Quote Originally Posted by Moosefriend View Post
I'm keeping the BP as a pet, so I'd like him to have a nicer display than a translucent, plain papered tub that I can't enjoy watching him in. Yes, it would be the most cost effective and easily maintained, but I'd like to be able to peek over and see him doing his noodly stuff, than a foggy white bin. I understand their uses and pros, especially for breeders. But as a pet owner, I guess I'm going more for a... 'vivarium'?


What problems to heat and light emitters cause you? Humidity? I will be getting a UTH when I can afford a Herpstat, but 200+ is quite a lot for a unit that's 99$.


You can run heat tape and a rheostat for about $8 total. This is not ideal but is safe when monitored. I understand the desire to display your pet. All of my animals other than the ones being sold are treated as pets. They are taken care of and handled by my entire family. When we want to see one we take it out. The problem is that a happy ball python is a very poor display animal. You can spend a lot of time and effort making a beautiful and functional vivarium and what you are going to end up looking at are your snake's hides. A ball python does very little. A "happy" ball python does nothing but hide. They do like to paint though. With their poop. Be ready to clean everything in the enclosure. If you want a display animal I would suggest getting something that puts on a little bit more of a show.

As to lights, they can be a humidity nightmare and ball pythons do not care for bright light. Due to personal experience I also view lights as a potential safety hazard (my nephew set a bed on fire because he took a light array off a a tank while it was still on and put it on a bed).

Can you successfully keep a ball python in a tank? Yup. I think I recall Pit saying he started out this way. Is it worth the effort? I don't think so.

On another note most people that I know that keep balls start out with one then another one, then another one etc. This is where the thermostat, heat tape and bins really start to make sense.