Excercise for snakes?

[mpkeelee]

captivity for snakes is kinda like marriage, you can get a lil lazy and you will still be loved, healthy and takin care of.

[loonunit]

Little treadmill, about 2 feet wide with high sides. They sell them at PetCo, the snake's slithering powers it and it can slither endlessly. And it's like 79.95 in the back by the pet food.

Are you kidding? Like a hamster wheel for snakes? You're totally kidding, right?

[pavlovk1025]

Are you kidding? Like a hamster wheel for snakes? You're totally kidding, right?

Who would kid about something as serious as snake exercise?

[loonunit]

All the footage and commentary on ball pythons in the wild talked about them being in their termite mounds with very very few exceptions. So they were not spending time "roaming around a lot". Since they ambush rodents in the termite mounds, they don't need to hunt down food, they are not even built for chasing prey. So moving around exposes them to predetors AND alerts prey items that there is a snake around. Also they would be giving up a satisfactory hide spot for an unknown. Another python could take their spot even if they did try to return, and they could possibly not find a ideal hiding spot and be left exposed.

Generally we should remember that pythons in general and ball pythons in particular are not mammals and especially not humans. They don't feel any need to stretch out and roam and explore. They generally have no need to burn off energy, and in fact it is detrimental for them to burn off energy because that leads to needing more calories to replace the energy. Reptiles are the ultimate in energy efficient.

All the footage of ball pythons in the wild is shot during the day. They weren't counting the snakes at night--they wanted an accurate count, so they went out when they were asleep. On any given evening 1/3 of my ball pythons are bopping around, whether or not they're really hungry; you can bet the wild ones do, too.