Here is my non-moderator post. This is me. I have my own opinions just the same as I did before I became a moderator and this is what I would say.
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Originally Posted by sophiedufort
I keep the Brazilian rainbow boas in the same enclosure, because they are inseparable. I have a separate thread with more pictures and details about all my snakes, it is in General Discussions I think, it is called 'All my snakes'. Quite a few members commented on that thread that it is really bad to house the snakes together, but I don't see it that way. These two will not separate. When they sleep in the hide, they do it coiled one around another, not one on top of each other. It is not dominance, it is bonding.
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Dominance doesn't have to be "one top of the other". It's simple competing for the same security/heat. This is evident by coiling around one another. Snakes don't bond. They simply don't. They are solitary creatures and would never do this in the wild so I don't see millions of years of evolution somehow undone in your house.
How I know they are competing and not bonding is because you haven't supplied the appropriate set up. You mention in the other thread that you have 1 hide on the cool and hot side. What happens when both need to be warm but want security? You only have given them one option which is to share. This is akin to me putting my snake in a fish tank and saying it loves it because he's swimming constantly. It has no other option.
Two hides on each should be supplied that have the same temperatures/humidity and they should be exactly the same so they offer the same security. This sounds silly to some however it isn't. If they aren't identical then they will still compete over the BEST security/environment.
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I am yet to see that snakes get stressed as a result of spending time together, or with us. They are calm, don't jerk away when touched by another snake or by my husband and I, to the contrary they seek company. A stressed snake would be agitated, grumpy, aggressive.
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You are using human stress signs on your snakes. They are not one and the same. Stressed snakes are not "grumpy, agitated or aggressive" (no snake is ever aggressive). That is how a human would be. Snakes and reptiles in general exhibit stress by usually being complacent. Also, you've given these animals no other options. You interact with them on your schedule and how you want them to. You interpret their actions of simply moving around as "seeking you out" or "seeking out other snakes". They do not care for you and they only go to your husbands neck because it's the warmest place on our bodies they can get to. Most likely they feel insecure and need somewhere warm to spend all those hours you have them in unfavourable conditions.
You care for your animals and that's what matters. However I have made this post so that new people reading the forums can have two differing opinions and make up their mind on how they view things.
By the way, the best thing about science is that it's still right even if you don't believe it.
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