whats your opinion on housing snakes together?

[ballpython5000]

if i had another ball python and wanted to house it with my current one would that be ok? after the appropriate quarantine time and all. and so long as it was not a male and a male. there would be more than enough space available. and their sizes would be almost equal. is that ok to do year round? i have never tried to house anything but geckos together, so would it work for snakes? ok so whats your opinions on this?

[marisa]

My opinion

I say no. Don't house together. Many many people do house together with no problems but some DO have problems. And my thoughts are if you have one situation where no problems will arise (housing apart) and another situation where there is a possiblity of problems(housing together),,,,which situation do you think is best?

Some thoughts that are true, regardless of what people think is right in this issue:

1. Feeding must be done apart. But just two days ago I happened to read a story about someone who fed their snake and the smell when placed back in the cage with its cagemate was apparently not gone and I believe one attacked the other. This is rare though.

2. Transmission of sickness. Yes it will most likely be healthy BUT if it gets sick with something that can be passed, it WILL be passed and you are out two snakes if its fatal, and either way fatal or no, you now have two vet bills instead of one.

3. Earyl breeding. Not sure if this is a problem for Ball Pythons but a concern with almost all other species. It can lead to a serious vet trip, or even be fatal.

4. If one snake regurgs, or has suspicious crap you won't know who is having the problem.

5. Stress. Snakes are solitary creatures. They do NOT make friends, and most are happier alone. They can live together and get along fine but again this situation invites stress related problems which in turn can become feeding and health problems.

These are just the issues I can come up with off teh top of my head. Its my humble opinion that I would buy a rubbermaid for 5 bucks and save myself the possiblity of create problems. :)

Marisa

[BoidKeeper]

In my opinion, which I'm basing on things I've read and things that I know large breeders of balls do, I feel that balls should never be housed together.
Here are some points that I keep in mind and reasons why I do not house them together.
1. The presence of another animal in their space represents competition, competition leads to stress.
2. Stress leads to loss of appetite and or disease.
3. If one sick gets sick they can both get sick.
4. How do you know who is defecating and who is not?
5. Snakes are not social animals so although captivity its self is not natural forcing two animals to live together is even more unnatural.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Linds]

Originally posted by ballpython5000
there would be more than enough space available. and their sizes would be almost equal

Marisa and Trevor covered my thoughts. Now in response to having more space, the only way this would be is if you were planning on cramming two snakes into the space sized for one. If you were gong to house two snakes together (except for breeding) you should have an enclosure large anough that they never have to see eachother if they don't want to... this will no doubt be alot more space than if you housed them separately.

[jadegrasse]

I lost a nice male ball when the female crushed him one night. No apperent reason. They were fed about 4 hours before this happened. If you can afford to loose one then by all means......


Alain

[stormyva]

If there is "plenty" of room in the cage why not put in a solid, opaque divider and turn it into to two cages?

[ballpython5000]

just wondering if it at all a bright idea. i could divide it in half....... making each cage about 3x2x2, or i could quarantine one and then put them together in a very large one..........
but i take your opinions seriously and wont do it.

[Xetox]

You can put 2 together I have two of mine toghther right now but when I recieved them they where together I have only had them for a couple days, and my plans are to seperate them asap even tho they have lived together all there lives. It just not a good practice to keep two together other than breeding reasons!

[ballpython5000]

yeah im gonna get a male so i can breed a bit. most if not all bp's in maine are wild caught, and i may be able to help that out just a bit. and here a wc is the exact same price as a cb, about 90.00

hey i just saw this, i have a little star...............juvenile

[Xetox]

Yea....I have been working on cb around my area...it just sucks that they lay so few eggs...

[eyespy]

Every few CBs makes for a few less that need to be taken from the wild. Keep on chipping away at that!!

[ballpython5000]

yeah and if i sell it to the shops at a lower price then the cb will actually be cheaper than wc

[Xetox]

I try to sale to as many local shops as I can, at the cheapest prices that I can....I can almost compete with import price and still make a profit! All it takes is a alot of work and alot of time, but knowing the payoff is well worth it!