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I was surprised to see this at a pet store. They were getting along just fine even though the gopher was about half as big as the ball python. The gentleman who runs the store has been raising snakes for decades & said he has never had problems doing that.

I'm still a little nervous about it but I'm gonna try putting mine together. I'll just try and keep one end of the vivarium more humid than the other end.

Has anyone else done this? I would be curious to hear your experiences.

Thanks

As an analogy; I have raised 4 children and not one of them has died of the crib death that doctors warn against, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have, or that if I have any more that they won't. I educated myself on Crib deaths and was careful not to put my babies face down cribs or on their backs where they could choke. To be EXTRA safe, I usually laid them on their sides. Where am I going with this? It happens that sometimes a snake will eat another snake, it just happens. No one knows which snakes will exhibit this behavior, and there are no guarantees that none will. Does that mean that it won't happen to you or that man? It's happening to someone, and it's usually happening to those same people that thought it couldn't happen to them. I educated myself on ths risks and decided that it wasn't worth it to me.

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Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things!"

1.0.0 (normal) Gandalf
1.0.0 (100% het albino) Aragorn
0.1.0 (albino) Galadriel
0.1.0 (pastel) Phoenix (Firebird)

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I had to explain this to another person before that put his jungle carpet python with his boa constrictor and said they were "getting along", I quickly said "it will be the exact opposite if you throw a live rat in there". Serriously snakes of the same species enclosed together is ONE heated debate but I think most people if not all on kingsnake.com will agree with me that putting snakes of different classes,genus and size is just dumb. I dont mean to be rude but if he has been doing this for decades then why doesn't he see the problem already? I'm young and see it heck that guy has probably been keeping snakes longer than I have been born. Besides that, different snakes,different requirements, different germs all EQAUL bad bad trouble. DON'T DO IT if you love your snakes. Theres no scientific evidence of snakes "liking" each other other than breeding time. Serriously I could go on for days but i'll let someone even more experienced break it down for you. And Do that guy a favor and tell him to split those 2 up ASAP because thats promoting wrong husbandry. Maybe someone can post some pics about what could happen, I would but im to lazy to look some up.

If Snakes of the same species can't tolerate each other (i.e canabalism,dominace issues,other things) then what would you think would happen with 2 seperate species that would NEVER meet in there natural habitat. I mean Africa and America??? Just don't do it, atleast you asked about it before you did it.

I have definitely decided against trying it. Even if no direct physical harm came I dont want to stress them.

I was very surprised to see it myself but I did see it. The gopher was crawling right over the ball and neither seemed to care.

LOL they looked like best buds didn't they??? Like I said throw a medium sized rat in there and watch them go at it like the television show survivor, but a snake version of it ofcourse.

Aside from the fact that different species carry different bacterias that can be harmful to the other - add in the stress factor, all the worse case scenarios, etc. - the fact that the two snakes require different husbantry practices is enough to tell you that guy wasn't doing the right thing for either snake.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

BETTER IDEA!! You should get a nice 5 foot eastern kingsnake and put it in with your ball python. I bet they will show so much affection that they will give each other HUGS!!!!

Great idea! I'll get right on it!

I have a couple balls in with a red tail, they havent had a problem ever. As she get older i will pull her out, but now she is about 18 in long and the balls are just getting to breeding size, they dont pay attention to each other at all. I think that has to do with the size of the enclosure though.