Knapek, K. J., Adams, M. K., Ayers, J. D. 2017. What’s in our chamber of secrets? Python housing in a laboratory setting. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 5(4) (December), 16-19.

At Colorado State University we have an investigator who requested care for 2 different species of pythons, the green tree python (Morelia viridis) and the ball python (Python reguis), to study the pathology of an emerging snake virus. We were very excited to bring these novel animals into our facility, and our goal was to house them in a species-appropriate manner with adequate spacing, appropriate environmental conditions, and to limit the snakes’ and our animal care staff’s stress as much as possible. This article describes the housing, diet, handling and preventative veterinary care for these two species of snake.