Keeping snakes communally

[TammyJ]

My son has always kept his BPs together (against my advice) and we have been lucky - so far.

Some have not been so lucky, and I think it is more responsible reptile keeping to have them separate, since rrk is what this site is about anyway.

[razeraze]

I have not posted much because I have been busy but, I felt I needed to comment here because the rules people put in place tend to develop cult like following.
Live feeding, housing together, hot spots, substrate, all of it can be debated and there should be no generalizations we encourage others to follow blindly. Research and trial and error, tend to be the best ways to determine what is best for you as a keeper, this does not mean you need to push your methods on every keeper. Many keepers do fine feeding live, using sand mixture substrates, using hot spots and housing snakes and/or other reptiles together.

So for housing together can it be done safely? yes.
Can it be done with out risk? no.
Should you do it? that depends on your level of keeping and the specific animals you wish to house together.

Can introducing reptiles for breeding be done safely? yes
Can it be done with out risk? no.
Should you do it? that depends on your level of keeping and the specific animals you wish to breed.

[owen]

i bought a bin, and all the other stuff needed, and seperated the 2 ball pythons today

[burmeselover15]

well for me i totally disagree with keeping snakes together no matter what kind, how big, mean, anything, unless breeding is taking place, thats it. snakes can hurt and even kill each other when kept together. i really cant think of what to say right now sorry for such a sorry awnser please forgive that maybe i will be able to awnser this when my headaches gone again.

[ssjsmits]

Two sided coin. Can it be done safely, sure. But the most important question that comes to me is, why? Why do you want to house 2 snakes together? More often times than not, it's just an issue of money, or not wanting to spend money to purchase another enclosure. At least that's how I see it.

[owen]

i think raze hit the nail on the head. It can, and has been done many times, but is it worth the risk? It is all up to the individual keeper. The main reasons I split these ball pythons up, is because the male is just comming into breeding age, and I dont want him to breed the female when she is too small. That can lead to one huge vet bill, and once I explained it that way to my mom, she sent me out to get a bin and stuff

[razeraze]

Brandon many people keep pairs or trios of snakes together for the same reason they do it with monitors and crocodilians. Raising them together many times reduces aggression when they reach sexual maturity. If dominating fights break out early, it is easy to separate them when they are young (and less dangerous) and gradually introduce them for eventual mating. How ever introducing two adults with out prior interaction often ends in fatal consequences.
Many good keepers who house reptiles together do it in one of two ways. 1.)Starting from babies and providing a generous amount of space that can be divided if needed or 2.)the use of a clear divider to see how the adults act while gradually getting them use to each other's presence.

Now if you house 2 reptiles in a cage barely big enough for one, you are just asking for trouble. This is why many introductions go bad (especially with large monitors). Now you have a fight over the territory or space, which is the minimum for one reptile. In fact many monitor keepers have to have them out of the cages or in a large communal areas the size of a front room because the cages do not allow adequate escape in case one reptile decides not to mate and lashes out. Since snake can not run and can often reach the full length of the cage they are kept in, putting another snake in this environment for breeding automatically puts the snake in strike range of the other snake. So for a pair or a trio of snakes I would recommend a cage large enough they can not strike each other while on opposite ends.

Many monitor keepers and crocodilian keepers keep their snakes together and only separate them because they are tired of them breeding (especially with live bearers, eggs can always be fed to their monitors).

[ssjsmits]

I wasn't bagging on you Tom. In fact (probably should have stated this earlier), my best friend and neighbor has housed two boas together, always. Never a problem. Like you mentioned, space was a big fact I think. He provides multiple basking areas as well as a variety of cool spots in the cage, so they don't have to fight for one spot or the other. Another reason, true or not I don't know, the boas that he has done this will have always been litter mates. Perhaps that might have something to do with it.
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My personal feeling is that they shouldn't be. I hate to use the "In the wild" comparison because this isn't the wild, but I don't believe I have ever seen two snakes hanging around each other 24/7, or in the general vicinity in nature for the remainder of their lives.
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Like I said, I believe it can be done given the keeper has done his/her homework, thoroughly. But this is speaking with longevity aspirations. Not just "I'm going to do this for the time being" type ordeal. Just doing it for space, money or whatever issues is only asking for trouble. Most of us (though I try) cannot build large enough enclosure to make this possible. Which is why I am against it.

[razeraze]

I understand. Unfortunately in the wild snakes have many seasonal cues and space to help breeding go smoother. This is not the case with monitors, monitors will kill and fight, during mating, after, before, you name it. So why can monitor people house aggressive very cannibalistic giant lizards together and not many snake people? Simple they understand why fights break out and how to limit them or prevent them all together. Do some still have incidents? of course but like I said it is about as common or less common than just introducing them for mating, that can be very dangerous.
I recently went to the shedd aquarium and saw their endangered iguana set up had been changed. What was once a big beautiful cage now had a large piece of metal hanging from string in the middle of the cage. The iguanas were still kept together, but because of fights over a specific spot they had to divide the spot with a non transparent barrier. It looked like crap! but it worked and they continue to mate and add to conservation, with out having to be separated.

I would never recommend people house two reptiles together to save space, I only recommend it if you are serious about breeding and are wary of introducing two mature dangerous reptiles. A friend of mine lost his cummingi salvator during an introduction in the blink of an eye while he was in the cage with them. One bite and a quick shake took the females head completely off.

[danktat]

Mating season intros are some of my most tension filled times.