what do you wish you had known before your first ball python? and good UK breeders?

[Lizardlicks]

To be honest , I'm not even sure where that idea came from anyways . Any evidence ??

Well this got long winded, but I think it probably counts under "things a new keeper should know before getting a snake" so here you go.

The ideas are from direct observations of ball python behavior in the wild. It also comes from observations of stressed ball python behavior in captivity.

Keep in mind, this doesn't necessarily apply to active hunter species like most colubrids, or large predator species like the big pythons. They have different hunting styles, live in different places and/or deal with different predation pressures due to size or defensive features like venom. Ball pythons are nocturnal ambush predators, but more than that...

Balls are from sub-Saharan Africa, savannah and scrub land. This is home to the TOP mega predators of our current era; we're talking lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, jackals, cheetahs, honey badgers, secretary birds, hawks, crocs, lizards and even other, bigger snakes, and that list is hardly exhaustive! A ball python, is basically on the last few bottom steps of the food chain in their native habitat, only thing under it being the rodents and small birds they eat and the bugs those eat. They're not powerhouses, and they don't have venom- in short a tasty, low risk, low effort tube of meat. As such, the ball python's best defense from being snacked on is not being found or caught in the first place.

So they hide. Most adults will find a nice rodent borrow, eat the current residents, and stay there for weeks chomping down what ever unlucky sucker comes along looking for some new digs. If it starts to smell too much like snake stank, they move on to a new borrow, and repeat the process. The snakes are most active when they're younger- juveniles have been recorded going up into trees to eat bird chicks from nests- and when they're interested in finding a mate. Other than that, a ball that's hidden, is a ball that lives.

In our homes, they don't know that a hawk or leopard isn't going to swoop down on them from above, and there's no way to explain it to them. Their instincts tell them to stay hidden, stay safe, and stay alive. When introduced to a large enclosure that doesn't sufficiently break up line of sight as much as possible, they feel open and exposed. the stress and feeling vulnerable puts them off food because eating and digesting a meal makes them even more vulnerable. There is a reason we advise new keepers to put their snakes into small tubs if they aren't eating: it's because designing a large enclosure for a snake is a tricky thing for the inexperienced. We get them into a habitat where they feel safe, get them relaxed and feeding again, before trying to scale back up with a better idea of the needs of the animal in mind. It may seem "cruel" to keep them in a small cage set up because we think of the wild as this HUUUUUGE sprawling thing of wide open spaces, but when you understand that a bp can live it's entire 30+ year life span until ranging within a 3 mile radius, you start to realize how much of it they don't really actively use.