Multiple burms per enclosure?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

If the financial aspect is what makes you house those snakes together (trying to put as many as possible in one enclosure) maybe you should rethink owning multiple snakes

How many burms would be the max to house together?

To be honest I want to house them together because its easier to deal with (physically and financially)

[Sanchez]

If the financial aspect is what makes you house those snakes together (trying to put as many as possible in one enclosure) maybe you should rethink owning multiple snakes

I was waiting for someone to bring up this point. Its not that I cant afford to own multiple snakes and buy mansions for each snake, I just would like to go a cheaper route. If I avoid spending $4-500 + plus shipping on an enclosure, I will. I live a comfortable lifestyle because I avoid unnecessary spending.

[Carlene16]

When it comes down to it, you should house your snakes in separate enclosures. It's a necessary action IMO. Even if you have to spend a bit more money. Let your snakes live a comfortable life.

[Sanchez]

Has anyone that posted here ever housed more than one snake together aside from breeding? I feel like everyone is posting fears based off hearsay and not experience.

[wolfy-hound]

If you do a search, you'll find a metric ton of threads telling people why housing two snakes together is a bad idea.

Yes, people have experiance in housing them together and it's normally a bad one. I personally housed some young pythons together when I was starting out, because the pet store said it was fine and I didn't know any better.

The less dominant pythons were always trying to escape, feeding was a nightmare. The dominant pythons would climb over the lesser ones causing stress(that's how they dominate each other, it's not as obvious as dogs snapping at each other) and the less dominant ones would often regurge.

Also, there has been cases of a snake eating the cagemate. I "assume" that would happen after a squable where one actually bites the other, causing the feeding reflex to trigger. Then it would be coil-squeeze-eat time.

I've had a snake bit ITSELF during feeding. It just got excited and missed the strike, hit itself and bit down and coiled up. It was a nightmare to untangle it from itself. And this was with a ball python, less than 4 ft long. With a burmese, I can imagine it would end poorly. And with a second burm in a cage, what would happen with one hitting the other snake by accident? Now you'd REALLY have a mess.

If you want to feed seperately, you'd be moving a snake every week, and it would be a hassle to move a large hungry burmese that can most likely smell the prey you've gotten for it. Then move it back after it's eaten, and hope it doesn't regurge on you(because gross and ewww, slimy regurge).

I'm only laying it all out since you asked "hearsay and not experiance". If you're bound and determined to just do whatever you want despite all the advice, evidence, and help offered to you, then you'll do it. It's your burmese pythons and we can't come to your house and MAKE you house them seperately. BUt if you did, and one of the posted scenarios did happen, how foolish are you going to feel?

We don't sit around thinking of ways to make keeping reptiles cost more or be less fun or be more of a hassle. We post advice based on what we ourselves have gone through, things we've done, things we've seen happen over the years. We only want to help people who have questions! And I count myself as having questions, despite all the reptiles and breeding and such I've done, I still have tons of things I don't know yet and I love having a place to come and ask for advice.

[vangarret2000]

I have never housed my own snakes together but I have known some that do. Sometimes there can be problems, sometimes there won't be. Housing snakes together doesn't gaurantee something bad will happen but there are bad things that can happen by housing them together that would NEVER happen if they are housed seperatly. That is why people always reccomend not to house them together. You could put two snakes together and they could live their whole lives with nothing bad happen or you could house two snakes together and one could be dead in a week. It's the seatbelt rule. You don't wear a seatbelt because you are going to get into an accident, you wear one to save you incase you get into an accident. You could spend you whole life and never get into an accident or you could be in one tomorrow. So basically if you house snakes together you run the risk of something bad happening but if you don't house them together, then those risks can't happen. When you look at how long snakes live, with housing them together, time isn't on you side for something bad to happen.

Like I have said, I have never house any snakes together myself but i have know people that have. Some of them have never had a problem, but there have been some that have had snakes injured and even eatten.

Why would you want to run the risk of something bad happening to save a few bucks when you have mentioned that you could house them all seperatly.

[Jay_Bunny]

I don't consider giving each snake it's own enclosure "unnecessary spending". If you can't afford to house an animal correctly, why get the animal?

Yes,there are people who have successfully housed two or more snakes together for reasons other than breeding but 99% of the time those were not large species and the keepers had years of experience with each snake and knew how to judge the animals stress levels.

[Sanchez]

I have never housed my own snakes together but I have known some that do. Sometimes there can be problems, sometimes there won't be. Housing snakes together doesn't gaurantee something bad will happen but there are bad things that can happen by housing them together that would NEVER happen if they are housed seperatly. That is why people always reccomend not to house them together. You could put two snakes together and they could live their whole lives with nothing bad happen or you could house two snakes together and one could be dead in a week. It's the seatbelt rule. You don't wear a seatbelt because you are going to get into an accident, you wear one to save you incase you get into an accident. You could spend you whole life and never get into an accident or you could be in one tomorrow. So basically if you house snakes together you run the risk of something bad happening but if you don't house them together, then those risks can't happen. When you look at how long snakes live, with housing them together, time isn't on you side for something bad to happen.

Like I have said, I have never house any snakes together myself but i have know people that have. Some of them have never had a problem, but there have been some that have had snakes injured and even eatten.

Why would you want to run the risk of something bad happening to save a few bucks when you have mentioned that you could house them all seperatly.

I wouldnt really house them together for their entire 25+ year life. It would really only be for the next few years so they would actually be separated before either of them got huge.


Thanks for your comment though. You brought up some good points.

[Sanchez]

I don't consider giving each snake it's own enclosure "unnecessary spending". If you can't afford to house an animal correctly, why get the animal?

I can absolutely afford an enclosure for each animal, no problem. I just think if I can house two together in one enclosure safely then why buy two?

Im 100% for my animal's welfare and health being excellent. This is why I came and asked what you guys thought in the first place.

[Carlene16]

I can absolutely afford an enclosure for each animal, no problem. I just think if I can house two together in one enclosure safely then why buy two?

Im 100% for my animal's welfare and health being excellent. This is why I came and asked what you guys thought in the first place.

Just buy two enclosures then