I'm getting ready to purchase a couple of baby ball pythons, but before I do I want to make sure I have a reasonable setup.

My plan is to try breeding a bit down the road, but I figure that is a few years off, as for the mean time I simply want to enjoy the snakes.

For setup I'm planning on using a 40 gallon aquarium for each snake, newspaper as a substrate, water bowls of the large Hagen reptile variety and a heating pad under each tank.

Assuming my petstore has some hides available I'll get those there as well, and if not I imagine a cardboard box with a hole in it will do for now.

I have access to live and frozen rats, and I'm willing to breed my own rats in the near future.

As an aquatic enthusiast I've witnessed many people get into the hobby with the wrong ideas and fail miserably at first. I don't want to do this with snakes.

Please, if you have any advice, my ears are open. I don't wanna be a screw up!

...oh.. and what does the notation "1.1 ball python" mean?