Housing Boas and Pythons together?

[Tagged]

Hi all.

I have a Dumeril Boa male about 80cm long and I'm getting a Jungle Carpet Python male also about 80cm

To cut a long story short I might have to house them together for about 10 days, is this ok or am I looking for trouble ?

Thanks.

[Mr Venom]

Hay Tagged

From what I have heard it is not a good idea to keep Boas and Pythons together.

The reason being that Boas (not all) sometimes carry a type of 'snake aids' that affects the way the brain works, and Boas that carry the virus can only transmit it to Pythons. I forgot what the scientific name for the virus is. But if this is true and your boa does carry the virus and gets onto your Python then its brain will not work properly and will eventually shut down.

Not all Boas carry the virus, but what I have heard is it cannot be transmitted to any other snake except a Python. Don't know the reason why.

I have heard of this from a close friend who lost a Tiger Retic female to the virus cause his Boa was in the same cage, a few months later happened to his Burmese python cause his Boa was also kept in the same cage.

Just to be on the safe side I would suggest housing them separately for the 10 days.

I'm not too sure if the virus is like that but maybe one of the other members have heard of it?

Hope it helps a bit

Kind regards

Mr Venom

[BRAD15]

I have kept a male burm and female boa together(both were around 80cm at the time) boa did not seem happy and tagged my burm twice, I would not recommend it because of my experience and mainly because of what mr. Venom has said about the diseases etc. And if I'm not mistaken this "snake aids" (IBD) will effect ur python faster then ur boa so I wouldn't take a chance unless u are 100% sure neither your boa nor python has this disease

[Mr Venom]

All in a nutshell BRAD15, yes (IBD) is what I was talking about , thanks for the reminder.

[Tagged]

Hey guys thanks for the replys.

Obviously I have no idea if they have IBD or not so I won't house them together

Glad I asked you guys might of saved my pythons life

Second of option: can I house an 80cm male Carpet python with a 1.5 male Carpet python ??
As I said just for a couple of days till I get a new inclosure ?

Thanks !

[Jamster]

Putting the two carpets together is a better idea. In my opinion IBD is the least of your problems because dumerils boas are cannabalistic. And yours might want to have a go at your carpet.

[Hoss]

Hey guys thanks for the replys.

Obviously I have no idea if they have IBD or not so I won't house them together

Glad I asked you guys might of saved my pythons life

Second of option: can I house an 80cm male Carpet python with a 1.5 male Carpet python ??
As I said just for a couple of days till I get a new inclosure ?

Thanks !

Not a great idea either. I have learnt just this week that two carpets together can end badly. I was very lucky that there was no damage but my two had a serious go at each (attempting to constrict each other) just because I brought rats into the room to feed my ball pythons. When I started feeding the BP's my carpets went nuts at each other, it was one hell of a mission to pull them apart. My female carpet does have an insane feeding response, grabing rats from you before you've even got it in the enclosure, so that may have something to do with it but still, I would advise anyone against keeping them together.

Mine were also together because I'm busy with the new enclosure, so even short term is a bad idea. Rather just go buy a tub and stick the smaller snake in there for a couple days till your enclosure is done

[bubblesharp]

Generally putting 2s snakes together is a bad idea. If your cage is not ready yet, rather ask the person you are getting it from to hold on to it until the cage is ready. If this is not possible, rather get a big tub and keep it in there for the 10 days.
When I started out I used to keep my rat snakes together and my corn snakes together. They were still young so I got away with it, now a couple of years later all of my snakes are kept separately it did cost a bit to get ask the big cages etc, but well worth it. I occasionally keep babies from the same batch together, but also just temporally.