More than one snake to a tub

[Lana's_mom]

I have a question about multiple snakes in a tub. And this is just a question, my snakes normally have their own tubs. But I had the heat tape go out on a rack and had to double up a couple of snake for a couple of days while the new flexwatt came in and I installed it. And I made a curious observation. I have a really nasty tempered normal male BP and a really nasty Boa and I moved the BP into a tub with another BP about the same size for the couple of days to repair the rack, and the boa in with another boa, and they both calmed down. They stopped striking at the side of the tubs when I walked by, stopped hissing, both just seemed all around calmer. Why is that if sharing a tub is so stressful? Now once the repair was done I moved them back to their own tubs and the striking and hissing has all started back up. So why were they calmer when they were with another snake of their kind and back to pissy once they are separated? The BP is around 300 - 400 grams and the Boa smaller.

[OctagonGecko729]

Stressed out doesn't necessarily mean striking. Stressed animals can also get very calm and lethargic. Take a trip to your local pet shop/superchain that has incorrect husbandry. You won't see animals breeding, you wont see fighting, or much activity at all for that matter.

I know we are talking snakes but if you look at many peoples "puppy dog tame" monitor lizards and tegus that just lay around and do nothing. Those animals are actually incredibly stressed out to the point that they just shut down and dont move.

[LLLReptile]

The deviation from what was, for those animals, normal behavior is what tells you it's actually stress, and not that they are happy or enjoying the situation.

-Jen

[Neal]

The deviation from what was, for those animals, normal behavior is what tells you it's actually stress, and not that they are happy or enjoying the situation.

-Jen

+1

I wouldn't keep more then one snake in a tub with the exception of hatchlings. I currently have 3 BP's in a 20 gal, though the bigger one is separated by a divider, but this is only because there was an issue with a mislabel on my rack so it went to Wisconsin first instead of coming to Louisiana. I just put the three in a 20 gal temporarily until the rack comes in tomorrow, then they all get their individual tubs.

[S.I.R.]

Moving them in with another snake can break their norm and be stressful, but also one snake will usually try to dominate the other. It may appear they are content and calm, but this can be a "deafening silence" kind of thing too.

[Lana's_mom]

Thanks for the info, as I said it was only while I did a repair to one of the racks, it is not the normal thing. Normally everyone has their own tub and space. I was just wondering why the change in behavior and what everyone said makes sense. Thanks

[Pythonfriend]

i think its fine in case of an emergency, like power outage / heating failure in winter, or some other disaster, but it should be short-term. in summer, when the weather is warm, i would rather have them without heating for two days than to put them together for two days.


The thing is, when one snake doesnt like the other snake, or simply wants to be alone, they will harass each other. in nature, one would go in one direction and the other in another direction, problem solved. but if both are in one tub, none can leave, so they stress each other out, wear each other out, and get exhausted. And that can impact their health.


So if you really want to keep two together, the enclosure needs to be so large and have so many hides that they can go out of each others way. you need a terrarium with a large enough ground area and some height to it so that you can put in different levels and platforms and several hides and more than one water bowl, basically figure out a way that they dont constantly see each other and bump into each other. Even then you need to watch their behavior carefully and isolate them for feeding, and need to isolate them if they turn against each other or you see behavior changes. Its really hard and a real challenge.

if you dont have such a luxury enclosure designed to make communal keeping possible, then its really only a short-term solution to keep your snakes from freezing or drowning or getting burned, when things go majorly wrong and you must evacuate or something. It even happens to large, professional and well-prepared breeders that stuff goes so wrong that 8 BPs have to share one tub for a while because electricity is down for 3 days in a major snow storm and heat packs run out, that happened to NERD one time. Or like when the hurricane hit BHB reptiles and some tubs got flooded.

basically, avoid it if possible, but if its got to be done for a limited amount of time because there is no other way then thats how it is.