Quote Originally Posted by Kiara1125 View Post
I've been doing my research and I know how to take care of both types of snakes. My friend has a corn snake, but I'm mainly leaning towards a ball python. I would rather have a snake who's more personable and is willing to stay with me and not try to escape my love. xD

So here are my main questions:

Since I' m in central Florida, will I have to help with the humidity control for the ball python?
Would aspen bedding with a log to hide in (and climb on) be sufficient in the tank?
How are they picky and what can I do to help the ball eat?
Finally, will the snake still go off of food for the winter "months" in Florida? Seriously, it's only around 32-40F for a week and then it's done.

So, thanks in advance and I appreciate all the help!
Welcome to the forum!

If you're using a glass tank, you will probably have difficulty with humidity no matter where you live (unless your house is fairly warm and humid). If you're using a pvc enclosure or plastic tub setup, you'll have less trouble with humidity.

Aspen is fine, but a single log won't be enough. The semi-circle logs aren't good hides for ball pythons. You can definitely use one in the enclosure if you want, but you also need two good hides that the ball python can fit in very snugly (as in, it looks like the snake will barely fit). You can use plastic bowls with a hole cut in the side for hides, they don't have to be anything fancy. And you'll have to change them out as he/she gets bigger, so they're always snug.

I haven't had a problem with them being picky, except for one of our male ball pythons, who has gone off food (it's more of a sexual maturity thing for him, he just reached the size and age where he's a brat ). As long as the setup is good (temps, humidity, decent hides), you shouldn't have a huge problem. Just leave him/her alone until he/she has eaten for you once or twice. I don't know if we were just lucky, but when we got our boys from the breeder, they were on live, and they all ate frozen/thawed rats the first time we offered food. I had made sure their setup was pretty close to perfect, and we didn't handle them until they had eaten (actually until two days after they had eaten, so they had time to digest). While there are picky ball pythons out there (some that will only eat live, will only eat mice, will only eat white rats, etc.), that's not the norm (at least in my experience).

Most adult males seem to go off feed for a few months during winter, but I'm not sure that's true with females. Keep in mind that they're from Africa, and anything under 75F is cold to them. Going off food for the winter is part of their breeding cycle. It's not so much that it's cold, but that it's the time of year where they don't think food is as important.

I hope that helps!