The complete
ball python guide.
Written by tried and proven experts — the people who actually breed them. Housing, heat, feeding, temperament, genetics, breeding and health, in one place. Read the first 10% of every chapter free.
Led by Kevin McCurley.
Not a care card scraped off a forum — the ball python curriculum of Citadel Culebra, the school for reptile keeping, led by Kevin McCurley of NERD. Half the morphs the hobby keeps today were proven out in rooms like his. The proof isn’t a star rating. It’s who wrote it.
Most ball python advice is guesswork. This isn’t.
The internet will tell you ten different things about the same snake. Here’s what actually trips keepers up — and exactly what the book settles.
“My snake won't eat — is it dying?”
Ball pythons are famous for going off food for weeks, even months, and being perfectly fine. The book shows you the difference between a normal fast and a real problem — and a step-by-step plan to turn a problem feeder around.
“The humidity's never right and the shed came off in pieces.”
You don't need a swamp. Real numbers you can actually hold, why stuck sheds happen, how to fix a bad one safely, and the simple setup that keeps sheds coming off in one piece.
“It balled up / hid all day — is it stressed or is it fine?”
A ball python that hides, soaks, or curls into a ball isn't necessarily stressed. You'll learn to read what the animal is actually telling you, so you stop guessing and start responding to the right things.
“The morph names make no sense to me.”
Dominant, co-dom, recessive — in plain English, with the Punnett math done for you. What a given pairing really produces, what to pay for, and what to walk away from.
“It struck at me and now I'm scared to handle it.”
Why they strike or ball up, how to read the animal before you reach in, and how to build a snake that trusts the hand — done calmly, safely, kids included.
“Everyone online tells me something different.”
Because most of it is one person's setup repeated as gospel. This is husbandry as a range, not a recipe — sourced from experts running tens of thousands of animals, with the reasoning shown so you can decide for your snake.
No dogma, no fear, no guessing —
husbandry is a range, not a recipe.
Read it free. Own the whole book for $7.99.
The first 10% of every chapter is free — enough to know you love it. The whole book is a one-time $7.99: read it in our cinematic e-reader, or on Amazon Kindle.
Read 10% of every chapter.
Get the whole book.
One price, your choice of format — read it in our cinematic e-reader, or on Amazon Kindle. A one-time $7.99 for all thirty chapters.
One-time payment — digital sale, see our Refund Policy.
Everything it takes to keep one well.
Thirty chapters drawn from the working notes of breeders running tens of thousands of animals. Ten domains — 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.
Read it like an app.
It’s free — save the guide to your home screen and it opens full-screen, one tap, like any other app — phone or desktop. No App Store, nothing to manage.
Filmed in our own rooms.
Not stock footage — our own ball pythons, enclosures, and keepers, filmed the way a working room really looks. The morphs are shown in the book’s own illustrated style.
Start reading tonight.
Read the first 10% of every chapter free. The whole book is a one-time $7.99 — in our cinematic e-reader, or on Amazon Kindle.