Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have several ball morphs that are very young of age (7 month old, 5 month old, and a 3 month old)... ALL MALES. They are not relative in size so I NEVER attempted to even think of putting them together.

My main question is:
If I purchased another ball python matching as best I can in size... To cut down on space, can I house them together (2 in one enclosure) and of course, feeding them seperatly & out of their cages?? Thanks!

A newly purchased Ball Python should, ideally, be housed separately from the rest of your collection for at least three months to prevent infection of any diseases it may carry.

In which case, if you are going to house it separately to prevent infection, then you will already have a decent set up for it, so why house it with another snake.

Finally, when you house two snakes together, a bunch of problems can arise that you will always have to keep an eye out for. You find an unusual dropping that may indicate illness, which snake does it belong to? Are you going to provide large enough warm and cool places that both snakes can occupy it at once? Ball pythons being solitary creatures can experience a variety of dominance problems. Even similarly sized snakes can result in a submissive, fasting individual.

Long story short: They probably won't kill/eat or otherwise damage one another. If you can meet the entire environmental needs of BOTH snakes, then housing them together is certainly feasible.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

Don't house them together.

It's not worth it.

It can be done, doesn't mean it,s the best thing to do.

You take the chance of getting one or the other infections, they battle and mostly stress out and stop eating etc...

If you can't afford another cage or supply for another ball python, you should probably not get another one. How you gonna pay for food etc.. in the long run ? What if one or both need veterinarian help ?

The cost of husbandry of snakes is soo long, I don't see any reason to not be able to afford the cheapest supply available (being a rubbermaid tub, heat tape, water bowl and scott towel).
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love this world, don't hate it.

Thank You all for your help and assistnce in advising me "NOT" to House my ball pythons together. Expertise is always appreciated, and the point stands that "Its Not Worth It" to lose or even risk stressing an animal out. I do however commend the gentleman who is curious about his Experiment in changing hides and such with the 500gram sub-adults.... Pretty cool, but I will leave it up to you "Ball-zie" Ball Python experts to try that out... I'll just be on this end to hear what happened!

Thanks again!

Just remember that the sub-adults and the three snake sisters that Paul mentioned were all females. Males together is not good because they will spar or 'fight' for dominance where they raise their necks up and try and push the other males head down into the dirt. Some people use sparing as a means to get a finnicky male pumped up to breed. When doing this you always want to monitor the snakes and never leave them unattended, but thats for another post!

Nice post and I agree with what you said, separate is always best and preferred for the health of the snakes, but it may not be what the snakes prefer on the other hand..?

I have been interested in this topic where people contend that Ball Pythons prefer to live alone, so I decided to do a little experiment. I have a glass display aquarium in my living room where I rotate different Balls in and out every few months or whenever.

I took three sub-adult females all about 500 grams and I put two good sized hides in the cage. I then watched which hide(s) the snakes would prefer to hole up inside. Almost exclusively the snakes would stay in the same hide all together. For instance, I would put in one hide on the warm end and put in one snake and let it go into the hide, then I would put the other hide right next to the first hide and I would put the other two snakes directly into this second hide and let them settle in. Before long, the lone snake would move in with the others. No matter how I moved the hides around, or however many setup variations I tried; hot end, cold end, hides next to each other, or spaced further apart, it did not matter, they would almost without fail end up together in the same hide within a day or so.

After watching these snakes in this small experiment, I really have to say I believe they prefer to have a hide mate. This may not be what is safest and best for them however?

i think, starting out, we've all been in this same spot - but do to group-think that runs rampant on any forum, the same ole "NEVER TOGETHER" gets knee jerked out there by folks who've read this, but who have never truly experimented with it - and those who know it can work in certain situations, dont want to say as others will immediately "correct" them. which may be for the best as newbies might make mistakes such as housing two small males together not knowing even at 400 grams, they might be of sparring size, put a new snake in unquarantined, etc.

so its best to just say never together. but that said...

i have three sisters i bought years ago. i hosed them together till they were close to breeding size, and they were inseperable. they ate and thrived beautifully. like zefin, they were in an enclosure that offered their own hides, heat spots, etc. they never seperated. even if they went to a different hide, they went together.

snakes in the wild get far more stimulation than our captive animals do. our captive animals in comparison, lead extremely dull lives. safe yes, but we'd be kidding ourselves if we think they have similiar mental stimulation. so, to my mind, the occasional visitor, or keeping three young females together (always feed seperately), gives them something - call it what you want, and it's all debatable... comfort; interest; warmth; whatever - but it makes their lives more interesting.

i keep all my snakes seperate as i'm no longer a newbie, have all my racks, can afford it, dont want to risk stressing them, passing on pathogens, etc... but i do feel good when breeding season comes along and i can send in a visitor to an animal whose life has very little stimulation.

i do feel good when breeding season comes along and i can send in a visitor~Paul

Here, here...three cheers for sending in the visitor!

I have done this for years as well and they do tend to end up all crammed together wherever - even if it's not a competition for resources I honestly can't say whether this is necessarily a comfort or that they "enjoy" the company any more than it is some dominance thing - I just don't know.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
The Blog
nihil facimus sed id bene facimus