Hatchling bonding

[hognoseenthusi09]

First, a brief summary, I picked up some het pied hatchlings today. A male and a female. Nothing seemed off at first.

Now I've noticed that they seem to be bonded together, don't like being apart. I'm not experienced in how snakes act but I thought ball Pythons were solitary animals. These are currently sharing a small hide curled together.

Can anyone explain this kind of behavior, what could cause it, and if there could be negative effects if I separated them?

[ElexisC]

They are not bonded. Do not house them together.

[Beyond GenetiX]

While I agree with Elexis' statement, the presentation was lacking a bit.

It is more likely that the two snakes prefer to occupy the same habitat or space. If you put two strangers in a cold room with one blanket (or one heat source), they would gravitate towards it. That does not necessarily mean they are bonded, it would probably cause some stress.

Disclaimer, I don't raise ball pythons.

[frostysBPs]

They are not bonded they are competing for the hotspot and a hide...they need to be separated.

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[bcr229]

There are no downsides to separating them. There are a lot of downsides to housing them together, including stress, anorexia, cannibalism, spread of disease or parasites, etc.

Why would you bring them home without having separate living spaces set up and running for them?

Anyway, since you have two, look around the Facebook reptile forums and Craiglist ads for northern Virginia and see if anyone has a used rack for sale. It will be cheaper than buying another tank, which is what I'm assuming they're in now.

[hognoseenthusi09]

I apologize for the lack of information.
To be clear there are multiple hides and heat sources in the tank. These hatchlings may be a couple months old at most. It just seemed odd that they would curl together in the first place even during transport to their new home. I just wanted to know if anyone had seen that kind of behavior

I also get housing together can/is bad and planned on separating them but wanted to make sure no one had experienced this behavior in baby snakes.

[Pasodama]

Be it baby snakes, adult snakes, Ball Pythons, other species, etc., this behavior is very common if/when snakes are housed together. However, as others have pointed out, it is not due to bonding.
Good to see that you plan on separating them.

[ElexisC]

They do that when they're stressed, competing for heat and the best hides. They really need separated. Snakes do not bond. They aren't built that way. Forcing them to stay together does more harm than it ever will good.