multiple snakes

[Skiploder]

Okay....

When you can point out anywhere in any of my postings where I said they CANNOT be housed together, I will gladly answer any questions you have. From what I see, I said it's not a good idea, along with 95% of other people who own ball pythons. BUT if you saw something that I didn't type, or magically showed up, then I'll gladly apologize for the misunderstanding.

Let's try this again, just to be clear.

The breeders that I have become very close friends with, who have years of their and others (including big name breeders) experience, who I then gain my knowledge from by asking questions, wouldn't even consider putting two same sex snakes in the same exclosure.

CAN it be done? Clearly, since you pointed that out.
SHOULD it be done? Obviously...debatable.
SHOULD it be done by anyone other than someone who has many years of experience? In my opinion (key word here), no.
You, who clearly knows all, should be able to see the difference between opinion and fact.

Ah, I think the misunderstanding lies in the fact that while I quoted your post, I was addressing other people who posted in this thread. You are correct, you did not say you CANNOT house them together - you strongly advised against it, but for completely different reasons than I do.

When it comes to sick snakes, I still take exception to your post. I have been keeping snakes for over three decades, and while my knowledge of snakes is far from all encompassing, I can tell you the number of outbreaks of disease I have had in that time:

1 - and it was due to a disease than cannot be quarantined away or 100% found by even multiple tests.

I currently have less than 25 animals, but that's the lowest I've had in a long, long time. For a period of time, I was importing quite a few WC snakes from Africa and elsewhere and never had an outbreak of anything.

I also keep rhamps, thrasops, and pseustes in breeding pairs. In the past I have kept spilotes and various antaresia in continual pairings and have never had an issue. I have even had cribos that would not breed unless kept year round - all without issue - be it cannibalism or disease.

Therefore when it comes to this notion that properly quarantined and treated snakes get sick out of the blue and infect their room/tank mates, I feel fairly qualified to speak out of experience.

I also personally know quite a few big name breeders who wouldn't know proper quarantine if it bit them in the ass. How do I know? I've sold to a few over the years. Yep, they receive a box of baby cribos on Friday and on Monday they are posting them for sale. There are many members of that group that are rightfully wary of snake diseases - mainly because they have collections that are constantly exposed to new, unquarantined arrivals.

The issue I had with your original post is that it implies that cohabitating properly quarantined animals together will result (so say the big box breeders) in an a bunch of dead animals. Nothing could be further than the truth.

The biggest problem in cohabitating ball pythons is that they are easily stressed. But many people remove them and feed them in separate containers which is also stressful so go figure................