Python Regius
The Pyhton Regius or ball python is a small contrictor. It originated from Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Benin en Togo. Due to its very friendly temper it is a very popular snake in the hobby. They can be kept either in a terrarium or in a rack system. I believe that either way works fine for them as they love to hide in small spaces. In the wild we will often find them in termite hills or abandonend rodent dens. Therefore keeping them in a racksystem is perfectly healthy and doesn't compromise the health of the snake. However I personaly like terrariums more cause I do think that it looks better for me as the owner and does offer more space for the snake to move. Opinions and discussions on this can go on forever so you'll have to decide which one you prefer. In english they are often referred to as "ball pythons" cause they tend to roll themselves in a ball when feeling threatend. In general ball pythons don't bite, young animals can be a bit nippy sometimes but this behaviours seems to disappear when they grow older. Although they are gentle, sturdy animals they do get stressed easily, so I always advice people not to handle them to often. Before acquiring a Python regius know that it can live over 30 years. Female can reach up to 150 cm males tend to stay smaller.
Lighting and Heating.
Because ball pythons are nocturnal they don't really need UvB, altough it wouldn't harm them if you put a small fluorecent bulb in their enclosure. The vivarium is best kept warm with a heat cable or thermo panel/mat, because you'll want the vivarium to be warm enough during the night. During the day (when you'll rarely see the snake out in the open) I keep my vivarium at about 28°C with a 36°C underneath the hot spot. At night I try to maintain 22°C-24°C. I recommend to use a thermostat to monitor and adjust the heat. Becarefull that you make sure that the animal can't burn itself on the heat source by direct contact. Place a stone tile over thermomats/cables and use a grill on your light sockets.
Food.
The regius is known for being a difficult feeder sometimes. I can refuse food for months, luckily this has little to no impact on the health. My own regius has refused food for several months without it being weakend or ill. The worst thing you can do is keep trying over and over again. If the snake doesn't want to eat just skip a couple of weeks, it'll be fine. As foods I try to vary between sub-adult rats, hamsters and gerbils. Be wary that snakes sometimes don't want anything other than gerbils when once fed to them. It's often difficult for regius to eat prekilled food, mine doesn't although pre killed food offers nothing but benefits. People often say it's more natural to feed live animals, there is nothing natural to keeping a snake in a terrarium and feeding it rats (which it will never encounter in the wild). If your snake does eat pre killed food, do feed it pre killed.
Enclosure.
Ball pythons aren't really demanding about their enclosure, a simple setup with a few hides a water dish and the adequat tempratures will suffice. Spray once or twice a week to keep the humidity between 50-60%. The bare minimum size is 90x45x45cm (lxwxh), I do think this is to small and keep mine in a 125x50x60cm terrarium. Truth be told he doesn't use the space that often as he spends most of it's time in his hide. It is best for animals to live seperatly or to have to possibility to seperate them a few times a year. Especially males and females so the female won't get exhausted from the breeding attempts by the male.