Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 3 juvenile snakes. Two are Grey Rat and one is a Corn Snake. They are all housed together and seem to enjoy balling up together. I am curious if it would be possible to add a juvenile ball python of about the same size to this environment. I've always seen different species of snakes together on movies, and no, I don't believe everything I see on television, but I was wondering since these are all constrictors, would they thrive or fight one another. Would somebody please respond?

Thank you,
Walter

I would NEVER put more than one snake together. The larger ones may be interested in eating the smaller ones. however they can fight and eat each other if they feel like it. they will trade diseases easy, its impossible to determine which one is sick, then the others will have the virus or whatever by the time symptoms are shown. so 3 times the vet bills.

Anyway, the balling together is not a sign of affection or killing each other... this is just simply because there is one spot in the tank that they all want to be in and so they are all wanting it so they pile together. and it's hard to mistake a bp for a colubrid...
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

This is a really bad idea for a variety of reasons....

1. Ratsnakes of various species are known to eat others snakes on occassion. So keeping your corn with your other ratsnakes is a bad idea.

2. Adding a ball python would lead to two problems -
a. Ball Pythons are shy snakes and aren't going to appreciate being crawled all over by other snakes. The result - a stressed out, non-feeding BP.
b. Ball Pythons require a very different temperature regime than NA ratsnakes. Do a little reading and you will see they are compatible.

It is generally a bad idea to keep more than one snake in a cage, period. You risk transfer of parasites, fecal cross-contamination, feeding accidents, one eating another, etc., etc.

If you can't afford/don't have room for more cages, you can't afford/don't have room for more snakes. You already have an overcrowding situation in the cages you have.
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Chris Harrison

>>This is a really bad idea for a variety of reasons....
>>
>>1. Ratsnakes of various species are known to eat others snakes on occassion. So keeping your corn with your other ratsnakes is a bad idea.
>>
>>2. Adding a ball python would lead to two problems -
>>a. Ball Pythons are shy snakes and aren't going to appreciate being crawled all over by other snakes. The result - a stressed out, non-feeding BP.
>>b. Ball Pythons require a very different temperature regime than NA ratsnakes. Do a little reading and you will see they are compatible.
>>
>>It is generally a bad idea to keep more than one snake in a cage, period. You risk transfer of parasites, fecal cross-contamination, feeding accidents, one eating another, etc., etc.
>>
>>If you can't afford/don't have room for more cages, you can't afford/don't have room for more snakes. You already have an overcrowding situation in the cages you have.
>>-----
>>Chris Harrison
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Chris Harrison

I agree. Why do you want to stress them out??? In the wild they are basically solitary creatures who come together to mate. Your asking for alot of trouble in the long run keeping them all together. Not to mention I've heard some BP's can be very picky eaters. Just my 2 cents

to house different species together, IT'S INAPPROPRIATE TO HOUSE TWO SNAKES OF THE SAME SPECIES TOGETHER.

Of course you'd know this if you'd bother to do the least bit of research, or read the approximately six million times it's been posted here.

Thanks for all the "positive" responses. I didn't realize I was stressing these snakes out. I have since taken your advice and separated them. I would like to point out that this was my first time even visiting the site and while I realize there is a lot of information on here, I did not have the time to read through it all so that is why I asked for the help in the first place. I don't appreciate MCI getting smart and saying that it had been posted like 6 million times not to house more than one snake together. I won't even bother to ask about help on making a nice escape-proof lid for my new aquarium. I'll just indulge in some good reading I guess....

People in this forum do get irked when they have to repeat the same advice over again, even to different people. To cut down on your reading, when you scroll down the forums, read the titles. It isn't helpful when the title is vague like "HELP!!!" but sometimes it is.
And common questions are answered often. Despite that the replies are rarely sugar coated. Just so you know, some of the most knowlegeable people on here can be abrupt, so very good advice won't always be "positive". Your snakes will thank you if you can stand to be chewed out now and again.
About the aquarium lid. There's not much you can do. You can get the tightest fitting thing you can find, stack books on it, use duct tape, but snakes are escape artists. Frankly, the best strategy is to get a nice custon cage, or at least an glass terrarium with a sliding screen lid that a snake can't force up. But you can check the caging forum for ideas.
One last thing, why does Florida suck? Sure there are hurricanes, humidity and politics, but at least you have a lot of lovely lizards down there.
P.S. Glad you're taking good advice, even if you don't appreciate it's delivery.
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0.2 chickens (Falcon & Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.0 Arizona Mountain Kingsnake (coming soon)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

hey, floridasucks, keep asking questions and don't worry about the negative responses you happen across. i applaud you for trying to learn and if no one asked there wouldn't be any forums. let's all remember that we were novices at one time too. lighten up and let's keep the newbies informed. we are here to learn and exchange info so post that question about your lid or go to cage design. contact me anytime and i'll try to help. antelope297todd@aol.com