Quote Originally Posted by Funky#2 View Post
We moved our BP into a 30 gallon tank because we bought a Bearded Dragon, and the extra room is more important to the Bearded Dragon than it is to our Ball Python.

And you would provide "proper gradient temps" in a 180 gallon tank as you would any other tank. I'm not suggesting that a 55 gallon tank in NEEDED for a BP, I'm just saying you can use one so long as its cluttered up. To often people throw around the term "stressed" they say the BP is stressed cause its in too big of a tank...So they must be REALLY stressed when they are slithering around Africa, good thing we come along to toss them in a tupperware container and save them from themselves huh?
Two things.

Firstly, they probably ARE stressed when they're in Africa. They spend all day in dark holes in the ground where they feel safe, and when they have to come out to hunt (assuming nothing food-worthy has wandered into their hole first) they are probably very cautious. I would imagine that they stick to dense underbrush and covered areas. Only rarely would they ever actually make it into the wide open Savannah. So they keep themselves covered.

Second, these snakes that we're keeping in our homes have (at least most of them) never even seen Africa. So it is up to us to provide them with an environment as secure and comfortable as is humanly possible. We don't give them the option of choosing their own habitat, so we have to provide what we think they would choose FOR THEM.

That is why we keep them in tubs and densely decorated tanks.