Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My burms are seperate now but i was wondering if its a good idea to house two together in a visison cage (622)?? Just looking for some input and suggestions.

1.0 Albino 100% het granite
0.1 Granite 66% het albino
0.1 Granite 100%het albino
0.1 Albino

There are many reasons as to why I would not house them together.

First, they are more likely to stress as these are not social creatures in the wild, they are solitary. Second, you also run the risk of if any get sick, passing it around to the other burms. It's also really hard to tell who has defecated in the cage for reliable record keeping.
You are not only dodging one feeding response when handling, but (three?) more than that and this could not only lead to your safety being sacrificed, but their's as well if one decides the other one moving in front is food because it smells food in the room or any other reason.
If I've forgotten anything, anyone please feel free to add in.

Just my $0.02. You're just ultimately better off housing them alone.

Hugs!

Amanda Rose

I don't even know the all reasons why but after seeing numerous people ask the same question, then getting bombarded by those that do know all the reasons, it is not a good idea. Ask Rob Carmichael or Todd Becker if you have to have a more in depth response but the end result will still be NO!

DZ

Like the others have stated there are various reasons not to house multiple snakes together and only one reason why one would do it. To save money on purchasing another cage. If one can not afford another cage then one should not have another snake.
Reasons not to:
1. Increase risk of illness and disease being spread from one animal to another. If they live together then the chance of the sickness (or parasites) moving form one snake to another increases immensly. Think of it like this, who are you more likely to catch a cold from, one of your siblings who you live with or your next door neighbor that you might see once a day and say hi to.
2. Stress. Like Amanda said, snakes as a rule are solitary animals and do not do good in groups. Also, if you happen to have two males together then there is a good chance that domination fighting could take place. Almost all animals will try to position themselves on the top of the hierarchy. When another male comes around the dominate male will show the new male whos boss. This can result in injury to one or both snakes and possibly to the death of the weaker one. This can also occur with two females but is more rare.
3. Feeding. When housing multiple snakes within one enclosure it makes it impossible to feed in the enclosure. Feeding in the enclosure. For a lengthy explaination on that go to the thread with my name in it and read my response. Anyway, even if you successfully feed your snakes outside of the enclosure you are taking a great risk. The scent of the prey item will remain on the snakes for quite a while. If one of the snakes is still looking for food and it scents prey on the other snake it could very easily misconstrue its cage mate as food. I have witnessed this personally (I learned form my mistakes).
The only time snakes should be housed together is for the purpose of breeding. If it is not breeding time or the owner has not intention of breeding then ALL snakes should be housed seperately. Todd