Posted by:
liquidleaf
at Thu Nov 15 07:44:54 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by liquidleaf ]
Boas should only be housed together if you want them to breed (if they are old enough).
Otherwise, you take the chance that one snake will become stressed by the other, or that one will attack and eat the other (they don't live in close proximity in the wild, and let's face it, they're not very intelligent). Even a breeding snake could mistake its mate as prey if the conditions are right (this has happened to a few people, one recently  ).
Aside from 'feeding response' accidents... snakes thermoregulate. If one snake is dominant, and takes up the "good" hiding spot or basking spot that the other one wants, the other one will get stressed out.
Another issue is feeding - you would have to feed the snakes in separate enclosures EVERY TIME... and likely keep them separate for hours or even a day or two to let the scent or prey and feeding response calm down.
Yet another issue - you will not know which snake is pooping what. So, if one has a health problem related to digestion, you won't know which one. Also, if one gets a bacterial or viral infection, or parasites, the other one will get it as well.
There are a lot of reason. Some people do like making large enclosures with multiple snakes. If you do want to do that, they should be the same species at least, and the cage has to be large enough and have many hides and range of temperatures to allow all the boas present to thermoregulate and hide where they would like... but even then, accidents do occasionally happen.
I just wouldn't want to risk my snakes on the chance of a feeding response accident. I get nervous enough introducing snakes to breed.
As for pythons - the same thing goes. And don't just group it by "pythons"... you shouldn't have pythons of different species in the same cage, either. You need to have the right enclosure and environment for each kind of snake. Ball pythons and blood pythons come from two very different environments. They won't see each other as "buddies"... but as potential predators or prey.
Snakes don't get lonely, either. They are solitary, unless they are mating.
So... in my opinion, there are so many reasons to keep snakes in separate enclosures, that it far outweighs the benefits of having a multiple-snake enclosure. But, if you must, make sure the snakes are the same size, and the same species, and make the enclosure large enough. If one snake is far larger than the other, it might mistake the small one as food, or crush it.
Hope this helps.
-----
Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.1 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 1.1 Saharan Sand Boa
[ Hide Replies ]
|
RE: sharing an enclosure? - liquidleaf, Thu Nov 15 07:44:54 2007
