a few questions... is she a loner? too many in one tank??

[Crazy4Herps]

It's not always easy to tell when a snake is stressed out; often times there are only subtle clues. There may seem to be "no problems", but in fact there may be many problems. In the wild, snakes live completely alone, only encountering others for short periods of time during their breeding season (and even then, they are not comfortable with other snakes near them; during the breeding season most snakes start refusing food, unwilling to put themselves in a vulnerable position). I completely understand where you're coming from, it's cute and they may seem to be fine, but expert herpetologists have concluded that housing snakes together is stressful, and imo that's the sort of advice we should rely on simply because often times we have no way of telling when something's wrong.

1st question.... My cinny and pastel cuddle, they are always wrapped up with each other or stacked ontop of each other in one or the other of the hides. My mojave on the other hand doesn't even like going in the hide, she sleeps randomly on the side of the tank or wrapped around the gages on the side. Why won't she hang out with her new friends? Is it normal for her to not even want to go inside the hides? and sleep just out in the open? Could she just be a loner and not want to hang out with the other two?? They are all basically the same age give a week or two.

The "cuddling" you see is actually a fight for dominance. This is fairly common among snakes that are housed together. They feel threatened by each other and want to scare each other off. It seems strange, I know.

As for the mojave, it sounds to me like she is not as assertive as the other two and has been chased off, so to speak, except she has no way of leaving. It sounds to me like she is frightened and doesn't want to go near the others or their "territory" (which probably consists of the hides and water dish).

[Egapal]

My sister currently has three BP's and two corn snakes all in the same tank, and has had them all together for almost three years with no problems. She started with two then three in the 20 gallon, then 4 in the 20 gallon. now that the corns and the one BP are pretty big in size her husband built her a 5'x3' tank that still houses them all with no problem. Another family member has aa 40 gallon tank with one large BP (almost 4 feet) and a smaller one probaly 20-25" long in the same tank as well. again with no problems.

My brother shoots up heroin. Doesn't mean its a good plan for you or I. It is your snake and at the end of the day you can do what you want with it. If they were my snakes I would have one per enclosure, for all the reasons already mentioned many times on this forum.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Is this a troll, or is it serious?
I hate to be harsh, but it's another example of people getting expensive animals without doing any of their research first. I'll NEVER understand that. A good book costs 15 bucks. Internet care sheets are free. If you found BP.net, how did you avoid seeing any care sheets?

You want to keep these animals healthy, and watch them grow up safely? House them separately, and use appropriate equipment to do it.
Get a proper thermostat, line some bins with clamps up over a heat cord, indoor/outdoor thermometers with remote probes, etc.

The fact that these animals are often hardy enough to be piled into a tank by an ignorant owner doesn't meant this is the way they should be kept. Eventually, that situation will cause problems, it's only a matter of time.

[johnmauser]

you posted yesterday in this post
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-few-questions
saying that you wanted a mojave. But in todays post you say you have one. you also posted two days ago, asking what kind of pythons you should get because you were going to start breeding ball pythons. but now you say you have 3. Did you just get all of these snakes in the last day or two?

i'm a little confused...can you explain???



.......ps. I am new around here...so this post was my polite way of saying that this is BS

[EverEvolvingExotics]

Is this a troll, or is it serious?

From the second I read the first post it sounded like a troll attempt. I doubt anyone that had spent the money a single morph much less multiple would be that ignorant on the basic care of a ball python.

If I am wrong and you are serious...well...WTF?

[CatandDiallo]

It's in your (and your snakes') best interest to listen to all of the people who are posting here.

These people have been working, keeping and breeding snakes for years, and sometimes even decades, so they know what they're talking about.

Please listen to their advice so you can provide a happy, healthy home for your ball pythons. Stressing out any animal is not cool in my books, even when you don't 100% know what you're doing is wrong. However, everyone is telling you how to house these animals, yet you are choosing to ignore it. That is completely stubborn and irresponsible.

[Jessica Loesch]

My sister currently has three BP's and two corn snakes all in the same tank, and has had them all together for almost three years with no problems. She started with two then three in the 20 gallon, then 4 in the 20 gallon. now that the corns and the one BP are pretty big in size her husband built her a 5'x3' tank that still houses them all with no problem. Another family member has aa 40 gallon tank with one large BP (almost 4 feet) and a smaller one probaly 20-25" long in the same tank as well. again with no problems.

Assuming you are a troll, I will warrant myself to be a little mean.

Your family sounds like they don't know what they are doing at all.

[zach_24_90]

My brother shoots up heroin. Doesn't mean its a good plan for you or I. It is your snake and at the end of the day you can do what you want with it. If they were my snakes I would have one per enclosure, for all the reasons already mentioned many times on this forum.

Assuming you are a troll, I will warrant myself to be a little mean.

Your family sounds like they don't know what they are doing at all.

+1 seriously

[Highline Reptiles South]

just the other day you posted that you were getting into breeding and asking what to mate a bumblebee to. You also posted a couple days ago you wanted a mojave. I think this is probably a very young person with a lot of ideas swimming around ....

[CCfive]

From the second I read the first post it sounded like a troll attempt. I doubt anyone that had spent the money a single morph much less multiple would be that ignorant on the basic care of a ball python.

If I am wrong and you are serious...well...WTF?

Ditto!