Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is it possible to mix two different kinds of snakes?
I know most snakes dont go well together,
but I would really like to get a second one
and I just dont have enough room to provide large enough housing
for two bigger snakes. I have a ball python that was hatched in May. I know to put them together they should be about the same size and age. Is it possible to mix him with a Boa constrictor or a normal Python? or does it have to be another python?

Ball pythons are not social and should not be housed together or with any other snake.

really? thats not kinda crappy to hear.
My BP is a very very tame one tho hes such a great snake
Hes never bit anyone and im working really hard to make it so hes not headshy. even when I circle my hand around his head he never shows any kind of aggression towards me and simply backs his head away. Is there any way of testing it out? Or would he attack another snake that was put into his cage? I bought him from Petco so he WAS in a tank with a bunch of other snakes.

You should never house snakes together - especially different type of snakes - for a plethora of reasons including but not limited to stress, cannibalization and they carry different bacterias that could be harmful to the other. It's just an all around bad idea.

Petco isn't exactly any type of authority on snakes. Sad but true.

If you don't have the room stick with one.

Good luck!
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Tosha
JET Pythons

(CJBianco explaining the origins of the BP market.)
"In the beginning Bob created the Ball Python market. And the market was without morph, and wild traits were upon the industry. And Bob said, Let there be morph, and there was morph. And Bob saw the morph, that it was good; and Bob divided the morph from the wild trait. And Bob called the morph Albino, and the wild trait Normal. And the Albino and the Heterozygous Albino were the first investment.
-- Christopher 1:1-1:5"

also. im not a expert on this but I seem to recall hearing its exspecially not a good idea to keep old and new world constrictors together .... I remember hearing of some sickness that pythins get from boas or maybe vise versa

Sorry, the majority rules in this case. It's just not a good idea. There have been canabalisms between snakes, there ARE diseases and/or different bacterias that are harmless to one and could prove deadly to the other. In the wild snakes are solitary animals except during breeding season, and the communal thing ends when the breeding is over.

All that being said, I have a pair of balls that have lived together for almost seventeen years now. So mixing same species is doable but still not worth the risk in the long run. Better safe than sorry, and out all the money you spent on the one that you could loose.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

Inclusion Body Disease is a nasty, 100% fatal viral ( i think) disease that can lay dormant in a Boa forever but completely obliterate youre Pythons (old world snakes)real quick, if housed together or near each other.

pythons and boas can still get IBD even if never housed together, or even if they are not in the same collection.
You are correct though, it is much worse for pythons, still fatal to both in most cases.
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Brian Oakley
Phoenix, Arizona
BrianOakley@qwest.net

You can come up with as many reasons as you want as to why you think it would work.
Bottom line is, it does NOT work. They do not even come from the same country much less the same continent. So if they do not cross paths in the wild I would not suggest putting them in the same enclosure in captivity......PERIOD. It is a sure way to guarantee you have at least one dead snake.
You said Petco had it with other snakes, but please, that does not mean Petco is right. If Petco does something I would do the complete opposite. They are not a good 'role model' in the world of pet care. They should just be in business as a pet supply store.
I would not put ANY snake together with another snake and I would not even consider putting two different species together.
Some good reading/research would tell you the same thing.
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Brian Oakley
Phoenix, Arizona
BrianOakley@qwest.net

I agree with you 100% Brian. I think a sure fire way to get a dead/injured snake is to house them together. You're askin' for it if you do that.
And with Petco, yeah, they basically suck at taking care of snakes. Whenever I go in to the Petco in my area, I see mite ridden snakes and it pisses me off. I wish I could save every snake that goes into that place but it's just not possible. It angers me and when the reptile people come up to me and say that they have quality snakes for sale, I flat out tell them that they don't. I know it's rude to say that, but I can't help it. Enough of my venting now, sorry.
Bottom line, don't house snakes together or something bad is guaranteed to happen.

Why not look into stackable plastic cages like the vision cages? Or a rack system?

I'm not sure what the "rule" is about keeping boas and pythons in the same rack is, but I know same cage is a no no.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

This should answer all your questions:

http://www.pinkladyconstrictors.com/multsnakes.html
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

Very good page there, you can also see canibalism in same snake situations. I have seen it with red tail boas eating other red tail boas.
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Brian Oakley
Phoenix, Arizona
BrianOakley@qwest.net

I don't know if you missed it, but there was a ball python on there that ate another ball python.
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

awww I dont ever want that to happen to one of my snakes! watching them fight is pretty cool, but I wouldnt want them to ever hurt each other. I wont ever mix them together! I promise!

I used to work for Petco, in the animal departments, and the snakes in that display were probably extremely stressed. At any given point at least half of the snakes on the floor weren't eating, and we often lost corn snakes that would simply never eat. Often the store had bouts of mites (so getting a new snake and putting it in with yours might give you a massive case of them) and not everyone there knew much about the animals, and so made up information that they told customers. If I didn't clean the cages, often the other people would just cover up the poop with new bedding - it looked clean, but really wasn't. Easily could have led to scale rot or any number of diseases.

It might look like the snakes are all doing fine, but chances are they're not. I purchased one of my own snakes from the store I worked for (she was pretty!) and she began eating immediately once she had her own cage.

Like everyone else has said, never house two different species of snakes together, especially not boas and pythons. Your snake is nice and tame with you, but you are not a snake. You can't apply how it behaves with you to how it'll behave with another reptile.

Enjoy your ball!
~jenny
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"The python has, and I fib no fibs,
318 pairs of ribs.
In stating this I place reliance
On a seance with one who died for science
This figure is sworn to and attested,
He counted them while being digested."
~Ogden Nash

jenny.thegreenes.org

"If you're happy and you know it,
Bomb Iraq!
If you cannot find Osama,
Bomb Iraq!
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea is too risky,
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