Python & Boa Room Mates???

Need a little help here from the more experienced keepers...

I have a 7' Albino Burm that I picked up recently from a customer. I'm currently keeping him in a cage that's a little too small for him until I can either build a bigger one or find someone to buy him. I'm VERY limited on space.
One of the guys who works for me is leaving for basic training and asked me to keep his 6.5' Red tail for the next 5 months. The boa came with a very large wooden cage that is plenty big enough for both of these large snakes. Building a new cage for the python will take time and money. I hate to see him in a cage that's too small. Rooming them together temporarily would be an ideal solution for me and the python.

So, the all important question is... Can I keep both of these snakes in the same cage?
Does anyone have any previous experience with keeping separate species together? Will they room together well or try to kill each other? Will the slightly bigger, and more aggresive, python try to eat the boa?

Any intelligent advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dennis

I wouldnt.
Seperate species can be affected by things that would pass right through the other.
It is risky. They are not closely enough related to even think of keeping together.
If they are both 100% healthy, they probably could, but I do not recommend it at all. Just not a real safe thing to do.
They wont attack eachother or anything, but like I said, they are different species. Just not a safe, and "by the books" kind of thing.

This may be a good reason not to...











I found them in this thread

It just doesn't make sense to house diff species if you ask me...

Thanks. I need to go puke now.......

In all seriousness tho, some people don't learn unless its the hard way. Alot of people out there think a snake is a snake therefore any can be housed together. Hopefully things like this will open thier eyes a bit to the grim possibilities. Good post, disturbing, but very informative.

I posted this in two separate threads to get input from both pyhton and boa keepers. Thanks for letting me know that the two may not get along. I don't usually keep big boids, so I wanted to know what was possible and what was not. The pics weren't really necessary, but I understand that some people need to see to believe. I am NOT one of those people who believe that all snakes are the same and they can all just be thrown together. Hence the question in this forum. I have kept the snakes separate and will continue to do so. I was asking because I didn't know and was hoping to save some space, money and time. Now that I know I'll have to spend the resources and make sure they're both safe throughout the winter, I'll build a separate enclosure for the python.

Thanks,
Dennis