I have to say, when I first heard of this site, I was really excited about the chance of having friendly and informative chats with people who share my passion. And although in a lot of cases there are nice people, I sometimes find this site as nasty as high school!!!!! When considering buying a reptile my partner and I researched everything we could possibly think of. I took a written list of questions to the so called reputable reptile shop I purchased my snake from and set everything up according to their advise, and the info obtained by books. I later found out that I was underfeeding my earlier pythons, they are not unhealthy but will probably never grow to the size they could have been. And I lost part of the tail of my first due to shedding problems which didn't become apparent until it was too late - due to lack of education. I now deal with a wonderful breeder who helps with any questions (sometimes gives answers where you have to really think and use common sense in order to understand) and all reptiles at my place are enjoying the benefits from this. As stated before, different books have conflicting info, as does the net, breeders, and herp owners. A book that we find helpful is "The complete Chondro" by Greg Maxwell. Even though it is a book for GTP's you can adapt the info to suit most other types of pythons. The other thing is, licensing is for trace ability not to make sure you know how to look after the animals. I am now breeding (wouldn't call myself a breeder yet) and honestly believe that the person selling the snake should be responsible for educating who they sell to as they have bred them and looked after them. All my animals will be sent with a care sheet stating my opinion of how they should be set up and looked after. Obviously people may find other info later down the track that suits them better, but if they are given the basics at least their new pet has a good chance of making it. I agree about some answers not being ideal, but isn't this web site all about "in our opinions"? And as for the lazy comments, the process of trying to get a straight answer in regards to caring for reptiles is often exhausting on this site, as you get a mixture of people telling you what they believe to be the answer and people bagging you or others for their answers.