boas cohabitating with pythons

[avriette]

So I have your average RTB (well, he's not average, he's awesome), who is about 9 months old. He's three-ish feet long and about 2.5kg. I also have two ball pythons, a male and a female, who are now almost two years old. The male is a little less than 2kg, and the female is right about as big as the boa.

I'd like to keep them in the same tank, as I have a very large tank for the pythons (who have lived together for most of their lives). Mainly, I'd like them in the same tank as it's quite large and simplifies my life, and the boa is now getting too big for the tank he is in. The boa is eating twice a week, and the pythons are eating once a week (when they're not being moody, but it's winter, and they kind of slow down in winter).

Anyways, I've kept the boa segregated from the pythons for purposes of quarantine. He's quite healthy and the pythons are of course healthy. I'm comfortable with them coming into contact (I've been careful to clean up before handling them in sequence, before cleaning tanks, etc, so they haven't been introduced in any sense yet), but I am wondering if there are any sort of procedures for making sure nobody gets unhappy in the tank.

The boa is quite easy going, and the pythons are, well, sweet like ball pythons are. It's kind of cute, they're inseparable.

Oh, the other thing is, seems to me now would be a good time to introduce them, given the boa is only going to get bigger, and the pythons are going to grow into their five-to-six-feet while he does that. I'd rather not introduce an eight foot snake to a pair of five-foot-snakes.

[Reakt20]

You should not be housing any snakes together. They are solitary animals. I suggest putting the boa in the big tank and keeping the bp's in two smaller but separate tanks.

[Alexandra V]

What Reakt20 said. Keeping snakes together is asking for problems, whether they're the same species or not, whether they've grown up together or not, and whether the cage is big or not. If one gets sick, the other will almost unavoidably get sick too. If one has mites, the other one gets mites. I've seen many a post with feeding accidents resulting from two or more snakes being in the same enclosure, where the animals were fed and then one went after the other because it was still in feeding mode.

Not to mention with adding the boa, it's been seen that if they're given enough time most boas will eventually end up killing the python and potentially eating it.

Like Reakt20 said, get two smaller enclosures for the BPs and give the boa the large one.

[Reakt20]

You might not be able to notice, but they are stressing each other out. What you consider inseparable is probably them competing for hide space or warm spots. them piling on each other is more or less a dominance thing. I strongly suggest, as will everybody else, to separate them.

[heathers*bps]

What Reakt20 said. Keeping snakes together is asking for problems, whether they're the same species or not, whether they've grown up together or not, and whether the cage is big or not. If one gets sick, the other will almost unavoidably get sick too. If one has mites, the other one gets mites. I've seen many a post with feeding accidents resulting from two or more snakes being in the same enclosure, where the animals were fed and then one went after the other because it was still in feeding mode.

Not to mention with adding the boa, it's been seen that if they're given enough time most boas will eventually end up killing the python and potentially eating it.

Like Reakt20 said, get two smaller enclosures for the BPs and give the boa the large one.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Weather it simplifies your life or not, it doesn't simplify theirs. Giving your RTB and bps the best life possible should be your aim, not simplicity.

[Emily Hubbard]

I don't mean this to sound too harsh, but you should NEVER house snakes together from the SAME species, let alone different ones. You are talking about species that are drastically different sizes and need different requirements. Go get two 30-40 gal tubs for your ball pythons and put your boa in the big one you already have. You will regret it big time if you keep them together, your snakes will become sick, stressed, and possibly dead if the boa gets defensive. You will not find a single reputable source that tells you housing balls and boas together is ok.

Also, if your balls are male and female, you are going to eventually get eggs whether you want them or not. Are you prepared to care for them? Either way, separate them. If you want to breed them, research what needs to be done and put them together only to breed.

[Reakt20]

I would suggest spending an hour or so reading through the bp husbandry section on here and make a thread asking questions if you still have any after doing some research. there is great knowledge to be found there about keeping healthy ball pythons. Read through the boa section as well.

[avriette]

I would suggest spending an hour or so reading through the bp husbandry section on here and make a thread asking questions if you still have any after doing some research.

You know, I did search, actually. I just did a poor job of it. After your post, I went looking through google and found the answers that have been posted above. Thanks for your replies.

[Kinra]

As others have said, it's a bad idea to house two snakes of even the same species together but housing different species together is a huge no no. You are just asking for a world of problems if you keep them together.

Courtesy of a goggle image search (notice that the two snakes are similar in size, the boa actually regulated the ball python because the meal was too big):


You need to think about what's best for the animals not what's most convenient for you and please separate your ball pythons. They hate being house together and if you really do have a male and a female of those sizes then you could end up with eggs you aren't prepared for.

[decensored]

You should not be housing any snakes together. They are solitary animals. I suggest putting the boa in the big tank and keeping the bp's in two smaller but separate tanks.

this.