housing together?

[bo2as]

hey guys so this is my question.. what do u guys think about housing snakes together...? i had my boas together and they both got sick because i didnt quarentien them :( with LOTS of vet bills and alot of time there now better. Now i have a friend that sold me a BP i wanna get another one. i have a tub set up for a nice LONG quarentiene (at least 5 months) now im just wondering what you guys think about putting him or her with the other guy (supposed to be a male). im aware of breeding risks ect (wich with all the right reasearch and prep) i might acctually want. but how about male male? will they `fight`? apart for sickness what are the risks? ive had ppl tell me two different things.. either no problem... or OH NO no NO... my Boas are together and my vet even told me NOT to separate them that they could acctually get lonley seen as they were used to each other lol. they are doing fine now... so durring my quarenteine period should i be shopping around for another enclosure or should they do fine living together?? any advice will help!! thx :)

[Jay]

hey should be solitary man but half this hobby is some experimentation i dont house snakes together but i know some people do i say to each his own

[infernalis]

Most snakes, especially boas and pythons are not good housed together.

[Jay]

id like to add even tho it may appear there fine but they will probably be stressed and lead to later health problems

[bo2as]

Thx guys... guess ill be shopping for 2 enclosures! Might as well build my own;-)

[Jendee]

ya, at first they will seem fine. Stress from being housed together will show up eventually, just like stress from bad temps or from lack of security these things all show up later. Which is how alot of newer people get into trouble. They seem just fine at first.
Housing snakes together is a bad idea for record keeping, you wanna know when your snake pooped, shed and how much they drink you cant keep track of the accurately if there are 2 of them in there. It is also difficult for feeding you dont want to have to separate them eveytime they fed sometimes you just don't have time to sit around and wait for them to finish!! Being housed together will stress out your animal, reptiles are solitary animals, the only time they go searching for another of there kind is to breed then they are saying "later, have a nice day". Im sure in there cage they are laying on top of each other, so your thinking they are buddies but its really just a heat thing. Most vets don't give good advice about reptiles, unless they majored in herpetology they only get a little course in reptiles in general not specific species. You really need to search to find a good "boa" vet or a good "python" vet and sometimes that could take a really really long time or quite a drive :)
Good luck!! Show us pics when you get the new guy ;)

[boa-man-uk]

totally right... theres no real benefit to housing snakes together. it saves space but creates worse problems in the long run. plus they end up competing for spaces to hide, the warmest spot etc. good luck with building the viv.