The complete
ball python guide.
Written by the people who breed them. Everything it takes to keep one well — housing, heat, feeding, temperament, genetics, breeding and health — in one book.
Not a care card.
A curriculum.
Citadel Culebra is building the world’s first university for reptile keeping — faculty drawn from academia and the working private field, the people running tens of thousands of animals. The Ball Python guide is their ball python curriculum, written down.
The proof isn’t a star rating. It’s who wrote it.
Two ways in. Both start tonight.
Read the guide free.
Enter your email and we’ll open your free Codex account — the free version of the Ball Python guide, plus a taste of every other book in the library.
Own the whole book.
Reads in the Codex on any device. 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 & Veterinary 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 — free or paid.
However you get in, 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.
The book is just the front door.
Citadel Culebra is the school for reptile keeping. Behind the book: the full library, the courses, the community, and the software that runs your collection.
Want the technology? Become a member.
Every Care Library volume, the full course catalog, the community, and the Cerebro keeping software — all of it, one key. The Founding Class locks in $49/mo for life. Cancel anytime.
Billed $49.00/month. Your membership renews automatically each month until you cancel. Cancel anytime — no future charges.
Manage or cancel anytime in your account.
Start reading tonight.
Free to start. $9.99 to own the whole book. $49/mo for the entire platform.