The wildest Ball Python story EVER!!!

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Originally Posted by DanRC30

Are you kidding me? I said it right from the beginning that she went into the white-lipped cage... lol!

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Well going by reading your comments i can see how someone could get confused or forget something.It also seems like you feel you do not need anyones advice as you keep declining to listen to it.Everyone is trying to tell you the TRUTH about why its not good to allow 2 snakes to live in the same enclosure for any period of time.The only exception to this is if they are breeding.I am not being rude here just posting the facts.I hope you come about and realize we are telling you the truth and seperate those snakes before something happens to them.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

Well going by reading your comments i can see how someone could get confused or forget something.It also seems like you feel you do not need anyones advice as you keep declining to listen to it.Everyone is trying to tell you the TRUTH about why its not good to allow 2 snakes to live in the same enclosure for any period of time.The only exception to this is if they are breeding.I am not being rude here just posting the facts.I hope you come about and realize we are telling you the truth and seperate those snakes before something happens to them.

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I completely understand. I plan on seperating them, but I'm giving them a chance to breed if that's what her reason was to get into that cage...

I think the confusion is that you want them to breed, rather than live together.

Have you prepared them both for the breeding season? If not you might want to get them in the mode first, might be more successful.

As far as them cuddling together, this can be their way of showing dominance over the other snake, and cause stress... maybe they are fighting over the best spot.

As long as they are both clean/healthy/etc, and you are just doing this as an experiment, hopefully everything will turn out ok.

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Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake

I think the confusion is that you want them to breed, rather than live together.

Have you prepared them both for the breeding season? If not you might want to get them in the mode first, might be more successful.

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Correct. If it doesn't look like anything is happening, I'm going to seperate them and begin cycling both of them. Then maybe I can put them back together to see what happens...

Why would you have the sliding tracks without locks anyway?

You said your white-lipped is smaller than your female ball python, correct?

If so, I doubt the white lipped is even big enough to reproduce.

Also...

When people generally try to produce hybrids, they breed a male of the smaller species to a female of the larger. This way you will reduce the risk of egg binding and complications.....for example, how would a female ball python handle laying a few retic size eggs?....

If you were to attempt this cross, you would be better to get a sexually mature male ball python and breed it to a sexually mature female white lipped python.....

Most people, in fact hopefully all people, that willingly choose to breed any living creature let alone produce hybrid young, do so with a solid knowledge of the species involved, any risks of such breedings, the pro's and con's, etc. Hopefully they do not do your "oh well what the hey, let's just see what happens" method of breeding. Good luck with that!

Here's some quotes against housing together:
Originally posted by “Dougie”

“Alright, so I was cleaning out the cages tonight for my two ball pythons and somehow got a crack in the aquarium. So, I decide it isn't a good idea to keep the snake in there because it is a pretty nasty crack and I didn't want the snake to get cut. Well, I decided that one night in the same enclosure wouldn't hurt until I could get to the store tomorrow. I was laying there in bed and I hear what sounds like a snake pouncing a rat/mouse, so I get up to check on all the snake and I see that the little ball python has a hold on, and is trying to constrict the bigger one! So I grab the two immediately and separate them, fortunately there is just minimal bleeding so far, we are going in for a vet check tomorrow just to make sure everying is fine. I know better than to keep them together, but I figured one freakin night wouldn't hurt. Well, I guess I know better, and to everyone on here, it is worth going to walmart for a tub and lid. I just got back from there and have everyone settled in. I feel like crap for letting this happen.” That's two BPs and from what I hear White-Lips can be quite unpredictable. Next one:

Originally posted by “CritterLover”

“I think the issue is SHOULD they be housed together and the clear answer there is NO!…Ya know why? They are just not social creatures. Housing them together puts them in a fundamentally abnormal situation and they get stressed. They have no instinct on how to be social and get stressed out from dominance issues.” One last one? Ok then:

Originally posted by “JLC”

“there may be some species that you can put together in a single terrarium, but BP's are NOT one of them.”

There you go. There's also a good example I found the other day. Ok, so say your BP is being housed alone, there's still a chance it'll be stressed right? Imagine that as a revolver with 10,000 chambers and 100 bullets in it, you spin the chamber and pull the trigger (kind of like an even more extreme version of russian roulette). If you house together, you are adding another 3,000 bullets into that gun. I don't know about you but I find that quite explanatory.

Ok, so many questions to answer and statements to respond to:

1) The white lip is longer than the BP, but thinner of course. I doubt either one would be willing or even could eat each other based on their sizes.


2) The WL is a male, and the BP is a female. Males will fight, and females usually won't. Not only that, since they are a different sex, there shouldn't be any fighting issues. I've had 2 female BP's in the same cage for months with NO problems.


3) I never needed locks on any sliding glass cages before. The question isn't why have sliding tracks without locks, it's why have locks if they are not necessary? Locks are a pain in the a$$ when not needed. Oddly in this case, they are needed.


4) "When people generally try to produce hybrids, they breed a male of the smaller species to a female of the larger. This way you will reduce the risk of egg binding and complications.....for example, how would a female ball python handle laying a few retic size eggs?...." WRONG! Some of the nicest carpondros came from female GTP's and male carpets!


5) "Most people, in fact hopefully all people, that willingly choose to breed any living creature let alone produce hybrid young, do so with a solid knowledge of the species involved, any risks of such breedings, the pro's and con's, etc. Hopefully they do not do your "oh well what the hey, let's just see what happens" method of breeding." Sometimes great things happen from situations like "let's see what happens". That's how DOW invented Plexi-glass....


6) Right now, there is no power struggle. The white lip has been mostly staying away from the BP, but they occasionally sleep together intertwined. If they are seperate tonight when I get home, the BP will be removed.


On another note, I had 2 boas in one cage. Anyone that says snakes are not social animals, have no idea what they are talking about. These boas really liked each other. They were always together... they both were very friendly, and ate well. They liked each other so much that when I traded the smaller one away, the larger one stopped eating. She became lethargic and eventually passed. I can't say for sure if the removal of the other one caused this, but something sure did! It was kind of coincidental that she went downhill the day I removed the other boa.


I also had a friend that had 2 very large male retics; 17' & 18'. The 17' snake actually liked people. The 18', not so much. He tolerated people. How do I know this? Well, when I went there one day, the large retic slowly came across the room from the corner it was sleeping in to see me and it gently crawled on top of me to be held. I was standing there and this snake put it's head on my shoulder and crawled around me to be held. Snakes aren't social? I don't think so... maybe some species of snakes aren't but others definitely are! I have no doubt of this. I'm assuming that 2 male BP's don't want to be put together, but that doesn't necessarily go for all snakes.