Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,

So i was thinking would it be safe at all to keep my Ball python in his cage and put a Turantula in the same thing ?

Thanks for the info.

Mike

No. Not if you value the life of either animal.
I can see the headline now- Double Smushing/Envenomation
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

lol. I like prove that a spider will actually attack a snake.

Instead of just typing NOOOOOOO!!!! Why not try actually backing up your statment and giving some actual useful information ?

Mike.

I don't see what useful information you need. A spider will obviously defend itself with its fangs. Its fangs deliver venom. A snake could die from that venom. It isn't a very complicated issue. You have been told by multiple people not to do it, yet you persist with the issue. Its stupid to keep a venomous animal in the same cage with your pet. Would you stuff your dog into a pet carrier with a cobra?!?! If not, then why would do that with a snake?!?!?! Do yourself and the snake a favor and sell it to somebody with common sense.

A ball python with any size would disturb a tarantula's burrow/web site as it crawled around. The spider would defend itself. New world tarantulas have two modes of defense, urticating hairs and venom. Old world ones just have venom. The urticating hairs probably wouldn't hurt a snake that much. But if the spider is actually being squished, which would almost certainly happen, it WOULD bite. This could kill your snake. The tarant bites from most species might not be much to us, but we usually get bitten on our limbs. On a snake a bite is never far from an internal organ.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Urticating hairs are designed to ward off predators...so if you have a tarantula with these hairs your snake will be injured. I have a brachypelma smithi (a relatively docile species of tarantula-common name=mexican redknee)and she flicks hairs at me every week lol! These hairs are extrememly itchy to our skin if the spider releases them in large quantities. Most likely a snake would not be affected in the same way. HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!! Urticating hairs can be released into the snakes eyes or respiratory tract...if a snake has these hair logded into its eyes it will develop severe eye infections and may go blind (and keep in mind this is likely to happen if snake and spider are housed together), if the snake breathes in the hairs it's trachea will swell up and it will have difficulty breathing (in some cases rodents have died from inhaling urticating hairs). These hairs cause humans problems, so they will cause you snakes problems. If you have a spider with these hairs you are asking for a blind snake who will develop constant respiratory infections if it survives. Now even if your spider does not have these hairs you are presenting yourself with another issue...fang rearing and biting (on the spiders part). Is it advisable to keep a snake with a mouse permantly...NO...the mouse will eventually bite the snake....a spiders fangs will penetrate a snakes skin. Some snakes will have a bad reaction to the spiders venom, others will develop infection. Now all this talk about the snakes safety and no ones thinking about the poor spider. The spider is likely to be injured especially during the sensitive time while the spider is trying to molt. Ultimately, if you want to keep a spider and snake together you will cause them undo stress and likely harm! Spend a few extra bucks and get a cage divider!
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*Amy*
0.1 Green Iguana (yes, I have a lizard in my bathroom)-iggy
2.1 Ball Pythons (normal)-cosi, jake, and howie
0.1 B.smithi (mexican redknee tarantula)-athena
0.0.1 midland painted turtle-nemo
1.1 dogs-rocky and skippy
1.0 normal grey cockatiel-opie
0.0.30 betta, guppies, rosy reds, fantail goldfish, clown pleco,...

That is honestly one of the dumbest questions that has been asked on this forum. Read some answers to similar questions. The answer is always H**L NO!!! If people are highly discouraged from keeping a ball python with another member of its species, how good of an idea is it to keep one with a poisonous spider?! This is irresponsible, stupid, deadly, and I can think of many other bad adjectives for it. Honestly, I hope you're joking, because if you read any post on any snake forum about anything like this, people always say don't keep snakes wiht other snakes. A venomous spider is not a good cage mate unless you want to see a fight to the death the instant you put them in the same cage. grrrrrr.

It wouldn't be INSTANT, tarantulas are really very shy. And it really wouldn't be a fight, the spider would be defending itself against the snake's unwitting intrusion. Unless it were a huge spider and a baby ball, because I think a big baboon spider would straight up eat a baby ball python. So all I'm saying is it might take a few days.
(if you can't tell, i've got a spider and some snakes and i like them both very much.)
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

.

it wouldn't be a good ideal. Terantulas will probably get squished by a ball python, could bite the snake and vise versa. ALso, I don't think they have the same requirements in temps and humidity.