Male & female together?

[Jabe]

Hi.

I have 1.1 ball python. Can I put them together, so they are together all the time? They are 3 years old both of them. They tried to breed last year, so they are familiar with one another. If they will breed and the female lays eggs, I have an incubator ready, so that will not be a problem. They are both healthy and they eat well.

I have tried to find the answer, but so many say yes, and many say no.


A few pictures of the two:

The male:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2343/...a546ca2c_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2412/...b789c374_b.jpg

The female:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2213/...39923797_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2014/...b1a6ee0e_b.jpg

Sorry if my english is not good, I'm norwegian, so I am not that good in english

[Hotshot]

If you want to breed go for it if the female has enuff weight.. I would'nt let them live for ever like that no.

[rabernet]

No, they should be housed separately, only brought together during brief periods for breeding if that's your ultimate goal.

There's no benefit to housing together, just for the sake of housing together.

[SatanicIntention]

They also both look thin to me. How much do they weigh?

[Jabe]

They also both look thin to me. How much do they weigh?

The weight of the male is 1090 grams, and the weight of the female is 1690 grams.

So I shouldn't keep them together all the time? For how long can I keep them together? Just for 3 months, when the breedingseason is? I have let them smell on each other, and they didn't turn aggresive.

Thanks for the answers

[frankykeno]

Our male snakes go into the females enclosure for 3 days at the most, then they are seperated again for another 4 days to rest, eat if they want, etc. Then back in again for another 3 days with each other and so forth. You might want to watch for weather changes. Snakes seem to like to breed when the barometric pressure is dropping due to storms coming in or weather changing suddenly.

[naba2002]

ive heard some males are so breed crazy that they will stop eating just so they can breed... so based on that i wouldnt house them together but thats jus me

[Jabe]

I had them out on my bed together now. They didn't show any sign of stress, and they didn't become aggresive. The female even tried to go under the male xD So why can't I keep them together? Because of stress? Parasites?

Again. Thanks for your answers

[littleindiangirl]

Why do you need them together all of the time? For your benefit, because they simply to not benefit from having a cage mate unless to explicitly to breed for a short time.

When we place our feelings on snakes, (I.e. Snakes need friends) more often than not the snake suffers. Ball pythons are solitary creatures and do not need, or want companionship because they are simply not social animals. They do not pair for life, and they do express stress when in a tank with another animal all of the time.

When BP's are stressed constantly, it will take a toll on their immune systems and can result in illness. If they are together all of the time, how would you prevent the spread of illness? How would you identify which one is sick?

BP's will often stop eating when stressed, couple that with a low immune system and you can see the trouble it causes.

The snakes will follow each other around the tank, this is them competing and dominating each other.

What happens if your animals are missexed and start to combat because they are both males in prime breeding season?

Your not the first person to think of keeping them together, I imagine that MANY new keepers and hobbyists kept them together years ago.

So why do most of those breeders and hobbyists recommend keeping snakes separate? Because they found that it caused less problems to keep them in different enclosures. Trial and error, but if we didn't learn from our past mistakes by our peers, we'd all have dead snakes.

They had to work it out for themselves since the internet was not the place to go for advice. We humans like to put our feelings on the animals we keep captive, but it's just not right to do so. Snakes and many reptiles are NOT social, they need no companionship.

So ask yourself what GOOD reason do you have to keep these animals together constantly that benefits them? If you ask me, it benefits only the keeper, which is sad.

[Jabe]

Why do you need them together all of the time? For your benefit, because they simply to not benefit from having a cage mate unless to explicitly to breed for a short time.

When we place our feelings on snakes, (I.e. Snakes need friends) more often than not the snake suffers. Ball pythons are solitary creatures and do not need, or want companionship because they are simply not social animals. They do not pair for life, and they do express stress when in a tank with another animal all of the time.

When BP's are stressed constantly, it will take a toll on their immune systems and can result in illness. If they are together all of the time, how would you prevent the spread of illness? How would you identify which one is sick?

BP's will often stop eating when stressed, couple that with a low immune system and you can see the trouble it causes.

The snakes will follow each other around the tank, this is them competing and dominating each other.

What happens if your animals are missexed and start to combat because they are both males in prime breeding season?

Your not the first person to think of keeping them together, I imagine that MANY new keepers and hobbyists kept them together years ago.

So why do most of those breeders and hobbyists recommend keeping snakes separate? Because they found that it caused less problems to keep them in different enclosures. Trial and error, but if we didn't learn from our past mistakes by our peers, we'd all have dead snakes.

They had to work it out for themselves since the internet was not the place to go for advice. We humans like to put our feelings on the animals we keep captive, but it's just not right to do so. Snakes and many reptiles are NOT social, they need no companionship.

So ask yourself what GOOD reason do you have to keep these animals together constantly that benefits them? If you ask me, it benefits only the keeper, which is sad.

That was a realy good answer. Thanks

It is definately a male and a female. They have been breeding before.

I don't think they need to be together.

I have seen a lot of 1.1 python regius in the same tank. They have been together for years, and there have been no problem with them. So i thought that I could have my pair together. But I wanted to be sure wether or not this would be fine, so that's why I asked here.

I read somwere about a guy that have had 1.1 bp together. They were hiding together, basking together, and were best of friends.

But as I said, I want to be sure before I put them together. So thanks for the answers. They will be living seperately