I have my pet rats in the same room as one rack of snakes and my boa. The ball pythons don't know the difference and as far as I can tell my boa can't either. If I have him out in the room he does flick his tongue as if he can smell them and looking, but not enough to where he's bitten me by mistake. I do try to take him out of the room if I have him out though as much as possible, just to be sure.