@Chris I totally understood your point. I did not speak to the vendor and to be honest I didn't care too. If you were there to hear his responses you may have a different feeling just as I do. His advice wasn't coming from a genuine place and that was obvious to me listening to the conversation back and forth.

I have talked to many large scale breeders of ball pythons and not a single one that I spoke with would house animals together for anything other than to breed. It's true that I haven't had personal conversations with every breeder in the country but the larger operations that put out some of the most coveted variations in the hobby most definitely do not suggest having ball pythons housed together. Even with that said it is always up to the individual to house however they feel best suits the animal.

The breeder never once outlined a potential problem with having a male and female together in the same enclosure to this customer and that is plain wrong. That is not a statement of opinion but fact because I have seen these issues first hand and people lose females every year being egg bound so it can and does happen. If the breeder didn't know that then he shouldn't be breeding.