How many?.... snakes in one tank

can you house 2 ball pythons together in a 55 gallon tank or would the tank have to be bigger?

 

I wouldnt house 2 bps together in anything. It's best to give them separate cages.

 

ok thanks!

 

yep yep one per customer there, and in any case regardless of species

 

then how come they have more then one in pet stores

 

How come those are usually infested with mites and skinny? Same reason. Most pet stores put the animals needs second to the need to make a profit.

 

right you are wideglide, i see tiny tiny leos and even baby iguanas where you can see there ribs, not to mention the dead ones

 

Well, there is a such thing as a "good pet store". There is one by me and I asked them why they had so many in one tank. They snakes are well fed and extreamly healthy. These are people who REALLY love snakes. It's an exotics store so there are many kinda, these people have their own snakes at home. Their answer to me was that they are only in that cage when being displayed. Most of their snakes go within the few days that they are in, if not they are moved to seprate cages during the night. I keep two of my ball pythons together because they seem to like it. They are mates and everytime i try to take them apart they seem to be upset. They wrap their tails around eachothers and don't seem to wanna be forced apart. I have a wide 35 gallon tank for them because they are babies and they seem a lot more calm and less bitey when they are together.

 

I agree there are good pet stores as I have two near me and one is decent while the other is top notch. If the store near you does what they say they do I can't see that as being too bad at all. As I'm sure you know, the majority of pet stores are horrible and probably do not remove the snakes at night and some even house multiple sick animals in the same tank. Regardless of all of that though, it is best to house them seperately.

Ryeshu, fyi, when you see your snakes cuddle up to each other in the tank they're not expressing any kind of emotion towards each other they are competing for the best spot in the tank. Kinda like little Bobby and his little sister fighting to sit in the front seat of the car.

 

I had an interesting ball Python case, but I finially figured it out.

I had a female come in I'm sure she was w/c, she was a psycho too, bite and hiss everytime she could. Well every time after i would feed her the next day she would regurge. She had her hot and cool hides, Food wasn't too big, temps were fine, fecal was clean. She was just so strung out that she couldn't keep food down. So What I started to do was after she ate, i would put a male BP in with her as a distraction. All of a sudden she stopped regurging. So i kept of this ritual for a while, and figured it was her surroundings that were upsetting her. She was in an aquarium, so she felt vulnerable with all the glass. So For an experiment I took a bath towel and covered the cage after she ate, and didnt introduce the male, and she didn't regurge. So After a few weeks of testing that I moved her into a regular cage with an UTH and no lamp, so she was in a darker cage so she felt more secure, and she actually started to calm down to a normal snake.

Moral of the story is, it wasn't that she enjoyed the company of the other snake. She liked that something else was there to take some attention away from her, and when she didnt feel like she was on display, she was fine.

 

Heh, they just look so cute when i try to take them apart and they wrap around eachother. Yeah the little albino is a monster. Last night was the first time i got her out of the cage without getting bit. I talked to the little girl for about ten mintues because i saw her in the striking position. "No, come on you don't wanna bite me. Biting isn't good" and all that stuff. She may not understand me or really care what i was saying if she could but i got her out without her striking at me and that works for me. :lol: Anyways, thy are in a big hide house and since it is so big i think they wrap around eachother to feel saver. They still look cute curled up together none the less.

 

If you think that's the case why not get each of them the hide they're probably looking for? Most snakes like hides they can barely fit into. Ones that are touching them on all sides. Just try to consider the way the snakes feel more than what you think looks cute. I mean after all we're keeping them in a cage. Can't their best interest come first?

 

I'd agree with Rob. They really should have their own cages and at least their own hides. Especially two large snakes like that. They really need their own space. And even mates will occasionally become aggressive towards one another for no obvious reason. I've had long-term cagemates get excited about feeding, and before I could get them into their buckets, one latched onto the other's head and tried to swallow him. Took a lot to get him off of the other and was definitely a lesson learned. He was just excited about the food, he had learned the pattern and knew it was coming, and jumped at the first thing that moved in front of him. Needless to say I'm sure the other guy was a little surprised to say the least. Kind of a "so that's what the mouse sees..." moment. So I'd reconsider their living arrangements to some degree.

 

Big? They are each only six months old. I have two hides but they perfer the bigger one for some reason. I have on in heat one not in heat but kinda in the middle and the water on the cold side. the tank is 45 gallons and its wide so it is quite large for them. They are small no more than i foot i think. Even if i had to i cant too much afford another cage. I was told it was find from a breeder friend of mine as well as the store as well as a vet. They are find together.

 

Well good luck with the feeding problems that will most likely occur with them. Keep in mind when that happens and you start looking for advice on the situation the first thing your gonna see is that you should keep the snakes seperated.

By the way Ryeshu, I suggest you fix your signature the next time you log on as I sent a private message to you on 2/15 to fix it and you have not yet done so. Thanks!!

 

Ok, so you didn't say they were young and you referred to them as mates which gives the impression they are of breeding size so you can tone down the attitude.
I still say separate them. You can still run into trouble housing them together and they will eventually (and more quickly than you think) get too big for that cage. You won't be able to house one adult in a 35 gallon comfortably.

 

Sometimes you wonder why you waste the time typing out the word of advice Huh, Rob?

Ryeshu....
How will you know when one of your two snakes might have a blockage?
How will you know which one of your snakes has parasites when you see something in the stool?
What happens when one of your snakes get an RI?
What happens when one of your snakes still has the smell of it's dinner on it and the other one latches on to it?
What happens when it turns out that you have a male and a female and they start attempting to breed to early and it stresses the females to the point that she slowly withers away and dies?

Snakes are solitary creatures, with the exception of a couple of species like garters and rattlers, they do not like to be housed together. What you are interpreting as snuggling and loving is probably not that, it's more likely competition for a warm spot or competition for a good hide.

 

Pretty much, stormy. I had actually typed a longer response initally but decided it probably wouldn't matter what I said so I deleted the majority of it. Not something I usually do.

I tell ya' what, if your reasons don't spark some second thoughts on the matter then I have to say I think someone probably shouldn't be keeping snakes or much of anything else, for that matter. Oh well, eventually at the cost of one or both of the snakes wellbeing the advice is sure sink in. It's just a real shame when it takes that route when it never should have in the first place.

 

If I have learned anything in this world it is this. You can give the best advice in the world, share all of your hard earned experience, show people the facts and reasons why, but people are going to do what they want to do regardless. You can lead a horse to water..... Yet when the day comes for "I told you so" I will not say "I told you so", but I will have no sympathy for them either.

All we can do is make sure the right info is being put out there, if not for the orignal poster then for anyone who might be reading the thread.

 

Well said.