Keeping BPs Together???

[Skiploder]

So Skiploder you have or do keep snakes together? If so I would like to know how you set them up and what your experience doing it has taught you. I'm not trying to do any more than learn what you have found while doing it and I am seriously asking. Not trying to judge or pick a fight.

I Think it would be great if you started a new thread about it.

There are certain species - philodryas spp, psesutes, spilotes, thrasops, rhamnophis, etc. that are almost impossible to breed without keeping pairs together year round.

However, in order to do so a keeper must:

(1) Provide an enclosure of adequate size.

(2) Provide multiple usable thermo-regulation zones.

(3) Provide multiple usable hides and microclimates as necessary.

(4) Understand the importance of separating snakes when feeding them and understand the importance of proper prey size and food intervals. The propagation of the "cannibal" myth in non-ophiophagus snakes is due to operator error - keepers to stupid to either supervise or separate cohabitating animals when feeding them. One or two pictures of owner/operator induced errors was all it took to convince people that this is an unavoidable issue.

(5) Ensure that properly sexed animals are housed together.

(6) Bump up the cleaning regiment to account for the waste production of two animals.

(7) Understand that a regurge is not vomiting and vomiting is not a regurge. A regurge is a mild event usually induced by stress after feeding and not involving the digestive system. Vomiting is when a prey item is thrown up after the digestion process has begun and is a much more serious event - causing trauma to the digestive system including and esophagus.

In the rehashed, endlessly puked up series of non-reasons to cohabitate, a regurge situation is always discussed. A regurge is a non-event. If one of your cohabitated snakes regurge, you can tell from the color of the prey item laying on the floor of the cage which snake regurged. If you don't pay attention to such details, start to. If both prey items are the same color, the snake without the lump regurged. If the prey item was small and no lump is evident, look for the animal not basking.........I could go on and on but you get the point.

(8) Properly quarantine animals - period. The odds of having a properly quarantined snake spontaneously getting sick is almost diddly over squat. Health issues that arise in long term, established and properly quarantined animals are almost always the result of bad husbandry practices.

(9) Understand that stress is the result of bad husbandry, not cohabitating acceptable species properly. Stress induced illness in cohabitated snakes is because the keeper has not adequately provided the space, the thermoregulation zones, the security and the microclimates for two animals.

(10) If you want to skip a breeding season, know enough about the snake species that you are keeping to avoid creating environmental situations that trigger mating.

(11) Realize that the number one reason to not cohabitate animals is that it is more expensive and more work than doing it separately.

Now if someone wants to debate dominance in mated pairs of snakes, defend the overuse of the term regurge (which I am also guilty of - I gave up trying to change the forum dogma on this terminology years ago), the prevalence of communicable diseases in properly kept and quarantined snakes, go run your cursed Google searches and let's have at it.