Are ball pythons even [I]slightly[/I] arboreal?

[Skiploder]

The older I get the more worried I get over how information will be received, incorporated into a person and then used. I would just add that its my understanding that in the wild juvenile BP and small males are more likely to climb trees. They are not particularly well suited for it. I have not seen any papers where a professional has called BP's semi-arboreal although I would love a citation to prove me wrong. Again I have to state that what happens in the wild is not necessarily something we want to replicate in the wild. In fact many things that a BP would encounter in the wild we fight hard to protect our snakes from, predators, parasites, wild temperature and humidity fluctuations, drought, and lack of food. I would argue that we should also try and protect our snakes from injuries from falling. Of course some properly treated drift wood can be a great addition to an enclosure but its not necessary or necessarily beneficial.

No one is calling them semi-arboreal. Their feeding behavior clearly indicates that they are semi-arboreal in terms of hunting for prey. While that alone doesn't make them arboreal or even semi-arboreal, it does mean that they have successfully adapted to taking to the trees to hunt prey.

I think that in a 12" or 18" high enclosure, that a keeper (if they chose to) could safely provide for branches for them to perch on and noodle around with. A drop of less than 2' isn't going to do them a great deal of harm.