new to the forums!

HELLOO!!!

im new to the forums but i've had my 2 pythons for about 18months now


check em out here!

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/diavuno/...60762396183434

~Vince

*looks into crystal ball*

I see a bunch of people asking why two snakes are in the same cage.

Welcome to the site, you will find a lot of good info here, please be open to advice...there's keepers on here that really know their stuff!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

*looks into crystal ball*

I see a bunch of people asking why two snakes are in the same cage.

Welcome to the site, you will find a lot of good info here, please be open to advice...there's keepers on here that really know their stuff!

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Either this has happened a few times before or we are both psycic

*fulfills the prophecy* So...why do you have two snakes in the same enclosure?

:bolt:

i got them that way... they've never had any trouble so i figured it was okay..

both are tested females if that help +_O


i do feed em separate though

Hmmm, they don't look very big for being 18 month old females...are they eating every week for you?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by starshooter10

i got them that way... they've never had any trouble so i figured it was okay..

both are tested females if that help +_O


i do feed em separate though

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I know you're probably going to be overwhelmed by the torrent of information that may come flooding at you, but I'll sum up what many people here are going to tell you.

Ball Pythons are not social animals, living together will stress them out (BPs show stress in different ways than humans do, so it might not be readily apparant to you). Eventually, one will tend to "dominate" the other, causing problems with feeding (ie: the "non-dominant" one might be too stressed to eat). There is also the risk of cannibalism, easy spread of illness, etc.

It really is best to have two seperate enclosures--one for each animal. In each enclosure there should be a proper heat gradiant (80-84 on the cool side, 90-94 on the warm side), humidity between 50-60%, two identical hides, one on each end of the tank and a water bowl.

And, of course--welcome to BP.net ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by starshooter10

i got them that way... they've never had any trouble so i figured it was okay..

both are tested females if that help +_O


i do feed em separate though

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Just as a pretense, don't take any of this as a personal attack, just trying to help...

When ball pythons are kept communally, what happens is that they compete for space, heat, time at the water bowl, etc etc...one almost ALWAYS becomes dominant over the other...male or female, doesn't matter...and that causes stress.

Over a long period of time, stress leads to feeding problems, sickness, and all kinds of bad stuff. Also, if one gets sick with either RI or anything else, you can bet the other, healthy one will get it too.

Long-term stress also causes them to do other bad things - cannibalism is one of them. There are threads out there documenting this, it has happened before, and it CAN happen to you.

There are just so many more advantages to housing them seperately than keeping them together. They might be ok now, tomorrow, or in 3 months, but - is it really worth the risk?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by starshooter10

i got them that way... they've never had any trouble so i figured it was okay..

both are tested females if that help +_O


i do feed em separate though

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wise man on mountain say: put one snake one enclosure. or this happen
Look at post 17
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...0&page=2&pp=10