A ball python, also called a royal python, reaches about 60 cm (2 ft) in its first year and up to 150 cm (5 ft) as an adult, and its vivarium grows with it. It eats a thawed rodent every week or two and needs gentle heat through the night.
Pet
Ball python
How many
Your tank
Your tank against each minimum
As an Amazon Associate, What Do Pets Need earns from qualifying purchases.
Enclosure size
RSPCA sizes the vivarium by the snake: at least as long as the snake, and at least a third of its length for width and height. Its own example is 120 x 40 x 40 cm for a 120 cm snake. RVC’s absolute minimum for an adult is 48 x 24 x 24 in (122 x 61 x 61 cm).
For a full-grown 150 cm snake, meeting both means about 150 cm (59 in) long and 61 cm (24 in) wide and high. Of Aqueon’s glass tanks, only the 210 gallon, 72½ x 24½ x 29⅝ in, is that big: its 55 and 75 are about 4 ft long but narrower, and its 125 and 150 are long enough but 18½ in from front to back. More on why gallons don’t tell you the floor size.
Keep one snake to a vivarium: royal pythons are naturally solitary.
Heat and light
- Basking spot: 30–32 °C (RSPCA) or about 32 °C (RVC).
- Cool end: 24–26 °C (RSPCA) or about 24 °C (RVC).
- Night: not below about 24 °C (RVC), from a heater that gives off no light (RSPCA).
- UVB: a low output 2–7% tube, UVI 1.0 in the basking zone (RSPCA), or a low level of UV (RVC).
RSPCA makes the basking zone with a 60–100 watt reptile heat lamp at one end, pointing down, in a guard so the snake can’t be burned if it touches it or the bulb shatters, and on a thermostat. At night it uses a heater that gives off no light, such as a ceramic heater or reptile radiator, also on a thermostat. VCA warns against hot rocks.
A hatchling’s smaller enclosure can use a reptile heat mat underneath, or guarded so the snake can’t touch it, on an on/off thermostat with the probe over the mat, set at 32 °C. See heat lamp vs heat mat.
Royal pythons are active at night, but RVC says they may benefit from a low level of UVB. RSPCA fits a low output 2–7% tube for a UV index of 1.0 in the basking zone. See UVB strength explained.
Substrate, humidity and water
Keep the humidity at 50–60%, read at the cool end. RSPCA mists the vivarium with clean water to lift it to about 80% and lets it fall back between mistings.
Organic soils made for reptiles hold humidity well without going moldy. Sand isn’t recommended, as it may irritate the skin, and the MSD Veterinary Manual says cedar and pine shavings shouldn’t be used for reptiles.
Everyday diet
Feed frozen rodents, thawed, and offer prey slightly wider than the widest part of the snake. RVC warms the food to blood temperature, 37 °C, before feeding. Young snakes eat every five or six days, moving up prey sizes as they grow, and adults every 7 to 14 days, depending on weight. With good quality prey, no supplements are needed.
RSPCA notes that royal pythons have a reputation for going off their food. If you’re worried about your snake’s weight, see a reptile vet. Wash your hands before and after handling, as reptiles can carry salmonella.
Shopping list
On the list
What fits