House 2 Balls together?

Yes i will send pictures of them together, I have many many awesome pics.They are never locked tails together. All i meant was when i let them slither around they usually wrap the ends of there tails together and its very cute cuz they don't want to let go. My smaller snakey is about a 12-16 months old now. And i did answer about the eggs, i said babies are always a plus! All babies are cute of any species!

Since I think no one has mentioned this, males do sometimes 'breed' with other males in a display of dominance. So you may actually have two males 'holding tails'. In this case, I am fairly sure you will have one stop feeding eventually. Have you had them sexed?

Also, did the breeder tell you to keep them together permanently or just during breeding season? All big breeders I know of keep all of their snakes in seperate enclosures. Keeping males and females together year round can lead to loss of interest in mating with each other (aside from dominance issues, feeding problems, etc.).

will you answer this, im jus wondering....so what did the breeder tell you?????!!!!!! im curious what he/she said

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

Yes i will send pictures of them together, I have many many awesome pics.They are never locked tails together. All i meant was when i let them slither around they usually wrap the ends of there tails together and its very cute cuz they don't want to let go. My smaller snakey is about a 12-16 months old now. And i did answer about the eggs, i said babies are always a plus! All babies are cute of any species!

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Do you have the means to take care of babies?

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Originally Posted by lenastorms

:disbelief

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I'm sorry i am at the office and cant see that pic for some reason(theres a red x where the pic should be?) Maybe i will be able to see later on my pc.

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

Yes i will send pictures of them together, I have many many awesome pics.They are never locked tails together. All i meant was when i let them slither around they usually wrap the ends of there tails together and its very cute cuz they don't want to let go. My smaller snakey is about a 12-16 months old now. And i did answer about the eggs, i said babies are always a plus! All babies are cute of any species!

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What you are describing is 'locking'.

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Originally Posted by MuzeBallPythons

Since I think no one has mentioned this, males do sometimes 'breed' with other males in a display of dominance. So you may actually have two males 'holding tails'. In this case, I am fairly sure you will have one stop feeding eventually. Have you had them sexed?

Also, did the breeder tell you to keep them together permanently or just during breeding season? All big breeders I know of keep all of their snakes in seperate enclosures. Keeping males and females together year round can lead to loss of interest in mating with each other (aside from dominance issues, feeding problems, etc.).

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I have not had them sexed. He did tell me its totally fine to keep them together permanently, just separate while feeding. Of course being a breeder he does not keep his snakes housed together.

Baby snakes are not cute if you are not prepared.

Eggs can be fatal for the female. Especially if you are not aware of the snakes`sex, then I do not think you are prepared.

Unexpected eggs, usually equals dead eggs.

Most people take 2 years to research and prepare for eggs.

And you did make a comment quite a ways back regarding QT. Once QT is over you are not out of the water. Parasites can be transferred to the snake by YOU. Mites can come in on your clothing, internal parasites can come from prey items, and RIs can occur spontaneously.

So no. An initial QT is not sufficient. Universal precautions are a way of decreasing risk, but even that is not surefire.

Bruce

While you are taking photo,, take one of your incubator. I am always interested in others incubators. Breeding snakes is even harder than breeding horses.

A few questions for you. Why do snakes wrap around their water bowels? What is the humidity you have your bp's at? Do you have a moist hide box (for IF she lays) you do know they lay eggs right? Oh and have you ever candled an egg? That is fun and a bit addicting :)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3255/...ac48e93e0c.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2256/...7216d3b8_o.jpg

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Originally Posted by akaangela

While you are taking photo,, take one of your incubator. I am always interested in others incubators. Breeding snakes is even harder than breeding horses.

A few questions for you. Why do snakes wrap around their water bowels? What is the humidity you have your bp's at? Do you have a moist hide box (for IF she lays) you do know they lay eggs right? Oh and have you ever candled an egg? That is fun and a bit addicting :)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3255/...ac48e93e0c.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2256/...7216d3b8_o.jpg

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I have probly a hundred pictures. The are on my home PC i can put them up a little later on when i leave work. And i cannot take one of my incubator because i do not have one! Water bowels? do you mean bowls? Or bowel like a poop? The humidity is around 60 - 70.

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

I have probly a hundred pictures. The are on my home PC i can put them up a little later on when i leave work. And i cannot take one of my incubator because i do not have one! Water bowels? do you mean bowls? Or bowel like a poop? The humidity is around 60 - 70.

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yeah, water bowls. females will wrap around them.

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Originally Posted by Nate

yeah, water bowls. females will wrap around them.

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I know that sometimes mine wraps up in the water but not around the whole bowl it is too big..

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

I know that sometimes mine wraps up in the water but not around the whole bowl it is too big..

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Keep an eye out for teeny tiny black specks inside the water bowl. That would be mites. and ball pythons typically don't soak because they like to. They soak because they're irritated.

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Originally Posted by Nate

Keep an eye out for teeny tiny black specks inside the water bowl. That would be mites. and ball pythons typically don't soak because they like to. They soak because they're irritated.

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Yeah i have never seen any mites. I have seen one soak before in the past and it was right around the time he was shedding. But typically they never do.

Whoever told you that housing to ball pythons together is OKAY was WRONG. I don't care how much experience they have. Ball pythons are SOLITARY animals. They don't have friends, they don't love, they don't cuddle, they don't "hold tails".

You obviously have no idea what you are dealing with. Why do you ask for opinions of hundreds of well qualified people and then proceed to disregard all of these oppinions once a "breeder" has given you the answer you were looking for?

I feel very sorry for your animals. Hopefully they won't die in your care.

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Originally Posted by snakecharmer3638

I wouldn't say you got good advise. I would say you kept asking the same question until you found someone who would finally tell you what you wanted to hear in the first place.

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EXACTLY!!!

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

I came to ask some questions from non professionals and non experts. I got mixed answers so i went to an expert and got the right answer. Thats the bottom line. I just wanted to update so some people could see that these animals can be compainions. I will update with pictures, i have many many great pics of them cuddling together, bathing together, sleeping and holding tails. Thanks for the replys :)

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I didn't see ANY mixed answers coming from this thread. There has been one common response, that it is NOT ok to house two bps together, for any reason other than breeding. Oh, and by finding this site, what you found IS a site full of PROFESSIONALS and EXPERTS... In fact, looking back through this thread, I have seen at least 3 BREEDERS tell you that it is NOT ok. But yet, you continue to ignore all the advice you came here to ask because you found one "breeder" who says it's ok...

I had typed a lot more in my response, but I don't want to be the reason this thread gets locked. I just think you need to think hard about why you came and asked the question in the first place. Were you asking because you really didn't know and you wanted input from people more experienced than yourself??? Or were you just looking to have us stroke your ego by telling you that even though there are NO benefits to housing together, and MANY MANY risks associated with it, that it's ok because your friends do it?

Basically, I'm asking the OP, if you're going to ignore us all, blow off our advice, and basically tell us all that we're wrong, what was the point of asking in the first place?

Oh, and please don't feel that I'm attacking you, because that is not my intention. I believe in educating and helping people provide the best care possible for the animal that brought us all to this community... It's just frustrating when so many people have taken time to give you the RIGHT answer to the question you asked, only to have you blatantly ignore every one of us who has taken the time to type out a reply because you found ONE person who gave you the answer you wanted...

InkSteel has it right.

The answer is a resounding "no".

The reason is ultimately simple: Husbandry. Look the word up in the dictionary. One of the definitions is "careful or thrifty management". The most responsible, careful and thrifty way to maintain a ball python (or any other snake) is to maintain it in its own enclosure.

If you can't afford two enclosures you can't afford two snakes.

You guys ever hear of a "troll?" :rolleyes:

MikeySnakey: I am looking forward to seeing the photos you post when you get home.

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

i started speaking with a breeder who produces 30,000 plus balls a year.

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5000+ clutches of ball pythons a year? ... wow, that's a really really big breeder. Is he rich? :O

-adam

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Originally Posted by MikeySnakey

I have probly a hundred pictures. The are on my home PC i can put them up a little later on when i leave work. And i cannot take one of my incubator because i do not have one! Water bowels? do you mean bowls? Or bowel like a poop? The humidity is around 60 - 70.

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Inexperienced?
I'm inexperienced, but I'm no fool. I want what's best for my animals, and keeping them in the same enclosure is the worst thing I could do for my animals.

If your female is under 2 years old, and 1500grams, there is a very high chance that she will be killed in the breeding process. They are probably under a severe amount of stress in that large of enclosure (should never be in more than a 20 gallon in my opinion) and with each other around.

I feel terribly sorry for your animals. Why don't you call up Brian at BHB? He breeds thousands of snakes every year. 30,000+ I believe. But why listen to him if you don't listen to all of us 'inexperienced' people?
Naive people... poor undeserving animals..

Edit: She meant water bowls.
Do you even honestly have an incubator?

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

5000+ clutches of ball pythons a year? ... wow, that's a really really big breeder. Is he rich?

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I think he said the guy's name is Adam. :cool:

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

I think he said the guy's name is Adam. :cool:

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LOL ... no sir, my wife would kill me if she had to clean and feed 30,000 ball pythons ... i'm not that brave. :rolleye2:

-adam

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

LOL ... no sir, my wife would kill me if she had to clean and feed 30,000 ball pythons ... i'm not that brave. :rolleye2:

-adam

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Exactly how brave are you? ;)

How many ball pythons did you say you had again Adam, if you please? :cool:

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

How many ball pythons did you say you had again Adam, if you please?

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That's like asking a diamond merchant how many carats he has in the safe. :colbert:

*cough*troll*cough*

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

That's like asking a diamond merchant how many carats he has in the safe. :colbert:

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Hmm.. shall I reword that..

How many clutches/balls do you hatch out every year? :D

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Originally Posted by Texas Dan

*cough*troll*cough*

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Aww.. and I fell so hard for it too.

Silly, silly me. :rofl:

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

Exactly how brave are you? ;)

How many ball pythons did you say you had again Adam, if you please? :cool:

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That's a good questions ... we were trying to figure that out at the White Plains show on Sunday ... I've just been telling people about 1000 because I'm lazy and hate math, but I've sold a bunch of animals in the last couple of months, so maybe we're at like 800? give or take.

I'll have Kelly count them this week. :twisted:

-adam

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

You guys ever hear of a "troll?" :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Texas Dan

*cough*troll*cough*

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Since you guys ignored the warning, AND we're going quite off topic... :lockd: