Never again shall I house two snakes together

It is great to hear that your balls are okay. I don't house multiple balls together past their first shed unless I am trying to illicit breeding responses or feeding responses.

The idea that however that it is out of "lazyness" or "convenience" to house multiple snakes together is silly in my opinion. I know tons and tons of breeders who keep all their boys paired up year round until breeding season without incident. I also keep my burms, carpets, cornsnakes and rainbow boas in pairs and I have to be way more on top of things in terms of feeding, cleaning and such. It is not easier, or more convenient.

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Originally Posted by wRobio

It is great to hear that your balls are okay. I don't house multiple balls together past their first shed unless I am trying to illicit breeding responses or feeding responses.

The idea that however that it is out of "lazyness" or "convenience" to house multiple snakes together is silly in my opinion. I know tons and tons of breeders who keep all their boys paired up year round until breeding season without incident. I also keep my burms, carpets, cornsnakes and rainbow boas in pairs and I have to be way more on top of things in terms of feeding, cleaning and such. It is not easier, or more convenient.

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I don't house any of mine together, so this is a genuine question. I've seen mature male ball pythons battle when placed together. Do you know if breeders who keep their boys together (specifically ball pythons) have issues with their males battling as they mature? Or does having a "room-mate" that they are familiar with decrease the incidence of this?

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Originally Posted by wRobio

The idea that however that it is out of "lazyness" or "convenience" to house multiple snakes together is silly in my opinion. I know tons and tons of breeders who keep all their boys paired up year round until breeding season without incident. I also keep my burms, carpets, cornsnakes and rainbow boas in pairs and I have to be way more on top of things in terms of feeding, cleaning and such. It is not easier, or more convenient.

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And may i ask u this.

Ifu got 2+ males housed together. One has a regurg u gonna know which one it was? One get sick. Rest are likely to get sick.

Some how i do not really see this as something that is commonly practiced. But hey what do i know. I just know i wouldnt house any snakes together seeing as its hard to tell who did what and the fact that if one gets sick it highly likely u now have more sick snakes.

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Originally Posted by wRobio

I also keep my burms, carpets, cornsnakes and rainbow boas in pairs and I have to be way more on top of things in terms of feeding, cleaning and such. It is not easier, or more convenient.

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So, why keep them together?

This thread should be stickied as a warning.

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

And may i ask u this.

Ifu got 2+ males housed together. One has a regurg u gonna know which one it was? One get sick. Rest are likely to get sick.

Some how i do not really see this as something that is commonly practiced. But hey what do i know. I just know i wouldnt house any snakes together seeing as its hard to tell who did what and the fact that if one gets sick it highly likely u now have more sick snakes.

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It is commonly practiced and whether you see it or not, whether you understand it or not does not factor into this debate. You see some species actually are often kept in pairs. Believe it or not, some species are next to impossible to mate if they are not kept together.

If you practice proper quarantine, make sure your husbandry is top notch, and feed appropriate prey sizes, worrying about sickness and vomiting is not needed.

Frankly, my advice to most people is to NOT do it. As has been stated, it takes much more skill, time and effort to house two animals together than apart. A whole different set of needs must be met, different feeding strategies need to be employed and you actually have to pay attention to your snakes.

I can tell you, for example, which of my two pituophis ruthveni pooped today just by looking at them. I can also tell you that you need to separate two cribos at feeding time, and reintroduce them a minimum of two hours after the meal has been consumed.

You need to supply larger accommodations. You need to provide larger thermoregulation zones. You need to make sure there are enough hides. Most of all, your need to kick your cleaning regimen up a notch.

With many breeds, you also need to pay acute attention to natural breeding cycles. My dry males want to do the love dance between November and January. When they start refusing meals, I separate them from the females (if I'm choosing not to mate them).

Yep - co-habitating snakes is harder work than keeping them alone. For that reason, I suggest that no one attempt it unless you really know your animals.

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

Yep - co-habitating snakes is harder work than keeping them alone. For that reason, I suggest that no one attempt it unless you really know your animals.

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Interesting discussion, but I think I missed the part where you describe the benefits of housing two ball pythons together.

I'm not disagreeing... just curious.

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Originally Posted by jxk

Interesting discussion, but I think I missed the part where you describe the benefits of housing two ball pythons together.

I'm not disagreeing... just curious.

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I missed the part where anyone claimed, or better yet asked, if there was a benefit.

I don't see one - for ball pythons. For other snakes, there can be benefits.

a friend of mine had a pair of Texas rats housed together years ago and during feeding they both grabbed either end of a mouse and the one swallowed the other half way down before she noticed. luckily she was able to pull them apart and they both survived. another time a different friend of mine had a pair of adult gabbons housed together, he separated them to feed them but when he returned the male to the cage the female struck and drove both of her 1 1/2" fangs into the males head. needless to say he died almost instantly. so for me even for the purposes of a large display exhibit, I think that housing more than one specimen per enclosure is just asking for trouble

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Originally Posted by jason_ladouceur

a friend of mine had a pair of Texas rats housed together years ago and during feeding they both grabbed either end of a mouse and the one swallowed the other half way down before she noticed. luckily she was able to pull them apart and they both survived. another time a different friend of mine had a pair of adult gabbons housed together, he separated them to feed them but when he returned the male to the cage the female struck and drove both of her 1 1/2" fangs into the males head. needless to say he died almost instantly. so for me even for the purposes of a large display exhibit, I think that housing more than one specimen per enclosure is just asking for trouble

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1. Keeping two snakes together = not asking for trouble.

2. Feeding two snakes together = asking for trouble.

I thought gaboons were immune to their own venom..............