Quote Originally Posted by cinderbird View Post
Let me add an edit to that quote that I sincerely forgot to add to my original post; I ONLY ever write posts on my personal experience or ideas. Since I do have some experience with these animals I should have mentioned that fact, I'm sorry. I wouldn't refer to them as cardinal rules either, but I did only write that original post with ball pythons in mind.



In the short time I've owned them, I've found MUCH less likely to stress than ball pythons. Exceedingly less likely to stress. My group were quarantined and housed separately for quite some time, the adults were introduced originally for breeding. I haven't seen any breeding behavior but I have yet to separate them from November or so. They seem to be doing fine as a trio. If I were to see signs of stress or resource guarding/domination/competition they'd be separated immediately. But in my experience, with these particular animals, I'm not seeing an issue cohabiting this group.

There are people who have owned them longer and surly have more experience on the matter.

I only give advice on species I've got personal experience owning for what I'd consider a significant length of time. In my experience, this species is more suitable for cohabitation than ball pythons are. But I don't cohabit my ball pythons so other than a basic understanding of the species (which i have) that is my educated opinion. I suppose I should also mention that my specific group of boas are all captive bred and fed on a diet strictly of rodents, they don't and have not ever been fed other reptiles as a food source. Does this change the possibility of cannibalism? No, it doesn't, but I feel it reduces the chance enough for me to feel comfortable keeping the adults as a group.

I'm going to preface this by saying that I'm not trying to pick a fight - just trying to understand the advice you gave the OP.

You listed 6 reasons to not co-habitate snakes. When I asked you about why candoia somehow fall outside those rules but balls don't you gave me a very cogent and thorough response.

But.......

Candoia are known better for cannibalism - more in young animals - than balls. While they are not as cannibalistic as some, the risk exists and I could probably argue it is higher than with balls.

As for your comments about quarantine and proliferation of disease in cohabitation - what is good for the goose (candoia) is good for the gander (balls). Why should a properly quarantined and tested pair of balls be any more likely to suffer from the spread of pathogens than similarly treated candoia?

Same with the concept of "cuddling" - it happens in just about all cohabited snakes - even when you provide them several optimum thermoregulation spots and a ton of space.

People have been cohabitating balls for years. Is it the optimum set-up? No. Can it be done? Yes. Should people new to snakes practice it? Probably not.........

But the same exact argument can be made for candoia. Candoia are known streaky eaters and are also known to stress fairly easily. Imports also come in parasite ridden and need to be aggressively treated.

So I'm at a loss. I can see why you wouldn't recommend cohabitating snakes in general to someone new to the hobby - I just am having a hard time seeing your apples to oranges comparison between candoia and balls.