Putting a male and a female together in one tank, bad idea?

I have two normal BPs (well, the male COULD be a het for something but I have to breed him out..) and my male is probably between 4-6 months old and the female is a year and a half old.

The male had mites, and I only found 5 (4 on him, 1 in tank). I sprayed the tank with JurassiMite and rubbed it on him with a towel. I'm pretty sure I got rid off all of them. He just shedded yesterday, so I cleaned out the ENTIRE enclosure. Everything he has in the enclosure was soaked in HOT water. I tried looking for more mites in the area I found them before (under the scales on the jaw) but couldn't find any. Though, there could be more so in this week I'm checking him daily for any mites that are still on him. I think the shedding may have gotten rid of some, but you never know. The female is a very healthy girl and she is just a sweet little girl. She is very friendly to my other snakes. I put her and my Corn on my bed and she didn't do anything, just smelled him and slithered over him lol.

Anyways, I may put the male in her enclosure when I notice every mite is gone. Will the male possibly mate with her? And since he had mites, should I wait longer than a week to put them together? Also, they both have no sicknesses and the female is housed in a 20 gallon enclosure.

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Originally Posted by BallPythonLOVER

I have two normal BPs (well, the male COULD be a het for something but I have to breed him out..) and my male is probably between 4-6 months old and the female is a year and a half old.

The male had mites, and I only found 5 (4 on him, 1 in tank). I sprayed the tank with JurassiMite and rubbed it on him with a towel. I'm pretty sure I got rid off all of them. He just shedded yesterday, so I cleaned out the ENTIRE enclosure. Everything he has in the enclosure was soaked in HOT water. I tried looking for more mites in the area I found them before (under the scales on the jaw) but couldn't find any. Though, there could be more so in this week I'm checking him daily for any mites that are still on him. I think the shedding may have gotten rid of some, but you never know. The female is a very healthy girl and she is just a sweet little girl. She is very friendly to my other snakes. I put her and my Corn on my bed and she didn't do anything, just smelled him and slithered over him lol.

Anyways, I may put the male in her enclosure when I notice every mite is gone. Will the male possibly mate with her? And since he had mites, should I wait longer than a week to put them together? Also, they both have no sicknesses and the female is housed in a 20 gallon enclosure.

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I would wait a month or two after the mites clear up just to make sure no other problems persist. How big and how old is the female? Is she ready to breed, and are you ready to have babies?
I wouldn't keep them together permanently, if one were to get sick, then they would both get sick and over-breeding can be very stressful on the animals.

Also, I would get an internal parasite float done on both before breeding, just in case so that they wouldn't spread it to each other. You can drop off the fecal matter at a herp vet and they will float it and treat any parasites as needed. It's usually not very expensive to do so.

You wont find out any new information by breeding a normal to a het.

I would hold off a little longer putting them together to breed since the male is just getting over mites. There could possibly still be a few left and you wouldnt want them to spread. They also dont need to be living together permanently to breed.

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

I would wait a month or two after the mites clear up just to make sure no other problems persist. How big and how old is the female? Is she ready to breed, and are you ready to have babies?
I wouldn't keep them together permanently, if one were to get sick, then they would both get sick and over-breeding can be very stressful on the animals.

Also, I would get an internal parasite float done on both before breeding, just in case so that they wouldn't spread it to each other. You can drop off the fecal matter at a herp vet and they will float it and treat any parasites as needed. It's usually not very expensive to do so.

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I've researched everything about breeding, and my female is 2 ft, 9 in. and across she is 4 cm on the thickest part of her body. I think she should wait another year to breed, but the odd thing is that I've seen males housed with females and they haven't mated with each other. That's why I was curious about housing them, and to make more room in my room for a new snake I hope to get this November:D:O:):P

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Originally Posted by BallPythonLOVER

I've researched everything about breeding, and my female is 2 ft, 9 in. and across she is 4 cm on the thickest part of her body. I think she should wait another year to breed, but the odd thing is that I've seen males housed with females and they haven't mated with each other. That's why I was curious about housing them, and to make more room in my room for a new snake I hope to get this November:D:O:):P

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She doesn't sound like she's old enough or big enough. They can still breed though and it could be dangerous for the female if they did. I wouldn't risk it.

It seems to me that if you need to risk the potential consequences of housing them together, you may not be ready to get another snake just yet. I like to think each snake one has should have the proper space and husbandry before another is considered. It's not really fair to the animals.

This may not be the case, but it looks like it to me.

Also, if this pairing could result in offspring, you would need more room for an incubator and setups once they hatch.

Housing ball pythons together is not recommended. Especially since one had mites. Many sprays dont kill mite eggs so just because you dont see them doesnt mean they wont return.

Try Provent-A-Mite (PAM) as instructed and you will eventually get rid of the mites, they can be difficult to irradicate.

Anttime you house snakes together it can cause stress and feeding problems as well if one catches something(like mites) the other one will most likely get it too.

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Originally Posted by BallPythonLOVER

I've researched everything about breeding, and my female is 2 ft, 9 in. and across she is 4 cm on the thickest part of her body. I think she should wait another year to breed, but the odd thing is that I've seen males housed with females and they haven't mated with each other. That's why I was curious about housing them, and to make more room in my room for a new snake I hope to get this November:D:O:):P

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Your writing care sheets on certain things like shedding and mite treatment, and you say you have researched everything about breeding? (I find that one hard to believe) and you ask if you can house 2 snakes together which for me is general/basic knowledge all so you can free up room for another snake??? Sure it may have been done before, but it's not right IMO! Sounds like you only have room for 2 snakes now.. that's just putting your 2 ball pythons at risk because you want another. Where are you getting your info from? After going to see which threads you've started, it sounds like you are also in a rush to breed, when you should be being more patient!

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Originally Posted by BallPythonLOVER

That's why I was curious about housing them, and to make more room in my room for a new snake I hope to get this November:D:O:):P

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I'm confused, with the affordability of tubs, why you would need to house them together to make more room for another snake? I'd suggest waiting until you can afford additional housing before adding a new one. :)