Never again shall I house two snakes together

[Powerspythons]

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...

[Alexandra V]

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.

[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.

[mpkeelee]

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

[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

[RichsBallPythons]

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

Try increasing meal size after separating them.

[fullrace2]

you sure the girl is a girl????

[steveboos]

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!!

[don15681]

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.

what?

[Skiploder]

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

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.