Two snakes. One tank

Hey guys I'm trying to go down to fewer tanks. I was thinking of putting my 2012 male with my 2013 female. There tank would be 24x18x18. However next year ill be moving them to a 36x18x18. My question really is would the larger tank be enought room for two adult ball pythons and will a female half the size of a male be ok to house together. Or even house a male and female together good at all. I'm ok if they breed.
What y'all think?

It's really not the best idea to house 2 snakes together. It can be done if you really know what you are doing but in my opinion there are more negatives than positives. If you really want to house them together I would get a 48" x 24" x 12"+ (L x W x H)

Don't do it

it is not recommended to house two snake together if at all possible! It can lead to a stressful situation and if one gets sick there's a good chance the other will as well.

What if they were to breed when the female was extremely undersized and underweight? You would be okay with that and the possible health risks involved? An example, just because 12 year old kids can have babies doesn't mean that they should.
Besides that, I don't think it's a good idea to house two of them together for purposes other than breeding. What if one day you find a sickly stool, how do you know which one it was from?
If you have too many tanks I would suggest a rack or another form of caging. I wouldn't keep them together for the heck of it.

Ill keep them separate and reduce caging with some my other animals that I know I can combine and be safe. That's why I ask befor doing something stupid: )

It's a bad idea for several reasons:

1. Like dogs, one snake will assume the alpha snake position in the pack and dominate the other one. While I have never witnessed this behavior, I have read about it on a forum somewhere so I know it's true.

2. Properly quarantined, medically screened and impeccably kept snakes are extremely prone to a vast and dizzying array of diseases. If one snake gets the snake flu, odds are it's cage mate will as well.

3. Every snake species on the planet hates the company of it's own kind. Again, even though I have not kept every species, the internet has told me this is a fact.

4. All snakes are cannibalistic and will eat their cage mates even if they are not ophiophagus or even if they are well fed. While I have never seen this behavior, a moderator on another forum has a brother who's friend knows a person at a reptile show who read another forum post from the cousin of the brother in law of a person who this happened to. Therefore this is a real issue that must be taken into consideration.

5. Snakes kept together in opposite sex pairs get sick of each other and after 7 years or so, will not want to touch each other sexually.

I could go on but I think I've made my point. Snake keeping is all about absolutes and doing what other people recommend - even if they have no experience with what they are recommending.

Hope that helps,

Skip

Although I never, ever plan to house two snakes together, I always see, "Unless you know what you're doing, don't put them together."

What qualifies as 'knowing what you're doing' to the point where one can house two snakes in the same enclosure? Seems like it's a bad idea no matter who you are and how much you know what you're doing....

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Originally Posted by Konotashi

Although I never, ever plan to house two snakes together, I always see, "Unless you know what you're doing, don't put them together."

What qualifies as 'knowing what you're doing' to the point where one can house two snakes in the same enclosure? Seems like it's a bad idea no matter who you are and how much you know what you're doing....

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I have no idea what you are saying. However since I think you are agreeing with my point, I will agree with yours. In this way, we will better the knowledge of this community.

I admire a person who has never done something, yet warns people from trying it.

Why just today, I was posting on an amateur gynecology forum about which tampons are the most comfortable. While I am a male, and have never worn a tampon, I argued with a 48 year old woman that Kotex was the superior brand.

Judging by the "likes" I got, I think I won the argument.

IMO if you have to ask if it's okay, then I feel it's not something you should attempt.

Many people have successfully kept multiple snakes in tanks, but these people generally have vast knowledge and experience.

When I think of my own snakes, I see no reason why I personally would want to cohabit snakes. There are too many cons.

At one point I actually did attempt to house my snakes together who are similar in size. Despite providing space and multiple hides, the slightly larger one ended up "sitting" on top of the other. I took this as it trying to assert dominance and not wanting to risk their lives, separated them.

Since I was low on space at the time, I still only had one tank. Instead of housing them together I took measurements and bought a plexiglass piece from lowes for less than 5 dollars. I used it as a divider an attached it with velcro so it could be removed for cleaning. It held sturdy and solved the space problem.


Edit: I forgot to mention that these were both female snakes, the "most appropriate" pairing to avoid fighting.

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

I have no idea what you are saying. However since I think you are agreeing with my point, I will agree with yours.

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When this question is asked ("Can two snakes be housed together?") there is almost always the following answer somewhere among the replies:

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It can be done if you really know what you are doing...

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It just seems (to me, who is very inexperienced) that no matter who you are and how long you've owned snakes/how experienced you are with them, it would be a bad idea - period.

By experienced, it means you can tell if there was something right or wrong with the animals who are housed together. Its the ability to keep them healthy and thriving, knowing when they're not, and how to fix it. Inexperienced keepers just don't have the eye or knowledge for such things yet, which is why its not recommended to house multiple BPs.

Some species of snakes *have* to be housed together permanently in order to breed successfully.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

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Originally Posted by Konotashi

When this question is asked ("Can two snakes be housed together?") there is almost always the following answer somewhere among the replies:



It just seems (to me, who is very inexperienced) that no matter who you are and how long you've owned snakes/how experienced you are with them, it would be a bad idea - period.

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Exactly.

All these people recommend that only experienced people should attempt cohabitation (recommendations made by people who have never cohabitated snakes). Seems hard - so no one should try it. With any animal. Ever.

After all, there are no benefits, only risks - right? I mean, that's the understanding I have after reading the opinions of other people.

So I'm gonna keep making my recommendations, which are based on my opinion. Which even though I have no experience, should suffice.

As a side note, I just have to add that I always admire people who give me parenting advice, even though they have no kids. I often times find myself questioning the methods my wife and I use that are rooted in experience when confronted with their opinions (which are rooted in what they've heard).

Oh I do love Skip.


The only thing about cohabitation that seems sketchy to me (barring regular poor practices that would be problematic for a single housed animal) is at feeding time. My wild speculation says that the activity of one feeding might interfere with the activity of the other feeding. Is there truth to that with the all skittish ball python? The other side of that would be if they're wrapped up together and one part of one snake gets constricted by the other accidentally. Again, is that as silly as it sounds or something you would pay attention to if you kept 2 together?


Additionally:

Two Snakes, one tank... dot com

Idk why this topic gets so much back and forth. If you have to ask, the answer is no it's not a good idea. For the people who claim they are experienced enough to do it and have done it for years, great but the risks are still there and I could care less how long you have done it for. It's not an ideal situation for the animals.

I'm going to chime in on this one.

I housed a male and female together for over 10 years without any issues. The tank, however, was 125g. They slept in the same hide together every day, they drank from the same water bowl and they basked under the same heat lamps. I fed 1 of them in the tank and fed the other, at the same time, in a separate tank.

No issues.

This was their home, I've posted this photo before:
http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/x...es-Cagepic.jpg

The snakes did breed, and the eggs were maternally incubated. Funny as it sounds, the male and the female actually took "turns" protecting the eggs.
http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/x...e/IMG_1401.jpg

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Originally Posted by MrLang

Oh I do love Skip.


The only thing about cohabitation that seems sketchy to me (barring regular poor practices that would be problematic for a single housed animal) is at feeding time. My wild speculation says that the activity of one feeding might interfere with the activity of the other feeding. Is there truth to that with the all skittish ball python? The other side of that would be if they're wrapped up together and one part of one snake gets constricted by the other accidentally. Again, is that as silly as it sounds or something you would pay attention to if you kept 2 together?


Additionally:

Two Snakes, one tank... dot com

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Gotta feed them apart.

I've never tried housing multiple BPs together so I can't offer any first hand experience. But, my concern would be that the female would become gravid before she hit a weight that I would feel was big enough (my minimum is 1500g or 3yrs).

I would try a rack system if u want to save space. I personal don't have one cause I only have three but heard they are really good and the little guys love them.