Thoughts on communal housing?

I plan to pick up a VBB (O.t. callicyanous) when temps warm back up, but I'm wondering if I were to get a pair could I keep them together? It's nothing like I can't afford two setups or anything, I just think they'd be attractive as a pair on display. I'm going through all the reading and research I can find to learn proper husbandry, so of course I don't want to do anything that would be unsafe for the animals. Thoughts anyone? Any experiences, information, or tips you want to share are welcome as well.

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Originally Posted by mamaodie

I plan to pick up a VBB (O.t. callicyanous) when temps warm back up, but I'm wondering if I were to get a pair could I keep them together? It's nothing like I can't afford two setups or anything, I just think they'd be attractive as a pair on display. I'm going through all the reading and research I can find to learn proper husbandry, so of course I don't want to do anything that would be unsafe for the animals. Thoughts anyone? Any experiences, information, or tips you want to share are welcome as well.

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I would recommend against it. Blue beauty's (like pretty much all snakes) are not social and housing them together, unless in a very large setup, is ill advised. They get fairly large and it would be difficult to provide both with their own identical hot spots, hides, and personal space. Without this consideration, one snake is likely to suffer and stress to the benefit of the other.

I think you could get the same desirable aesthetic simply by housing them one on top of the other in a cage stack.

Or go with side-by-side enclosures and put lots of plants on the adjacent walls (and maybe something on the outside) to camouflage that there’s no actual connection.


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If your enclosure for the adult snake(s) is large enough it should be no problem to house a pair of them together. I kept a male Orthriophis taeniurus frisei for 19 years, but I have no personal experience with Orthriophis taeniurus callicyanous or keeping them as pairs or groups. However, I keep a lot of my snakes in pairs or even groups and I had no problems doing it.

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Originally Posted by Regius_049

Blue beauty's (like pretty much all snakes) are not social and housing them together, unless in a very large setup, is ill advised. They get fairly large and it would be difficult to provide both with their own identical hot spots, hides, and personal space. Without this consideration, one snake is likely to suffer and stress to the benefit of the other.

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There are a lot of snakes living in groups or even communities in the wild (Malpolon and Psammophis show a real social behavior and a male will present his female a mouse during courtship, some rattlesnakes live in communities, garter snakes etc.). So most snakes don’t need another snakes company, but most don’t mind if there is enough room for them to keep their distance if they choose to do so.

You have to provide enough resting and hiding places for both snakes, with sufficient room that both snakes could use it. Feeding them might be a bit of a problem, since they have an enthusiastic feeding response. If the enclosure is big enough it should be manageable.

Here is a picture of my enclosure for my 1.2 tiger rat snakes (Spilotes pullatus) as an inspiration how it can be done. The enclosure is 250 x 90 x 190 cm (8 x 3 x 6 ft), the heating is done by four 70W Metal halide lamps, creating a vertical thermal gradient from ca 30°C /86°F under the lamps to ca 23°C / 73°F at the ground. The snakes can choose between resting places in the branches and on top of the cork tubes and in the cork tubes on the ground, in different temperature zones.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/7Y6T3MY.jpg

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Originally Posted by Roman

If your enclosure for the adult snake(s) is large enough it should be no problem to house a pair of them together. I kept a male Orthriophis taeniurus frisei for 19 years, but I have no personal experience with Orthriophis taeniurus callicyanous or keeping them as pairs or groups. However, I keep a lot of my snakes in pairs or even groups and I had no problems doing it.



There are a lot of snakes living in groups or even communities in the wild (Malpolon and Psammophis show a real social behavior and a male will present his female a mouse during courtship, some rattlesnakes live in communities, garter snakes etc.). So most snakes don’t need another snakes company, but most don’t mind if there is enough room for them to keep their distance if they choose to do so.

You have to provide enough resting and hiding places for both snakes, with sufficient room that both snakes could use it. Feeding them might be a bit of a problem, since they have an enthusiastic feeding response. If the enclosure is big enough it should be manageable.

Here is a picture of my enclosure for my 1.2 tiger rat snakes (Spilotes pullatus) as an inspiration how it can be done. The enclosure is 250 x 90 x 190 cm (8 x 3 x 6 ft), the heating is done by four 70W Metal halide lamps, creating a vertical thermal gradient from ca 30°C /86°F under the lamps to ca 23°C / 73°F at the ground. The snakes can choose between resting places in the branches and on top of the cork tubes and in the cork tubes on the ground, in different temperature zones.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/7Y6T3MY.jpg

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That enclosure is AWESOME!

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Originally Posted by Roman

If your enclosure for the adult snake(s) is large enough it should be no problem to house a pair of them together. I kept a male Orthriophis taeniurus frisei for 19 years, but I have no personal experience with Orthriophis taeniurus callicyanous or keeping them as pairs or groups. However, I keep a lot of my snakes in pairs or even groups and I had no problems doing it.



There are a lot of snakes living in groups or even communities in the wild (Malpolon and Psammophis show a real social behavior and a male will present his female a mouse during courtship, some rattlesnakes live in communities, garter snakes etc.). So most snakes don’t need another snakes company, but most don’t mind if there is enough room for them to keep their distance if they choose to do so.

You have to provide enough resting and hiding places for both snakes, with sufficient room that both snakes could use it. Feeding them might be a bit of a problem, since they have an enthusiastic feeding response. If the enclosure is big enough it should be manageable.

Here is a picture of my enclosure for my 1.2 tiger rat snakes (Spilotes pullatus) as an inspiration how it can be done. The enclosure is 250 x 90 x 190 cm (8 x 3 x 6 ft), the heating is done by four 70W Metal halide lamps, creating a vertical thermal gradient from ca 30°C /86°F under the lamps to ca 23°C / 73°F at the ground. The snakes can choose between resting places in the branches and on top of the cork tubes and in the cork tubes on the ground, in different temperature zones.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/7Y6T3MY.jpg

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Oh wow talk about cage goals! Where did you get your awesome enclosure or did you build it yourself?

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Originally Posted by MissterDog

Oh wow talk about cage goals! Where did you get your awesome enclosure or did you build it yourself?

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The enclosure was built by a friend, he had a reptile shop and specialized in building enclosures, sadly it didn’t pay the bills in the end and he had to close his business.

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Originally Posted by Roman

There are a lot of snakes living in groups or even communities in the wild (Malpolon and Psammophis show a real social behavior and a male will present his female a mouse during courtship, some rattlesnakes live in communities, garter snakes etc.). So most snakes don’t need another snakes company, but most don’t mind if there is enough room for them to keep their distance if they choose to do so.

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Huh, I stand quasi-corrected. While my original point mainly stands, I was unaware there were this many social species.

Enclosure looks sick btw.

I kept four Garter snakes together a few years ago - one jet Black male and three Albino females with no issues . Feeding time was interesting ..

https://instagram.com/p/7ES9AzEjrG/


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