Never again shall I house two snakes together

So I had been housing my two 2010 het albinos together for about 2 weeks now(I had run out of regular room in my rack and they are very similar in size) and it was going relatively fine, they would coil up together in their hide and it was all good. Today however, I fed them both and when I feed them I feed them in separate areas and give them time after they are done for their feeding responses to calm down a bit. I guess I didnt give them enough time apart on this particular occasion..when I put the male back in with the female the female attacked him and began constricting him, luckily however I was able to separate them and she let go rather quickly, the whole ordeal lasted only a few seconds. The male only sustained minor wounds, a small puncture on his back/side and not even a full drop of blood was spilled..

I guess I just take this as a lesson learned and I will never again house two snakes together, unless they're breeding...and definitely not so soon after they have fed... :tears::tears::tears::tears::tears:

Yes, I'm afraid that's one of the reasons why we always freak out on people when they say they're keeping more than one snake in the same enclosure.

you should only house snakes of the same sex and opposite sex when they are breeding, housing of the opposite sex at a young age can cause fights between the snakes and also the males will be ready for mateing before the female is so if he mates with her when she is too skinny it could cause some very serious problems.

their are pics on some other threads of the BP that ate the BP that was bigger. housing snakes together is never a good idea

Thank goodness you were there to stop it before it got any worse!

Lesson learned the hard way, but at least they are both okay.

This is a good example of why you shouldn't house two snakes together. People think it's going to be fine, it's only temporary, so-and-so said it was ok, what have you.

The truth is, the unthinkable can happen at any moment, and my babies are to precious to risk for the sake of laziness or so called convenience.

Gale

Female smelt the males meal on his breath and was still hungry.

Try increasing meal size after separating them.

you sure the girl is a girl????

Yeah this is just a testament to why we never recommend it. I just rescued 2 that were kept in the same enclosure for 3 years and I'm glad nothing happened over that time!!

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Originally Posted by lyoto

you should only house snakes of the same sex and opposite sex when they are breeding, housing of the opposite sex at a young age can cause fights between the snakes and also the males will be ready for mateing before the female is so if he mates with her when she is too skinny it could cause some very serious problems.

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what?

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Originally Posted by angllady2

Thank goodness you were there to stop it before it got any worse!

Lesson learned the hard way, but at least they are both okay.

This is a good example of why you shouldn't house two snakes together. People think it's going to be fine, it's only temporary, so-and-so said it was ok, what have you.

The truth is, the unthinkable can happen at any moment, and my babies are to precious to risk for the sake of laziness or so called convenience.

Gale

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Yes, because everyone who houses two snakes together does so for convenience or because they are lazy. What color are the walls in your ivory tower?

Convenient? You kill me. In every way the husbandry of keeping animals together is harder than keeping them apart.

The truth is that if you take sensible precautions and are on top of your husbandry, there is nothing wrong with housing non-ophiophagic animals together.

To the OP - I'm glad no harm came to your male.

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..............

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

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..............

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if they are not immune they are certainly have a very high tolerence to it. they do not however have any sort of immunity to have to huge fangs driven through there brains

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Originally Posted by jason_ladouceur

if they are not immune they are certainly have a very high tolerence to it. they do not however have any sort of immunity to have to huge fangs driven through there brains

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That must have been an amazingly accurate shot. That little pea sized brain is encased in quite a bit of skull..........

http://beaconhillbiological.com/graphics/viper.jpg

http://www.kostich.com/gaboon_viper_skull.jpg

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

That must have been an amazingly accurate shot. That little pea sized brain is encased in quite a bit of skull..........

http://beaconhillbiological.com/graphics/viper.jpg

http://www.kostich.com/gaboon_viper_skull.jpg

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ya a picture is truly worth a thousand words. thanks by the way those skeletal shots are really awesome. I wasn't in the room when it happened but it would seem that one of her fangs must have penetrated through his eye socket or nostril cavity.

FYI - If you need to get your snake to let go of something (another snake, your arm, etc...) get a cup of hot water and pour it on their head. THEY WILL LET GO VERY QUICKLY! I have been keeping boas for a while and I can't tell you how many times I have gotten bitten and the snake will not let go, hot water comes in very handy.

One option for you is to rinse off the snakes after they are done eating so that all of the rodent smell is off of their body, just like when you clean off a female ball python after she lays eggs.