I just got two ball pythons and once you get everything figured out it is extremely easy to take care of them. To say that a 15 year old couldn't afford ONE to take care of is pretty dumb he's been saving up money which means he could easily pay for one meal a week. The maturity aspect of this is just so dumb I just went away on vacation for a week and had a friend no reptile experience take care of my 2 leos my bearded and both my ball pythons he did it fine learned everything in about 15 minutes. Came home alive. All I'm saying is a ten year old could very easily maintain one ball python.