Lifespan of a Ball Python – How Long Does Ball Python Live?

Ball pythons are mainly known for being pet animals. They live long and exciting life. But what is the lifespan of a ball python? How do they live in their habitat? And why are ball pythons known as pet animals? 

In this article, we will cover all the above questions in detail. We will explain the lifespan of a ball python and how they spend their life or whether their life is difficult or not. So we will discuss all queries in detail but firstly have a short intro to ball pythons.

Introduction To Ball Pythons

Ball pythons are mainly native to western and central Africa. They inhabit open forests and grasslands. Due to being nocturnal, they are mostly active at night. They have thermal receptors in their mouth from which they can detect heat. Like other pythons, ball pythons also use ambush techniques for catching prey. 

Although ball pythons don’t have fangs, so no venom is found in them. They kill prey by suffocation. Almost all pythons kill their prey by suffocation; due to not having venom and fangs, they wrap their body around the prey, and the prey dies by suffocation.

Ball pythons are carnivores, so they usually feed on small mammals like rats, mice, chicks, rodents, fishes, shrews, and hamsters. They take a long time to digest food, so they eat twice a week because of their slow digestion process. When they digest their food, then they go hunting again. Ball pythons don’t prefer bigger meals, but if we see other snake species like boas or anacondas, they can eat bigger meals than them, but ball pythons don’t. 

If we talk about their size, they are usually 2 to 3 feet long and weigh around 3 pounds. The female ball python is typically giant than the male, and its length is around 4 to 6 feet, and it weighs around 5 pounds. They can grow almost 1.5x faster than males.

Animals That Live in Forests

Are Ball Pythons Dangerous for Humans?

Not any case found till today that a ball python kill a human. They are not dangerous. The main reason is that they don’t have fangs, so they are non-venomous. They cannot kill a human if they want to because they are not big enough to wrap around a human’s body. They are only 2 to 4 feet long, so they cannot kill humans, and they only feed on rodents or small mammals like frogs, birds, and bird eggs and are not interested in eating humans. Although, they are friendly to humans because they are mostly kept as pets.

Do Snakes Sleep

Life Expectancy of a Ball Python

All snake species have different lifespans depending upon their habitat and gender. In the wild, they have a short lifespan of an average of 10 years, but they can live around 20 years in captivity. There ever been ball pythons that lived for 40 years in captivity; typically, they live for 30 years with proper care.

Every animal needs proper care to grow faster and healthier. Pet keepers also take a lot of care of their pets. We have also previously discussed that there have ever been ball pythons that have lived for more than 40 years. How do they live such a long lifespan? The answer is simple; the pet keepers keep them as their children. They give them a lot of care to have a long lifespan. But are there any factors that can affect their lifespan? Some factors that affect their lifespan are as follows.

Snakes Lifespan

Factors That Affect Ball Python Lifespan

There can be many reasons and factors that can affect ball pythons’ lifespan, but the main factors that can affect their lifespan are poor diet plan, wrong or dirty cage setting, lousy health, and poor husbandry. These are some main factors that can cause harmful effects on their lifespan, which can be the reason for a short lifespan.

Poor Diet

Diet plays an essential role in maintaining animal health. In captivity, animals cannot manage their diet plan because they are not in the wild so they can go out for a meal of their own choice. It is captivity, and in captivity, they follow your diet plans. 

If they don’t get their proper daily diet, then it is not their fault because you are their keepers, and if you don’t feed them properly, who else will? So if you do not feed them properly, this will affect their health, and they may have a short lifespan due to not having a proper diet.

How Long Can a Ball Python Go Without Eating?

Poor Cage Set-Up

In the wild, animals live their own life where they have vast habitats and can live wherever they want. In the daytime, ball pythons usually hide in caves, and because they are nocturnal, they go hunting at night. So in captivity, their cage should be in a dark place, or you should keep them in the dark. 

They will always be under pressure if a proper cage for their living is not provided. You have to give them a proper living cage where they don’t have to face difficulty living. It would be best if you kept the environment of their cage the same as their environment in the wild you can put leaves in their cages and try to make their cage a bit big so they will not face any difficulty in living. It is better to make a short wall in their cage and plant some plants on the wall. 

Ball pythons need the proper environment to maintain their body temperature, digest food, and for breeding. So in captivity, you must maintain their cage temperature between 76 – 80° F. So, it is essential to maintain and regularly check their cage temperature. 

Poor Husbandry

Poor husbandry means poor snake behavior. If you are not paying attention to your snake or if there is any deficiency in your upbringing, then snakes can also be affected in this way. Your constant ignorance of snakes will force them to escape. 

The main reason for poor farming is not caring for the cage environment. They can run away from their cage environment if they are not paying attention to their environment being dirty and uncleaned. So it would be best if you gave proper attention to them and you must clean their cage regularly. 

Everyone, even humans or animals, needs a clean environment for proper upbringing. A poor environment can harm health. You must make sure to clean their cage every day so that the ball python can have a better lifespan.

Bad Health

Your snake will suffer from bad health when you stop caring about everything we have discussed above. Suppose they are not fed a proper diet, and the environment you have provided does not meet their required temperature. In that case, they will lead to poor health because the proper temperature is very important for their health. The ball python can have a short lifespan if they suffer from bad health.

Suppose your snake is suffering from bad health, and you don’t care about its health, and you ignore it; what will result? Their health will deteriorate, and they may die due to the deterioration of their condition. Why does this happen? Because you don’t feed them fresh food, you don’t follow the proper diet plan, and you don’t feed them on time. 

Why have I said that they need proper temperature? As we previously said, ball pythons need the required temperature for their proper growth, and if the correct temperature is not provided, they will have issues digesting food. So ignoring and keeping them from lousy health is not the solution because little suffering can lead to significant health issues. Don’t be careless in this matter; think about their harmful health and contact the doctors immediately so that they can treat them immediately.

Animals That Live on Trees

Facts About Ball Python

1. Ball pythons are known as royal pythons.
2. They mostly prefer to live in grassy areas.
3. Ball pythons like to live near a water source.
4. Ball pythons are the smallest pythons specie in the world.
5. They have around 100-150 small teeth.
6. Female ball pythons are larger than males.
7. They have bad eyesight; they don’t have visions.
8. After every 5-7 weeks, they shed their skin.
9. Ball pythons use heat visions to catch prey.
10. They can live for a long time without eating.
11.  They can live up to 50 years in captivity
12. Baby ball pythons have more bright colors than adults.

Can Ball Pythons Be Friendly?

Ball pythons can be friendly with their caretakers or with you. As a friendly, they wrap themselves around your body or coil their body around your arm. So they can be friendly. But it can be dangerous that are unaware of them or who they don’t recognize.

• Do not touch them if you are new to the snake.
• You should not go near them when the care keeper is not around them.
• Don’t ever get close to them while they are shedding or feeding.
• Don’t try to scare them while handling them.
• Sudden movements can startle them and they can even bite you so you have to be careful

How Many Teeth Does a Snake Have?

FAQs

Conclusion

Ball pythons are suitable for being pets. Every animal needs to be cared for by a care keeper who gives much love to them. If we talk about ball pythons, they are very fragile, and they need proper care. Their owner must regularly check their cage environment. Ball pythons must be kept at a maintained temperature, and their diet and digestion system will be messed up just because they do not have the right temperature. So it is essential to keep the right temperature in their cage. Ball pythons like grassy places, so you should try to give a ball python a grassy place for a better lifespan.

The only purpose of caring for all these things is that they will be brought up well. And as we have mentioned earlier, some species of this generation have lived for almost 50 years. Why they lived so much? The only reason behind this is that their care keepers care for them well. They do not leave any deficiency in their upbringing, which is why some snakes have a short lifespan in captivity, and some have a long lifespan.

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