Can I have two balls?

[CdnSee]

Currently Salazar is living in a 55 gallon aquarium and we are wondering if we could add another snake in with him... If we can what kind of things should we do in looking for the 2nd snake? How should we change the care now that we have two?

[stangs13]

Sure if you get anohter tank/tub.

[frankykeno]

Personally I wouldn't put another snake in there with him. Ball Pythons are shy snakes that normally live pretty much on their own other than when they come together to mate.

Issues you would have to think about with housing two snakes in one enclosure are...

- quarantine: if they are put together immediately without it anything that new snake has, Salazar will likely get

- illness: if one snake gets sick, both will likely get sick and you will have double the vet bills to deal with

- dominance: in these snakes it can be very subtle or very obvious but can include things like keeping the subordinate snake away from heat sources, water, etc. leading to it's decline

- cannabalism: not terribly common but has been seen to happen with this species

- feeding bites: they will always have to be fed seperately but because snakes can remain quite keyed up just after eating you may get a situation where one strikes out at the other due to a heightened response

- unplanned/young breeding: unless you are absolutely sure of their genders you may have a female being bred too young or too small, as well you may be faced with an unplanned for clutch of eggs

- feces testing (fecal floats): if you find a feces one day that isn't normal and you want it tested you are in an iffy position because most likely you won't be able to figure out who just passed it, this can lead to having to treat two snakes because you've no idea who is really the ill one (but likely both will end up "sharing" the disease) and you're back to the issue of double vet bills

Just some things to think about.

[CdnSee]

That's the kind of stuff I was wondering about... Perfect answer to my question!

Thanks so much

[frankykeno]

You're welcome, Greg. It's not that they absolutely can't live together it's just not generally recommended especially with newer keepers who might not have the experience to see trouble until it's a bit late. Also I've just never seen the upside to it when there are so many potential downsides.

With a 55 which is quite large, you might want to consider splitting the tank with plexiglass or something snake safe (I've personally never done it but have seen threads about it). That way once your new BP has finished quarantine in another room, you could have them live side by side. Sort of the same effect you were going for but without all the possible risks.

[CdnSee]

I'm just going snake crazy.... I'm glad that the answer was it isn't recommended because we really don't need another pet LOL

[FatBoy]

You can pick up a small 4 drawer rack system for not much more than a 55 gal tank set up. This way you can have 4 pet snakes instead of one. After the initial cost they are not very expensive to keep.

[Somed00d]

I would put a divider of some sorts and have 2. 55 gal is bigger than a ball needs. However you should quarantine any new snakes for 3-6 months to be sure tour originl snake doesn't get sick.