Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am getting in to keeping ball pythons and I have heard different things about keeping them together. I will be keeping my males seperate but certain females I believe can be housed together. What size enclosure is efficient yet humane enough to house 2 or more females together? anyone have any good suggestions? the females are not yet full grown but the enclosure will need to be big enough to house them when they are. Thanks

males can be housed together as long as no females are around, there won't be any fighting because none of the males will be acting dominant.

as for two full grown females, i personally would put them in something no smaller than 5' long and 2' wide. i'm sure there'll be debate about this because you could get away with something smaller. however, i spoil my animals and give more room than what is required (my 1 male ball python is being housed in 4'x2'x2').

Thanks for the advice. I am getting a boaphile rack to house a couple males (they are still youngins). And im gonna start building a cage this weekend for my females, and Ill probably go with the 4x2 or 4x3 so theres room to move next season when I introduce the males.

In my opinion keeping multiple ball pythons together would be very stressful on the snakes . Try asking this question in the ball python forum . Good luck

I agree 100%. Only for emergency circumstances or breeding should any 2 snakes be housed together, ball python or any other species of snakes. BP's can be stressed very easily and go off-feed at the drop of a dime. Is it worth it to have a snake under constant stress just to save a couple dollars. If money is an issue for buying seperate cages, consider using rubbermaid or sterelite tubs. They are very cheap and great bp cages. I'd say 99% of all bp breeders house their snakes in these cages with great success. They are not as astheically pleasing to our eyes but are actually better for the snakes as they can't see out of them as easily thus proventing too much stress from normal activity outside their cages. Hope this helps.
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Josh Hutto
JKReptiles

2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
0.1 High Contrast Albino (Gulf Coast)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, Gulf Coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(Gulf Coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (Gulf Coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

Id like to thank you all for your input on this. Ive decided to build a rack. I wont be getting my snakes for a couple months so I have some time to get everything set up. I would like something these snakes can grow into but not too large to stress them out. so I think Im gonna go with the cb-70 tubs which are 173/4x331/2x6. I know this is large and Im open to opinions. I have read many articles on this and have seen many differences in opinions I feel with a couple nice hide boxes at different heat zones a 400 gram snake should feel comfortable and have room to grow. and sorry next time Ill post my forum in the right area. JOSH

this is an appropriate forum to ask any reptile housing question. Now as far as size of cages go as far as how big is to big can be a hit or miss situation. I have some animals that do just fine in larger tubs than others. For instance, my 05 male citrus ghost that is right at 700 gm does just fine in his 41 qt tub with just one hide. However, I have another 05 female het pied that no matter how many hides I put in a 32 qt container she goes off-feed and she's over 900g. She can go 2 months without a meal in the mid size tub and 5 mins after going back to the 12qt tub she will nail a pre-killed med rat. I know she's too big for that small of a tub, you know she's too big for that tub, but she don't know that, lol. My general rule for moving snakes to larger tubs is this. If the snake is unable to move completely onto the cool side of the tub without knocking over the water dish then she/he needs to get moved up. My tub ranges are 12qt for hatchlings, grow up/ small male tubs are 32qt and large adult male and female tubs are 41qt. I usually have to move the babies to the 32's at around 400-650g. Then they move to the 41qt's at around 1200-1500g. My largest female is over 3000g and is able to stretch her legs in the 41qt with no problem. The smallest animal i have in the 41qt is my male citrus ghost only because he's a champ eater and roams more than any other ball python I've seen, I mean he thinks he's a dang racer or something, lol. In my experience a cb70 would be a little to large for a 400g snake and may stress a little, especially at first. If you are not planning on breeding these animals a few months without a meal won't be terrible and they should come around eventually with minimal handling/outside stress. However, if you are planning on breeding these animals, you will need smaller racks eventually so why not build a med size tub rack now and in a few months build a larger rack and a hatchling rack. Hope this helps and sorry for so long, just trying to throw a little of what I've learned out there.

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Josh Hutto
JKReptiles

2.3 het pied (RDR, alan bosch x 2, BHB x 2)
0.1 High Contrast Albino (Gulf Coast)
1.1 het albino (ben siegel, Gulf Coast)
1.2 het citrus ghost(Gulf Coast line)
1.0 citrus ghost (Gulf Coast line)
0.1 graz pastel female
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!