Ball and Carpet python cage question

[Bigbirdbird]

Hi guys, I've been taking care of a baby JCP for a couple of months now and a friend of mine recently offered to give me one of his BP. Both pythons are more or less juvenile now though my JCP is still quite snappy. I was wondering if I could place them together in the same cage? The owner of the place where I got mine from told me it shouldn't be a problem but during my next visit, an employee there told me it isn't a good idea. Will they attack each other? I really dont wanna go thru the trouble of setting up another escape-proof cage and it will be really nice if they can be placed together. Sorry if this is a dumb question, i tried searching for past threads but couldnt find any. Hopefully i will find out before he changes his mind. Thanks in advance

[starwarsdad]

While it may be better for you to keep them together, the health and well-being of the animals would be better served by separating them.

[Karen Hulvey]

It's never a good idea to house two different species of animal in the same enclosure. Close quarters can stress them out and they may stop feeding which would be a bad thing. It's even risky to house two or more of the SAME species of animals in the same cage. In the wild these animals have a chance to get away from each other. They aren't stuck in a defined space where they can't get away from an aggresive animal if they need to.

Different species of animals also have different requirements. The JCP would require a more arboreal cage than a ball, etc., etc.

You don't have to go all out on caging to get an esacpe proof cage. I get my cages at Wal-Mart. Rubbermaid and Sterilite are your friends. :) They come in a myriad of sizes, are easy to clean, and they stack. I get the ones that have latches. I have not had a single escapee from these. Most of my snakes are in these "cheap" cages. I'm in the process of building nice cages and a snake room because most of my snakes are babies and are going to outgrow their temporary cages soon. If you want expensive display cages, you can always save up and splurge on them later.

[hhmoore]

I personally would recommend against it, despite the fact that is would be more convenient for you (bottom line here is if you are not prepared to house the new snake appropriately, you shouldn't take it. *note - appropriately does not necessarily mean expensively, as Karen pointed out.). Ball pythons are very different from carpets. They come from a different part of the world, they have different "needs", they respond differently to stimuli, they may harbor different parasites/bacteria (what may be normal flora in one species could easily overwhelm another). both can be rewarding captives, depending on what you are looking for. I would also be curious about why your friend is giving away his snake - it might benefit you to inquire, if you haven't already...no sense in acquiring someone else's headache unless you know what you are getting into AND how to deal with it.

[Bigbirdbird]

Hey guys,
Well he was gonna move away and he has a huge collection of different snakes. He knows I love them and decided to just give me the only one he's willing to. Plus it's quite difficult to wait around for someone to buy it in a little town. He told me it was feeding fine. I guess I can get a rubbermaid, though it seems a little unfair for the Ball :p plus the space seems a little constricted. Oh well... I guess that's better than them trying to kill each other. Wouldnt it be nice if both of them can share a cage... The pet store I went to had about 4 JCPs in a cage and bout 5 BPs in another, how come?

[hhmoore]

It's not so much that they would actively try to kill each other, just that it is not in the best interest of the particular snakes you mentioned. for an explanation of why that is the case - see my previous post in this thread. And as for why the pet shop is housing multiple snakes together - because they want to maximize their potential profit...but even in your statement, you recognize that the carpets and balls are not housed together. Most of us prefer to house our animals separately because it's easier for feeding, easier to keep track of when is/isn't doing something (if you have 2 snakes in one cage, how do you know which one regurgitated that mouse, or had the runny stool), safer in the event of illness, etc; but housing 2 or more of the same species snake together is preferable to housing 2 totally different snakes (balls and carpets are not even of the same genus, and, as I said previously, they are from different continents).

[Karen Hulvey]

There are all different sizes of Rubbermaids. I use from 6.5 quarts up to 66 quarts and there are several tubs that are a lot larger than those to choose from so there is no reason for the ball to be crowded at all.

Harald is right, pet stores do keep several animals together so they can have more to sell. We even do it where I work but it is species specific (i.e. balls with balls, etc.) and the kings & milks are all kept individually. The owner of the store has several hundred breeder snakes and EVERY single one is housed separately. They are only placed together for breeding purposes. All of my snakes are housed separately too and I have around 70 of them.