rtb and bp housed together?

[420 boa]

Yesterday I went to a local pet store to look at baby rtb's. As I was curiously looking over their entire reptile inventory I noticed a nice looking sub-adult rtb. So as I was walking over to its enclosure I see a familiar looking tail sticking out of the hide. I look under the hide and there is a full grown bp in it. Is it just me or this a horrible idea to house these two snakes together, especially coming from a pet store, where customers might think it's ok to do the same?

[joepythons]

Yesterday I went to a local pet store to look at baby rtb's. As I was curiously looking over their entire reptile inventory I noticed a nice looking sub-adult rtb. So as I was walking over to its enclosure I see a familiar looking tail sticking out of the hide. I look under the hide and there is a full grown bp in it. Is it just me or this a horrible idea to house these two snakes together, especially coming from a pet store, where customers might think it's ok to do the same?

1.yes Its not a good idea to house 2 snakes together unless they are breeding .2.Majority of petstores are plain OLD IGNORANT when it comes to proper ways to house reptiles.Sorry to be blunt here but its the truth.Do a search here for a thread where a boa ATE a ball python it was housed with

[SteelerFreak89]

Its horrible to see what some of these places do. Just yesterday I saw 5 or 6 ball pythons in one 15 gallon tank. I nearly threw up in my mouth.

[ladywhipple02]

RTB and BPs have differences in care requirements. They are subtle, but there, nonetheless. This is irresponsible on the part of the petstore.

If the snakes are being kept in the right requirements, are being kept healthy, and are given plenty of floor space, I don't exactly have a problem with pet stores keeping them in one enclosure. The need for space is an understandable issue, and even excellent petstores who know what they're doing will sometimes put multiple babies in one enclosure.

That said, I DON'T believe there is ANY excuse for keeping two different species with different requirements in the same enclosure.


SIDE NOTE: I also think that individual keepers should house their snakes separately... if an individual doesn't have the space to provide separate cages for their animals, they shouldn't have those animals.

[Monty]

ok i have a lil story i know this might offend some of you. well maybe all of you. but my friend rescues a bp and a cornsnake both about 8 years old so the lady said and have been housed together all there life the bp stays on one side the corn on the other and they dont bother each other we split them apart in there own enclosers we had them sepertaed for a month and both of them wouldnt eat. then we put them back together. and a week later tried feeding and they ate. so we keep them together. i know we shouldnt but the bps requierments are met along with the corn snakes requierments. the tank is a 75 gallon breeder custom built

[cheryls]

I actually had a decent experience yesterday at a Pet Choice. They have a baby bp that I've been watching for a couple of weeks. It was in a small enclosure that connected to two other enclosures on either side housing other reptiles who ate crickets which kept jumping over and into the bp enclosure - no hide and some kind of bark substrate with a small water dish. Finally asked to speak to the manager yesterday. After hearing my complaint and walking over to the tank with me, he showed me another enclosure which was more private, had his workers change the substrate in the new enclosure to aspen, put two hides in and a larger water bowl. Then he showed me the temps, etc. They moved the snake immediately. He hadn't been eating well and we discussed husbandry and it's connection to eating. I felt much better when I left the place and never had an experience like that at our local Petco. They actually hate to see me coming now, since Petco sent out the regional manager after my complaints.

[ladywhipple02]

ok i have a lil story i know this might offend some of you. well maybe all of you. but my friend rescues a bp and a cornsnake both about 8 years old so the lady said and have been housed together all there life the bp stays on one side the corn on the other and they dont bother each other we split them apart in there own enclosers we had them sepertaed for a month and both of them wouldnt eat. then we put them back together. and a week later tried feeding and they ate. so we keep them together. i know we shouldnt but the bps requierments are met along with the corn snakes requierments. the tank is a 75 gallon breeder custom built

Considering that corn snakes and ball pythons come from completely different parts of the world and have different requirements, I would say NO, their requirements are NOT being met:

Corn snakes require a basking spot of 88-90 degrees, with ambient temps of 70-75. Relative household humidity is fine for them. BPs, on the other hand, require a basking spot of 90 degrees, with ambient temps of around 80 degrees... temps below 75 degrees are dangerous for them. They also require humidity levels stay around 50-60%.

My guess is that you are probably compromising between the two care requirements... probably warm enough for the BP, but keeping humidity levels low for the corn snake. On other words, both snakes are suffering from being kept in one enclosure.


It is a recurring phenomenon that snakes who have been housed with other snakes, when moved to their own enclosures, will sometimes go off feed. This has to do with competition. Living in an enclosure with other snakes, they will continue to eat even while under stress from the wrong living conditions just because they feel in competition with the other snakes. Once the other snakes are removed, they will stop eating...

You need to look at your housing conditions. My guess is, they were off even when you put the snakes in their own enclosures.

Just FYI.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

i know we shouldnt but the bps requierments are met along with the corn snakes requierments.

No they're not!

How could those two species from different side of the world have the same requirements?

Your BP needs to be kept at 80-84 on the cool side and 90-94 on the warm side, which is TOO hot for a corn.

You need to separate them, snakes do better kept alone even if they are of the same species and they definitely need to be kept apart if they are from different species.

And I am not even gonna get started on the potential problems that this could cause.

[Monty]

temps on hot spot are at 91 the coolest end hits 75 and also another light that get another part up to 80 humidity stays around 50 - 55. and they are both full grown and eat outside of the enclosure. and there hasnt been any competition for hiding or basking spots. and the vet said they are 100% healthy they thermoregulate like they should.

[Monty]

also in note i know of the risks and i told him about them. ive advised and advised. he split them for almost 2 or 3 months fed them like normal and they wouldnt eat put them together and they ate right away