I think my ball python is bored

[Morjean]

The 'rule of thumb' that you state here is not correct at all. Please be more careful in the future to not disseminate information online as 'rules' when they arent correct. There is not a single snake that needs an enclosure that can accommodate the entire length of the animal. Measuring the capacity of a tank for a snake by the gallon is useless, as BPs are primarily terrestrial, and floor space is a better indicator of the appropriateness of an enclosure. The general consensus is that most adult BPs can live comfortably in approximately the dimensions of a 41 qt sterilite tub (34 7/8 x 16 5/8 x 6 1/8). A better approximation to the utility of a cage is that when the snake is in a full coil, you want to have about the area of 4 coils available for space as a rough estimate.

Snakes do not need enrichment. They are primordial animals with a very basic brain structure. Coming out of of the enclosure once in a while for some exercise is great, but dont feel bad if they arent handled every day.

I got through multiple graduate degree programs while owning dozens of reptiles, im sure your BP will be just fine.

Hello again!
There are multiple "rules of thumb" floating about, and the most common ones are either length+width of the tank should equal the length of the snake, or that the length of the snake should equal the length of the tank, whichever you want to believe ― It's not a rule as in "the snake needs this space as a bare minimum to survive", but rather a "Consider this if you have a pet BP and want to go that extra bit to make sure it's feeling well and has as nice a life as you can provide". As with every enclosure for an animal, the bigger the better! If big, just remember to clutter it up with hides etc because open empty spaces are stressful. Some comments on that are here, but I've seen far more floating about I could try and find?

I know that enrichment is a very controversial topic on this forum, considering how we mainly have breeders on here over the number of pet keepers. And again this isn't a matter of survival (of course they will also survive entirely without enrichment at all) but rather some suggestions as to how to make their life nicer, yanno? Of course these snakes don't have the brain capacity to perceive enrichment in the same way you would play fetch with a dog or the like, instead enrichment in their case is just providing an explorable and realistic home, instead of just a small box with a hide and a water dish. That would be pretty boring... Some thoughts on enrichment and/or why it is important are here, here, and most importantly a very big one with scientific papers and all that jazz here!

After all the OP was not asking about whether or not a big tank or enrichment is necessary, they were asking about possible "stimulating activity" to make up for the lack of handling recently. And, welp, my first post was just trying to make some suggestions of things one could do for such, collected from what I have seen other pet owners come up with, and a big tank with lots of clutter is the general consensus at that... Hadn't exactly meant to scratch such a sore nerve there ^^'