Quote Originally Posted by Freakie_frog
1: They are not caught from feeders. The worm that infest mammals is different than that which infest fish, turtles, and reptiles and are not inter species exchangeable.

2: They are not harmful to humans, just gross

3: They are transfered buy direct contact with feces that carries the parasite eggs. I.E housing animals in one tank and they get on each others poop.

4: These tape worms match their hosts metabolism so for them to present themselves in the feces means the snake has been infested for some time. (bet this was one of your best feeders, never missed a meal but never really gains any weight. Mine was)
This isn't quite accurate. The vast majority of tapeworms are required by their lifecycle to move from one species to another.

For example the common dog tapeworm passes through an insect (the flea) before it infects the dog.

In all the species I can find, none are directly transmissable between hosts of the same species.

An example of a single species that infects mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and crustaceans:

SPIROMETRA MANSONOIDES

S. mansonoides more commonly infects cats and bobcats, but can also infect dogs and raccoons. Its life cycle and eggs are very similar to Diphyllobothrium. It is found in the southern United States in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.

What is the life cycle of S. mansonoides?

The adult worms, which are around 25 cm in length, are found in the small intestine of the definitive host. As with D. latum, eggs are discharged through a small 'uterine pore' in each segment.

After the eggs are passed, and become infective, they are eaten by the first intermediate hosts which are copepods, a type of freshwater crustacean. The S. mansonoides embryos develop into second stage larvae inside the copepods.

The copepods are eaten by birds, snakes, reptiles, amphibians, or rodents. The third stage S. mansonoides larvae develop in these second intermediate hosts. Definitive hosts become infected by eating the infected snakes, rodents, or other second intermediate host.
It is not only logical, but extremely probable that ball pythons in the wild acquire tapeworms through prey. It is unlikely that those species of tapeworms are found in captive-bred prey sources.