Got my Boy today

[brelea79]

Hey! I got my boy BP today. I have had my little girl for about 2 months now. He is about 1 1/2 ft long and they told me that he only eats once a month. Should he not be eating more frequently than that? They were not feeding him frozen, they fed prekilled. I don't even like the idea of that. Me having to kill something just doesn't appeal. But they said he really didn't like them, so maybe in a few weeks, he'll adjust to eating here.

One more thing, will they be OK in the same cage? It is a 30 gallon aquarium. Right now, they are in the same hide with one another, so I hope so. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Briana

[dr del]

Hi,

We don't really recomend having more than one snake in the same enclosure - we also recomend trying to quarantine any new arrivals for between one and 3 months depending on source.

Can I ask where you got your new fella? They don't sound like they did you any favours from what you've said.

Have a good read of our caresheet and see if that suggests any questions you would like to ask.

As for feeding I would probably try and feed every 5-7 days once he has settled in. Now might be a good time to go over the temps (what they are how you measure them etc) and humidity in your existing tank and see what we can do to help get a second enclosure set up for your new boy.


dr del

[brelea79]

Well, my temps are 87.3 and humidity is 54%. I measure them with a R-Zilla digital therm and hydgro. The lady I got him from described her enclosure and it sounds good. As well, she told me that he is a very picky eater. The reason she is getting rid of him is because her landlord threw a fit. He is very nice, actually been out roaming around with my girl this evening. They are in the same hide laying together.

I would like to keep them in the same enclosure, why is that not advised. I had him checked by a lady that has raised and bred BPs for 15 years. She said he looks and sounds great. I went ahead and sprayed him for mites just in case. I sprayed him while holding him and he didn't even get angry. My girly did though. I thought she was going to eat me up.

I appreciate all the help.

[dr del]

Hi,

Well you've touched on a couple of the reasons it's not recomended right there really.

If one of them has something wong with them theres a greater chance of passing it to the other ( this is also why we recomend the quarantine period to make sure there are no problems with the new arrival). For treating mites most people report the best success with Provite-a-Mite by the way if you actuall have mites at the moment - I know you said "just in case" but thought the info couldn't hurt.

When you have two or more in the same tank it is hard to be certain which snake did which dropping ( or god forbid regurge) in order to get it checked at the vets if needed.

Also the cute cuddling in the hide is much more likely to be dominance/ competeing for resources and can actually cause stress on the snake that loses these battles.

There is also the possible problem of breeding too early which can be really bad on the female if she is undersized.

I would see if you could raise the temps in the hot hide to around the 93f mark if possible and keep the cool end hide at 80-82f if you can. The humidity seems fine as long as none of them are shedding at the moment - can you easily raise it to around 60-70% when they are by the way? There are a few good posts dotted around if it's giving you trouble.

Do you know if the snake is captive born and bred or captive farmed? If it's the latter it might be worth checking a stool sample for parasites just to make sure he has no hidden problems.

When she said he was a picky eater it might be worth getting her to talk you through her feeding routine on the times he did eat so you can try and replicate them if he doesn't respond to the normal feeding routine you have.

We also normally say it's a good idea to let them settle into their new homes for a week or so with no handling (aside from what is needed to clean the cage) so they begin to feel nice and secure.

Have a nosey/search around the forums on keeping snakes together, feeding problems etc and ask anything that comes to mind.


dr del