Are ball pythons a domesticated species?

[Ssthisto]

So no, I don't think snakes will ever be able to be domesticated, because we really have no benefit out of them other than pets, and even then they aren't very beneficial because they have such little intelligence.

You could say the same of domestic canaries, hamsters and other small pet animals - they are of no use to humans except for entertainment/pets, cannot be used easily for food or to obtain food ... but they've been selectively bred to show traits that are of interest to humans.

And a "green" Serinus canaria domestica canary is pretty indistinguishable from a wild Serinus canaria.

That said, I could see Burmese pythons being bred for meat and domesticated to that purpose - royal clutch sizes are just too small to make them practical meat animals.

I disagree with your first point. Ball pythons primary food source is wild rodents and they do not suffer by eating them solely.

Neither does a domestic cat suffer from eating a diet solely composed of wild rodents or birds (and in fact they benefit from eating a whole-prey diet, kibble is not the best diet for a cat) - the fact that they CAN survive on the wild diet is not the point. Of course a many-generations-captive-bred royal python would survive very well on a diet of jerboas, multimammates and other similar African rodents.

I don't see any evidence that selective breeding has helped to change their diet in any way. Conditioning on a case by case basis certainly has been done and does help in many cases. Although I disagree with the assertion that BP have a flexible diet I would say that modern shipping and globalization has made a flexible diet much less necessary for domestication.

If breeders (intentionally or otherwise) select royal pythons that are willing to eat domesticated, defrostedrodents (mice and rats) instead of insisting on live African rodents like Multimammates (their natural diet) as their breeding stock, then that is a form of selective breeding to accept a specific diet. I certainly won't be breeding animals that won't take domestic rodents as prey and I won't be perpetuating offspring that won't either.

This has been done with certain lines of cornsnakes - selecting the offspring that are willing to accept mouse pinks instead of insisting on the wild hatchling diet of anolis lizards.

the bolded key terms leads me to say no. We havnt made BP's useful to us besides companionship. its not like a hoarse that you use to pull your buggy or ride. and as far as adapting it to live in a human environment. this criteria has not been met either they still require there own micro habitat to live comfortably and stress free. you don't come home from work with your BP Chilling on the couch and using a litter box to defecate. no does it sleef by your feet in your bed. id say its pretty prone to needing a natural replica habitat.

Canaries are of no practical use except as novelty pets, but they are domestic animals.
Hamsters require their own microhabitats in order to live comfortably, but they're also domestic animals.

Royal pythons are useful to humans in one major way - people are breeding novelty mutations and selling them for money. Whether the end user is a pet keeper or someone who's trying to collect enough blue-eyed leucistics to make a solid white snakeskin coat, there is a sound "use" for propogating these reptiles.