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Species Common Name: Royal Python / Ball Python
Scientific Name: Python regius
Adult Size: 4-5 ft (120-150cm) rarely larger, Average adult weight 3-4kg
Captive Life Span: 30+ years
Data for this species in the wild
Natural Distribution: West Africa, Specifically Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Togo
Habitat Type: Scrub, Farmland, Tropical Woodland
Activity Pattern: Crepuscular and Nocturnal
Activity Zone: Predominantly terrestrial however males in particular have been observed climbing trees to feed on birds and will often shelter in burrows or hunt for small mammals underground
Summer Temperature Range: 29-32C (December-April)
Winter Temperature Range: 23-28C (June- September)
Wild Diet: Predominantly Rodents (along with other small mammals), birds and bats. In the wild, Males have been shown to have a 70:30 split favouring eating birds over mammals while females were more often found hunting terrestrial mammals with a 60:40 split in terms of preferred food source.
Keeping them as Pets – The Basics
Captive housing Minimum Size: 48 x 24 x 24in (120cm x 60cm x 60cm) is the recognised minimum but many people are now opting for larger enclosures such as the 60 x 24 x 24in (150cm x 60cm x 60cm) or the 72 x 24 x 24in (180cm x 60cm x 60cm).
Cage Material Construction: Melamine or PVC with sliding glass doors will work best to ensure a stable temperature. Glass with a mesh top can be potentially used but it will be far more difficult to adequately control the heat in this style of enclosure.
Social Structure: Solitary, best kept on their own and only introduced for breeding purposes.
Daytime Hotspot / Basking Temperature: 32-33C
Daytime Ambient Temperatures: 26-28C
Nighttime Ambient Temperatures: 24-27C
Preferred Heat source: Heat mats work well for youngsters in rearing enclosures, but overhead heat sources such as incandescent bulbs, ceramic bulbs or deep heat projectors work better for adults. Whatever the heat source it always needs to be controlled by an appropriate thermostat and fitted with a guard to avoid burns.
UVB Requirement Furgeson Zone: Zone 1
Preferred UVB Source: We recommend the arcadia Shadedweller Max unit or if you are going for a much larger enclosure, you can use the Arcadia Pro T5 54w with a 6%UVB forest tube in it. We would also recommend that you use a Lamp guard pro over your UVB lamp, not because the bulb gets hot but because snakes tend to climb on the light fitting and potentially damage it. The UVB bulb should illuminate 50-75% of the enclosure and can be mounted more towards the warm end of the enclosure to create areas of light and shade.
Humidity Requirement: Even though Royal Pythons are found in a variety of habitats the ambient humidity in their natural range is relatively high, even during the driest months the humidity stays above 70%.
Preferred Humidity Source: A large water bowl, daily light misting and appropriate choice of substrate should achieve this without the requirement for an automatic misting system but there are plenty of good automatic misters such as the habiststat rainmaker or mistking starter system should you wish to automate this.
Water Requirements: Access to fresh water at all times, smaller individuals may like to soak in a bowl large enough for them to fit in.
Substrate: Bark chip, coir, coco chip or a mix of any substrates that are going to hold and maintain humidity.
Recommended Décor: Minimum of two hides large enough for the snake to fit under, one at the hot end and one at the cool end. Good practice would be to add more cover throughout the enclosure; this can be easily achieved with cork bark for instance. The addition of branches in larger enclosures will allow climbing which may be observed at night. Like most snakes, royal pythons display thigmotactic behaviour (the preference to stay hidden within crevices and under hides for security) so tight fitting hides tend to be preferred.
Captive Diet: The captive diet for Royal Pythons is normally comprised of mice and rats, although some keepers also offer chicks, quail and multimammate mice (also called African soft furred rats) to diversify their diet and to encourage picky feeders. It is worth noting that Royal pythons are notoriously picky feeders, they can be difficult to get feeding when they first hatch (by the time any of ours are offered for sale they are already well established with their feeding to avoid issues). It is also very common for a royal python to go off food for a number of months over UK winter months (normally anytime between December to April), this is a natural behaviour, and they will loose very little weight even if they don’t eat anything for months on end.
Feeding Frequency: For pythons under 2 years feed once per week, 2-4 year olds once every 10 days, 4 years + feed once every 2 weeks. Remember there is likely to be a period of 3-4 months each year when your python wont eat at all.
Supplementation: Due to eating whole prey items no additional dietary supplementation is required.
Cleaning: Like with most snakes, Royal Pythons make very little mess, they produce bodily waste approximately once per week as younger animals and potentially only once every 4-6 weeks as an adult. Remove any bodily waste whenever seen and perform a full clean of the enclosure bi-monthly.
Handling Suitability: Very Good, probably the most handleable of all commonly kept snake species. The reason royal pythons are also known as Ball Pythons (originally a name given to them in the USA but many people in the UK now also refer to them by this name) is due to their behaviour of curling up in a ball and hiding their head when scared. Rather than bite if feeling a little unsure of their surroundings Royal Pythons curl up into a tight ball and sit in that position until they deem the threat to have passed, this may take 1 minute or 10 minutes dependent upon how bold the individual is. With regular handling they become more confident, and the popularity of this species is mostly driven by how disinclined to bite they are coupled with their wide variety of colour forms (Morphs) that are now available.
Recommended Starter Kit:
For hatchlings up to 12-18 months we recommend the Habistat Hatchling Snake Starter Kit.
For larger individuals than this we recommend the Customisable Snake Starter Kit.
Advancing your care:
Simple ways to advance your care can include opting for a larger enclosure both in terms of length and height. There are also more advanced lighting and heating systems than ever before so by using the Arcadia Lumenize range you can incorporate natural dawn and dusk lighting cycles into your enclosure. By using the Microclimate Evo thermostats, you can program daily temperature fluctuations to mimic wild temperatures and even pre-program seasonal variations to further mimic wild conditions. Providing a varied diet incorporating both rodents and avian prey can further enhance your level of care.
When it comes to providing environmental enrichment, creating a multilayered environment by adding multiple hides, branches and climbing areas or even incorporating a subterranean hiding / artificial rodent burrow area will be beneficial. You can also vary food source and feeding cycles to give a more natural and sporadic feeding cycle.
Additional Information:
Royal pythons are one of the most popular snake species globally but it’s impossible to talk about Royal pythons without mentioning the “Morph Craze”. This was largely fuelled by the explosion of different colour morphs produced since the late 1990’s (generally referred to as the “Ball Python Boom / Morph Craze”. To date there have now been well over 1000 different colour and pattern combinations selectively bred by enthusiast keepers around the world there is now a colour combination to suit all tastes. This caused growing interest in the different colours with new colours and colour combinations selling for enormous amounts (the highest we heard of was 60,000 Canadian dollars for the first ever “banana morph”). Thankfully by the late 2010’s the prices had decreased to sensible prices with most royal pythons nowadays costing between £100-£500. It is worth mentioning that there are some morphs of royal python that carry deleterious (harmful) health traits. The best known of these is the “spider” morph which can have severe neurological issues. Other morphs which can carry the genetics for harmful health complications include but are not limited to “champagne” “Super cinnamon” & “desert ghost”. We do not breed any morphs with known health complications.
The 20 year long boom in royal python interest meant that during this time every year many thousands of royal pythons were exported from “python farms” in their native countries of origin, especially Benin and Togo. Since the late 2010’s this practice has virtually stopped entirely and it’s safe to say all royal pythons are now bred and hatched in captivity. Unfortunately these python farms still exist to produce pythons as both a food source and for their skins.
Although often called Ball Pythons nowadays, the original name of Royal Python (and indeed their scientific name Python regius which literally means royal python) is homage to the ancient Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. Although there is a lack of verifiable evidence it is widely believed in mythology that Cleopatra (along with other African royalty from other countries) may have worn live royal pythons as jewellery either as bracelets or necklaces. The symbolism of snakes in jewellery persists to this day and is still a popular design for numerous reasons and beliefs.
Morphs and mythology aside, Royal Pythons remain one of the most popular and best suited beginner species of snake due to their calm temperament and robust constitution.