Where is the food from, how were the animals accommodated and how were the animals killed? Sadly there are cases in which the animals were frozen alive or are killed with insufficient methods.
  • There are also snakes that only take live or prekilled food. The owners often kill the animals themselves before giving them to the snakes. This is to be objected from the stance of animal protection since there is no obligation for snake keepers to learn about killing vertebrates within the limits that can satisfy animal welfare regulations. Laymen can try to master this challenge which leads to the food animal dying under infliction of pain and suffering in most cases.
  • It is also an ethical problem to put the food animal in the enclosure since the animal has no way of fleeing like it would have in a natural environment. It's at the predator's mercy. Depending on how hungry the snake is there is a possibility for the food animal to vegetate in the enclosure for quite some time. Contrariwise, snakes have been hurt by food animals which is why you should never leave a food animal unattended in the enclosure.
  • Furthermore, cases keep appearing in which the food animals are treated as second class animals.
  • With heat- and light sources one has to watch out for the strong heat. The owner has to prevent direct contact with the heat source because it can cause severe burns. A protective grid could protect the snake.
  • Ball pythons are often imported. Between 2010 and 2012 over 20000 animals were shipped to Germany. Among them were wild snakes but first and foremost there were snakes from so called "Ranching" facilities in Ghana and Togo. Some of the shipped animals were also bred offsprings.
  • Animals from Ranching facilities are problematic. These facilities are insufficient concerning animal protection. The snakes are often dehydrated and underfed because they aren't fed in their home country anymore. The new keeper also doesn't make good for it. Furthermore, these animals are partly food specialists (they often don't readjust to dead food animals and only like mice of a specific colour for example).
  • In any case, wild catches are to be opposed. They are often infested by parasites (ecto- and endoparasites) and stressed. They have difficulties getting used to a life in captivity.