How do people keep masses of them in tubs?

[Dr_Gonz0]

Ball pythons don't need supplemental lighting, and in fact, lighting dries up the air, and having no lighting helps to keep the humidity up.

My racks all have belly heat routered into the shelf of each level.

Larger scaled breeders may actually have the rooms temp controlled, rather than the racks themselves (so the room is 85-87 degrees).

Humidity is a breeze to keep up in tubs.

If I ever found myself not keeping the numbers that I have today, and ended up with just one ball python, it would still be kept in a tub, because of the ease of maintaining heat and humidity.

Are your racks made of melamine particle board? If so, bad idea routering a channel for the heat tape. The bare particle board releases formaldehyde gasses when heated which can be toxic in high enough levels.

Greg Graziani talked about it in his recent interview on Reptile Radio. I have heard it a few other places as well.

Just some food for thought ...

Fact sheet

Robin

[rabernet]

Are your racks made of melamine particle board?

No, it's a manufactured expanded PVC rack, similar to the Reptile Basics racks. The brand is Herp Enclosures. He has since, apparently gone out of business.

[rabernet]

They dont need supplemental lightning of any kind?
So the guy whos selling me a tank, who tells me its very important to keep 12 hours light in the tank, and 12 hour dark is full of crap and just wants to sell me some bulbs?

No, they do not need any supplemental lighting. The natural light that comes through your windows provides enough of a day/night light cycle for your snake.

They also don't need any special lighting (like UVB, or mercury vapor), because they get enough calcium through the prey that they eat.

The guy at the pet store is motivated to sell dry goods as well as animals, but he also may not be a reptile "expert" and in regards to the reptiles - they are using the "one size fits all" rule of thumb. If it's a reptile, it needs "X Y and Z".