The complete
ball python guide.
Written and proven by true experts — people who’ve kept ball pythons well in high numbers and low, as pets, breeding animals, and ambassadors. Not just rules to follow — the tools to think for yourself and make the right call for your animal.
IllustrationNot a care sheet.
A way of thinking.
Keeping these animals isn’t a fixed science — different snakes want different things. This book gives you the widely accepted baseline, then the tools to read your own animal and make an informed call. Know more, and you ask better questions — and reach deeper answers.
Proven by true experts — people who’ve kept ball pythons well in high numbers and low, as pets, breeding animals, and ambassadors — and written from more than one perspective, so you’re armed to decide for yourself. Led by Kevin McCurley.

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Everything it takes to keep one well.
Thirty chapters drawn from years of hands-on keeping — every domain of ball python care, and the reasoning behind it. Here’s exactly what you’ll walk away knowing.
The Animal & Its World
Where it comes from — and why its wild home on the savannas and forest edges of West Africa decides everything about how you keep it.
Choosing the Right Snake
Captive-bred vs wild-caught, what a real breeder looks like, sexing and age — and the quarantine that protects everything else.
Housing & Enclosure
Built right the first time: size by life stage, security, substrate and hides — rack, tub, display, or bioactive done properly.
Heat, Humidity & Climate
The numbers that actually hold: thermal gradients, basking temps, thermostats, and humidity you can hit without a swamp.
Feeding & Nutrition
Prey size and type, frozen-thawed vs live, schedules by age, the winter fast — and turning a problem feeder around.
Temperament & Handling
Why they ball up, reading stress versus calm, and building a snake that trusts the hand — kids included.
Health & Medical Care
Catch what quietly kills ball pythons early — RIs, mites, scale rot, stuck sheds, mouth rot — and know when to call a vet.
Genetics & Morphs
Dominant, co-dom and recessive traits, allelic combos, the Punnett math, reading a pairing — and what to avoid.
Breeding & Incubation
From pairing to hatchling: readiness, ovulation, egg-laying, maternal vs artificial incubation, and first feeds.
Conservation & Ethics
Where they really come from, the ranching trade behind the pet market, and what responsible keeping owes the wild.
Thirty chapters. A complete ball python education —
from your first hatchling to a breeding room.
Illustration
The Cinematic E-reader.
Not a flat PDF — an app on your phone with video, graphics and media built right into the chapters. Buy once, get your code, and it opens full-screen like any other app. No App Store, nothing to manage.
Just want the text? The Amazon Kindle edition has the full book at $7.99 — without the Cinematic media.
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Real footage, honest illustrations.
Real b-roll from the Citadel rooms alongside original illustrations for the concepts — every image is labeled, so you always know which is which.
Illustration
Illustration
IllustrationStart reading tonight.
Preview 10% of every chapter free. $7.99 to own the whole book — Cinematic E-reader or Kindle, lifetime access. All sales final.




