Check out the bearded dragon documentary made by Thomas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nRoTUITUjM&t=1s

As a hobby breeder I got my husbadry advice from YouTube channels like Kinova who pump out false and misleading information to tens of thousands of people every week. It took me 5 years to finally start to understand how unnatural and potentially cruel rack keeping is. From birth til death these animals are kept in darkness on a flat surface with no ability to raise their heads or move in any natural way at all. They are given a Dixie cup of water and live a life of profound sensory deprivation. I still use tubs but my breeding collection is under a dozen animals so I'm able to get them out of the tubs several times a week and give them free range. A good compromise would be to reconfigure the tubs. Twice as high, longer and translucent tubs would be a good start.

I cant wait to see the video

Another slice of fried gold ✨️. Thank you.👍🏾🇺🇸🇬🇧

I think there are general two broad types of people in the hobby. Those that are motivated for their love of the snakes and those motivated by profit/adding to their collection. Both may support racks but generally the former is due to learning dogma and the latter by the dictates of their motivation.

Reptiles and research i love your podcasts and have told some of you and give a listen to you so glad i fell into your podcasts

Despite where they live, their burrows in the wild are always at +90% humidity with the daytime high temperatures being no higher than 88°F in their micro-habitat.

Its been my limited experience that ball pythons enjoy micro climates and they choose what they need to me thats what they get in nature tbh

Thank you so much for this my ball needs me to learn more

I think it would be accurate to say they "live" in territories not in any one particular burrow. I suspect they are hunting rodents around termite mounds rather than setting up home.

My ball climbs

Dav Kaufman made a documentary on ball pythons in the wild a while back. It's really good.

I am really impressed with your evolution of understanding and compassion towards your fellow humans. It is a really great example. Especially coming from a person of science who loves animals so much. It is so easy to step into anger for people with whom you do not agree and to linger there. You are choosing to do the opposite. To understand and include. I wish all people on all sides of all arguments could gather the self reflective wisdom to do the same. Cheers! -Anton

dave kufman did a whole movie on them in the wild.

Many species of snakes prefer more open environments, even in areas with woods.  This doesn't automatically mean the snake spends more time out in the open.  Even the burrows, if fairly shallow, in open areas are warmer than the same burrow in the woods thanks to the warming of the soil.  They may actually be able to spend less time in the open in open areas than wooded ones, thanks to optimized thermoregulation.  Herpetologist Henry Fitch in conducting his incredible pioneering 50-year study (approx. 1948–1998) on the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation, documenting 18 snake species through over 31,000 mark-recapture records, noted a very significant decline in general snake biomass/numbers wherever meadows succeeded over time to environments enclosed by trees and shrubs.  Even woodland species spend more time at the ecotones where their woodlands abutted openings.  I am not surprised that fallow farm fields for instance are popular with Royal pythons.  They tend to be popular with snake species everywhere, these "oldfields."  This is good content, thanks.  Far more interesting than some breeder gushing over the money his new convoluted morph represents.

My ball is active at night

I just got my ball python nd I notice he basks from inside his hide, just showing sum his body out on the heat, made felt good for putting a hide close to the heat, nd a hide under for cooler heat

So i did the conversion is 107 high and 80 low day time

On conditions they require, I doubt they'd be so universal in the captive world if they were as sensitive and had such narrow parameters as some insist.  Earlier this year i visited a small collection of adult ball pythons housed individually in spacious glass front enclosures with subfloor heating.  The temperature in the basement itself was likely in the 70's and being in a country with cold winters i bet it got below that.  The enclosures themselves had subfloor heating, and i was surprised when i asked to check it out, it was not really notably warm, i doubt any of those enclosures had spots much over mid-eighties.  Yet the pythons spoke for themselves, were all impressively large, healthy and robust adults kept so for many years.  I've noticed in all animal husbandry, there is a type of human that really likes to nitpick things down to a certain strict recipe that they will then insist is vital.  It's much more about the compulsive nature of said humans in my opinion, than the animal in many these cases.  I read a book on keeping Pituophis once that said "hibernate them at 52 F."  I had to laugh - what if you hit 51 for awhile or egads, 50 or 53!?  Instant death?  It was ridiculous advice.  Ditto the people with their recipes for incubating snake eggs with all this high tech apparatus.  In the deep past i've thrown clutches of snake eggs in freezer bags of moist sphagnum, piled them all in a cardboard box and chucked them up top a shelf in a warm room, and in the usual 60 days or so had 100% hatch rates of healthy babies.  The temps and humidities?  Beats me.  Not advocating for this level of nonchalance,  but I would argue there's a lesson there nonetheless.  Great segment here, well worth a second watch - thanks.

I don't find it reasonable to think that increased activity after rainfall implies the species is best kept in higher humidity. If they're in a burrow during rainfall, why wouldn't they actively leave it, if drowning is the alternative? If 60% humidity had them all soaking in water bowls, then I'd assume they prefer higher humidity. I have one that leaves her burrow (a hide beneath coco chip substrate) every night. She remains in an arboreal position, even to feed, until sunrise. My husbandry is based on the animal's behavior. I believe if they're coiled and not exhibiting signs of stress or escape attempts, they're pretty happy.