Input on multiple snakes in one tank.

[midtx350z]

^Cleo


We have 4 snakes.

0.1 (2.0" BP)(Zelda)
1.0 (2.2" BP)(Emilio aka Millie)
1.0 (2.5" BP)(Caesar)
0.1 (4.3" BP)(Cleo) <- She's kind of agressive.

Now, we keep them all in the same vivarium and they seem to like it. We haven't had ANY feeding problems at all, except with the big girl who was fasting, but she's eating a healthy meal once a week now. They all eat small rats.

The vivarium has a large UTH on the right side, and has two heat lamps, one for daytime and an infrared one for night time since the living room gets pretty cold. For humidity, the only thing I've been able to do is keep misting the tank with a spray bottle.

I was told they need to be separated, and I was also told that they shouldnt cuddle with each other, which they have been.

In the next few weeks, we're planning on making some sort of display for them. Initially, since I wasn't aware of the issues of keeping them together, we had planned to just make it a big display and put all four of them in there. After reading some things in the forum, I am now thinking of making a display that is separated into four tanks.

I'm sure Cleo has to be completely separate since she's so big, but can the smaller snakes be in the same tank? or do they ALL have to be separate? Or is it by gender?

They crawl around the tank at night, exploring I guess. Pretty nice to look at. I'll post a pic of all of them in a few mins, my camera is charging.

[derrabe]

General rule of thumb one snake one cage. The only time you should house snakes together is for breeding.

[Kaorte]

I would keep them all separated. By keeping them together, you will never know who poops or pees, who sheds. If one gets sick, they all get sick and that is a hefty vet bill!

I believe that it is best for the snakes if you separate them all. They will probably be much happier in the long run.

Cuddling is actually them competing for dominance. Usually this causes the dominated snake to go off feed. I am actually rather surprised that all of your snakes are eating but that still doesn't make it okay to house them together in my eyes.

[midtx350z]

Two of those snakes are mine, Zelda and Caesar. Millie and Cleo are my roommate's.

We just moved into a new house and had no other place to put them, so we put them in the big tank he had at his old apt.

What if they're the same sex and same size?

[Kaorte]

This is really just my opinion. There is no law that says you can't keep ball pythons together.

BUT. Every breeder I know keeps all of their snakes housed separately. This is for the benefit of the snakes. A snake is more likely to thrive living by itself then it is with cage-mates. As I said before, keeping two snakes together can double vet bills and you also don't know who is pooping/peeing/shedding. Not to mention the high probability that one of the snakes will stop eating or grow more slowly than the other.

[midtx350z]

I would keep them all separated. By keeping them together, you will never know who poops or pees, who sheds. If one gets sick, they all get sick and that is a hefty vet bill!

I believe that it is best for the snakes if you separate them all. They will probably be much happier in the long run.

Cuddling is actually them competing for dominance. Usually this causes the dominated snake to go off feed. I am actually rather surprised that all of your snakes are eating but that still doesn't make it okay to house them together in my eyes.

Yeah, I can see what you're saying about pooping and peeing.

Do you think it would be ok to leave them in there until we make our bigger separated display? It won't be until next month.

And yeah, they all eat like this:

YouTube - Caesar the Ball Python devours Rat
^that's Caesar.

[Kaorte]

They won't die thats for sure. I would try to get them separated asap though.

Have you ever considered plastic housing? To be quite honest, Ball pythons make terrible display snakes because they (should) spend 90% of their time hiding.

This is a great guide to setting up an enclosure: http://ball-pythons.net/modules/Sect...warticle&id=40

It is cheap and easy to manage

[wilomn]

[QUOTE=Kaorte;1082644]
Cuddling is actually them competing for dominance. Usually this causes the dominated snake to go off feed. /QUOTE]

This interests me. Can you provide your sources for this information?

[midtx350z]

They won't die thats for sure. I would try to get them separated asap though.

Have you ever considered plastic housing? To be quite honest, Ball pythons make terrible display snakes because they (should) spend 90% of their time hiding.

This is a great guide to setting up an enclosure: http://ball-pythons.net/modules/Sect...warticle&id=40

It is cheap and easy to manage

Yeah, we have considered plastic housing but we'd like to stick to display tanks. They do spend most of their time hiding but the tank itself is a nice adition and conversation starter in our living room.

[Kaorte]

[QUOTE=wilomn;1082665]

Cuddling is actually them competing for dominance. Usually this causes the dominated snake to go off feed. /QUOTE]

This interests me. Can you provide your sources for this information?

Nope.