Is it bad to have two BP together ?

I was thinking after I get Fangs mites all gone I would like to get a BP for myself. I would of course get a bigger set up if they would be alright together.

It's generally frowned upon to have more than one BP in the same setup.

I heard two different sides so I wasnt sure I will just have to get another setup for me then but I still am not getting one until I know Fang has no more mites. Has anyone on here ever ordered from reptmart for a snake because I am not trying to go back to the pet store I got fang because of the mite problem as this is where I got his setup from and him.

There are a ton of great breeders that you can buy from. I have never ordered from reptmart before so I can't comment on them. I would never house my snakes together. There are to many things that can go wrong. All it does is stress them out anyhow.

I am looking online right now and checking out breeders that sell online see who has the best prices with the better reviews. I am looking at what information they give such as when they were born , weight and so forth. I want to make sure I am getting a healthy snake.

It can sometimes stress them out. Some people do it without any trouble. But just to be safe I would house them seperatly. And Bhb reptiles is fantastic to buy from.

I have a male and female housed together and their perfectly fine, frown upon it if you want.

Just my $.02

I will chk them out I was looking at TSK they seem informative

The short answer is NO is is a bad idea to house two snakes together. There are some whom have the expertise to pull it off but even then it means in many cases any treatment needs to be done to both. (fecal samples two together if one sample comes up with parasites both have to be treated. You cannot feed together and some snakes stress if moved to a new enclosure before feeding. It is a poor idea with out a massive amount of skill and knowledge.

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Originally Posted by drama x

I have a male and female housed together and their perfectly fine, frown upon it if you want.

Just my $.02

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Whateva whateva...I'll do what I want!!! :D

http://i873.photobucket.com/albums/a...70-cartman.jpg

You will probably find most people say to house them seperately. I have heard of people housing them together with no problems. Only thing is, you can't feed them in the tank with two in there, if somebody regurges, you don't know who. While I think its not impossible, I think seperate enclosure is definately better, and more recommended. Also you could check out the kingsnake classifieds to find a snake. Along with the breeders on here.

There is absolutely zero benefit to the snakes to be housed together, but there are many valid and legitimate reasons not to. Just do a quick forum search on cohabitation if you want to read all the reasons we say not to do it. Your snakes will do much better and ultimately be much healthier in their own enclosures.

To drama x, you really need to do some research and educate yourself before you start offering bad advice to new keepers who may not know the difference. Try looking up cohabitation yourself. It is especially a bad idea to house a male and female together. It is very possible that the snakes will breed before your female is ready, which could lead to her becoming egg bound and dying. But hey, your snakes not mine...

To the OP, their are plenty of great breeders on this site that offer great Ball Pythons and will answer any questions that you have. Also, some of the bigger named breeders include jkobylkareptiles, Royal Constrictor Designs, BHB, and NERD to name a few.

And Drama x, the only time Ball Pythons should be kept together is for the short period of breeding. Inknsteel offered you some good information, so please rethink your husbandry.

Here is my generic answer to questions like these:

Cohabitating reptiles even as the same species is not recommended. Insead of just telling you "no" I'll list the common reasons why.
1) Cannibalism, not common, but there are DOCUMENTED cases. This alone isn't worth the risk.
2) Stress. Even the most friendly snakes get stressed out, so why cause the stress? Snakes have no want or need to be with another snake unless it's for breeding purposes. Other than that, it's just an unwanted roommate that they can't get away from.
3) Space. They will constantly try to dominate eachother for the best spots in the enclosure, even if you have multiple hides, you'll mainly see them together in one spot. People usually see this as "cuddling". It's not cuddling, they are fighting over the best spot.
4) You wake up in the morning after feeding and there's a regurgitated mouse. Which one did it?
5) One gets sick, now both are sick. That's 2X the vet bills, 2X the medications, and 2X the stress.
6) You are told the new snake you bought is the same sex as the one you already have. a year later, you find eggs in the enclosure. You have not prepared, no incubator, no space for babies, and no one to sell them to. What do you do now? The pet store/vet/person sexed them wrong.
7) Quarantine. How are you going to quarantine the new snake away from your original one? As you gain more experience, you'll find that quarantine is a NECESSITY. You could get a perfectly healthy snake, or one covered in mite eggs that hatch 3 days after you bring it home. Now both snakes have mites. Snakes also can take a long time to start showing symptoms of illness, now you got your original snake sick because you didn't quarantine.

Those are just the more known and common issues with housing multiple reptiles. The list goes on. The only pro to housing them together is to save space in your house by only having one enclosure, but is it worth it? That is up to you. People that say "I house two together and they are fine", they are fine now but with them being housed together there is NO guarantee it will stay that way forever. The only way to avoid future issues is to house them separately.

I once questioned whether or not to keep two snakes together. I read here that a dominant male can "lock" with another male if they are kept together in the same enclosure, sort of like prison rape.

That was enough for me.

I'd never give anyone new to this hobby the advice to keep two ball pythons in the same enclosure. My question would be why would you be thinking of doing it? Is it because you want to save money housing them because you cant afford a new tank? If that's it then don't buy a new snake until you can afford to house two snakes. If its due to space issues same thing applies and wait until you have the space. If its because you think they need a companion that is not the case with ball pythons.

I struggle to even think of one reason to put them both in the same enclosure other than to breed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drama x

I have a male and female housed together and their perfectly fine, frown upon it if you want.

Just my $.02

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I also see that you have no ball pythons, so your advice doesnt really apply here, and ball pythons should be housed separately.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LGray23

Here is my generic answer to questions like these:

Cohabitating reptiles even as the same species is not recommended. Insead of just telling you "no" I'll list the common reasons why.
1) Cannibalism, not common, but there are DOCUMENTED cases. This alone isn't worth the risk.
2) Stress. Even the most friendly snakes get stressed out, so why cause the stress? Snakes have no want or need to be with another snake unless it's for breeding purposes. Other than that, it's just an unwanted roommate that they can't get away from.
3) Space. They will constantly try to dominate eachother for the best spots in the enclosure, even if you have multiple hides, you'll mainly see them together in one spot. People usually see this as "cuddling". It's not cuddling, they are fighting over the best spot.
4) You wake up in the morning after feeding and there's a regurgitated mouse. Which one did it?
5) One gets sick, now both are sick. That's 2X the vet bills, 2X the medications, and 2X the stress.
6) You are told the new snake you bought is the same sex as the one you already have. a year later, you find eggs in the enclosure. You have not prepared, no incubator, no space for babies, and no one to sell them to. What do you do now? The pet store/vet/person sexed them wrong.
7) Quarantine. How are you going to quarantine the new snake away from your original one? As you gain more experience, you'll find that quarantine is a NECESSITY. You could get a perfectly healthy snake, or one covered in mite eggs that hatch 3 days after you bring it home. Now both snakes have mites. Snakes also can take a long time to start showing symptoms of illness, now you got your original snake sick because you didn't quarantine.

Those are just the more known and common issues with housing multiple reptiles. The list goes on. The only pro to housing them together is to save space in your house by only having one enclosure, but is it worth it? That is up to you. People that say "I house two together and they are fine", they are fine now but with them being housed together there is NO guarantee it will stay that way forever. The only way to avoid future issues is to house them separately.

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X2!!

Exactly what Lgray23 said. I cannot emphasize enough to house 2 balls separately. The only time to house 2 balls together in the same enclosure is for breeding.

theres a cage on animalplastics.com that is pretty big with a wall in the middle so you can have 2 snakes that never see eachother in it and check out bhbreptiles.com they have ALOT of different snakes from babies up to adults

You could also probably split a larger tank with a piece of plexi (but that won't allow you to QT your new pet which is highly advisable) OR two tub set-ups aren't really that expensive.

A couple years ago I enjoyed having a pair of healthy normal ball pythons. One was about 30 inches and the other was about 35. I obtained them at different times from different people and after a quarantine period of 6 weeks I housed them together in a 55 gallon terrarium, which was perfect size for the two of them. I never did find out their sexes but they coexisted quite nicely. Including spending most of the days wrapped up in each other inside my upside down clay pot hide. I fed them separately in another container and they never skipped more than one meal once in a while. I never had any ill effects and my setup was all the more beautiful because there were 2 snakes. Someday I will like do this again. But for now I'm trying to simply find a single young python with 20 gallon terrarium to begin the journey again. :) thx

This battles been fought too many times. It can be done with an appropriate level of skill and knowledge. And despite minimizing risks as much as humanly possible there will always be the risk of cannibalism. I have succeeded in keeping two snakes together and have never met anyone who has has cannibalism occur in their collection. So it is 100% up to the keeper. You just need to be well learned. Both methods have their place and we should all keep a healthy respect for anothers way of doing things. So bottom line iys your choice, just make sure if you do it you minimize risks.


-Riveran