housing question

[Gurgie]

ok, so I'm planning on getting a female about a month or so from now and I have a couple of questions....

Nag isnt a year old yet, and I was wondering if I could house them both together to start with, or is that not a good idea?

also, if I do need to keep them separate, I've seen folks talk about keeping them in "bins" or such...can someone give me a little run-down on why you would keep them in a bin, and how it works if thats your housing of choice?

BTW, I have no intention to breed (certainly not any time in the near future...I am not knowledgeable as of yet to even think of it)
so thats part of why I need to know about the housing question.

here's the thing....I currently have a 30 gallon fish tank set up for Nag. the temps and humidity are perfect right now, and I was kind of hoping to be able to put Nagaina in with Nag for right now, cause we are moving in July and I need to know what kind of space I'm going to have before I know what the new housing situation will be. so is it dangerous for them to be in together if they arent littermates? is it safe enough for a month or so to keep them together?

[MedusasOwl]

Definitely best to keep them seperate. Cannibalism is rare, but it happens, and sharing a space like that stresses out any snake. They're solitary creatures and compete for the "best" spaces, and dominate each other. Plus if one gets sick, they both get sick.

I used this DIY Plastic Housing tutorial to set up Gomez's enclosure, cheap and excellent for shedding and such. He's a happy little dude in there. Doesn't take up a lot of space either, BPs are pretty laid back and don't need a whole lot of room. Hope that helps!

[Gurgie]

yes that does help...thanks

[tigerlily]

Plus remember when introducing any animal into your collection, you must quarantine! Which makes it a very bad idea. I would highly advise not housing two animals together, unless your actively breeding. And that's more like supervised visits. It's a pretty standard rule around here. One cage = one snake. If you are unsure of your situation with moving, then why not put off the purchase until you are more settled?

[frankykeno]

Excellent advice Sheree! Wendy, if you are moving shortly it might be best to deal with that first then once you see your new space you'll be able to better decide what room you have for another BP. As Sheree said so well, they really don't require large enclosures though and in fact for young BP's an overly large enclosure is very stressful, so defeats your whole purpose.

All our BP's are in Sterlite tubs which generally cost no more than $11.00 for the largest one which is 39 long x 19 wide x 6.5 high, perfect for even our biggest females. Our smaller male who is just shy of a year old is in a smaller one of course. This gives them enough room but also allows for proper thermoregulation as well as two hides and a water dish (as well as their Acu-Rite of course).

Here's a pic of one of our bigger females in her tub. I'd just cleaned it so the Acu-Rite isn't back in yet and the lid is off for the pic of course.


Here's another female tucked nice and snug into her hide. It's just a heavy rubber dog dish flipped over and an entrance cut into it but they love the dark security of it plus the flat roof for lazing about on when they feel like it (and it was only $3.99 at the local feed and tack shop LOL)


Here's another idea for hides. This is our male when he was quite a bit smaller in his little terracotta saucer hide. He's all ready for his meal in this pic.


This is the Acu-Rite (WalMart...available under different brand names from Lowe's and Home Depot....around $10-$15 plus one AAA battery). Really works quite well for the low cost and will read two temps plus humidity of your enclosure.


Hope these helped to give you some ideas of a basic setup.

[cassandra]

I'll chime in that quarantine is a must...we brought Carmen home and set her up in another room, for which we were quite grateful when it turned out she had mites!

Had she been in the same room as Cleo, they might have spread.

[pythonweb]

[QUOTE=cassandra]I'll chime in that quarantine is a must...we brought Carmen home and set her up in another room, for which we were quite grateful when it turned out she had mites!

I had the same problem with my second BP. Thank god he was in a different room.

[Ninjapython]

well another big big deal are the collection killers these are diseases that are so far uncureable and almost always result in death one of my good friends did quarintine but not efficently enough and 45 of his 47 snakes died from starlight sicness whiuch targets the brainstem

[Gurgie]

Well, I really appreciate all the advice. I never thought of quatantine before so I appreciate that as well.

I just told my future hubby i was buying a female and he said "ok....can I buy this new motherboard for my P4 that doesnt work?" LOL so what is it with him that he thinks that if I spent some money that he has to spend some as well. *grin* at least he didnt get mad at me *grin*

so anyway, in a few more weeks I will finally have my female and I think I'm going to transfer Nag to the rubbermaid thing as well...one snake one cage, right? that way I will definately have a place to put them, and my kids can have the fish tank for Nemo and Nemo's friends.

have there been any previous posts on how to set up a "bin" properly? I got a web link to something on BP.net, but I would like advice from different folks who do it this way.

I am ordering her from ectotherms.net....someone on here refered me to this guy and his BP's are so beautiful...it was so hard to choose. but at least this time I am ordering from someone who knows what they are doing, unlike last time.
I'm hoping I wont have to wait too long to get her, I'm so excited.

but I digress....ok, quarantine...for about how long?
plastic bins, one bin one snake....got it so far....
anyone else have any photos of their bin set ups so i can see how it goes? what to use for heating....right now I have everything perfect, but I want to be able to have the bins perfect before I put my babies in them...I dont want Nag to get stressed out again while I try to figure things out, and i'm sure that Nagaina will be cranky after her trip here and I want her to be able to get comfy without haveing to tweak anything.

am I annoying anyone yet? WAY too much caffeine and no sleep...great combination, eh?

[rabernet]

I am ordering her from ectotherms.net....someone on here refered me to this guy and his BP's are so beautiful...it was so hard to choose. but at least this time I am ordering from someone who knows what they are doing, unlike last time.
I'm hoping I wont have to wait too long to get her, I'm so excited.

Which one are you getting? I'm probably getting five from Will (they're on hold on his site) and I currently have five from him that I got in Feb/March. They are great animals!

I do know if you're getting an '06 he won't ship them out until after they've had three meals with him (most have had one so far). That's a good thing - that assures you that the animal you get from him has successfully fed and should continue to do so for you if you keep them in the proper conditions!

But yes, the animals that Will sends (I've received two shipments) are very healthy (at least the '05's were)!