Housing Boas Together?

hi im just looking for some opinions on housing boas together. are they social animals in the wild? right now i have my bigger one in a 4by2 and the smaller in a 20 gallon. they are male and female. when they are adults if i have a big enough cage can i house them together? i would wait till the female is up to breeding size because i dont want her to get pregnant at a young age and become sickly from losing so much weight. i have a 5by3, is that big enough?or should i go bigger? what about housing 2 females together? or 2 males? sorry for so many questions in one post haha, thanks

as a general rule of thumb any one on here will tell you its not a good idea to house them together, they are not social unless breeding in the wild and there is a chance of them killing each other, however i personally have some of my ball pythons together in a giant enclosure and they seem fine with each other, as far as cage size goes a foot print of a minimum cage for one boa should be no less than 5x2, so with that said i would say double the snake, double the cage, if you put them together make sure they have full bellies and give it at least 24 hours after a meal so they dont stress and vomit

Any time you house animals together you run the risk of injury or even death.. Some very experienced keepers have managed to do it successfully, but in much larger enclosures! And you are going to want a big cage anyway for your female boa, they get to be larger than the males..Now I heard the rule of thumb for boas is a minimum of 6x2x2, though I'm building my girl an 8x2x2 so she can have some room to stretch out in case she gets to be a big girl!


I think it would cause you much less of a headache if you were to house them separately--that way if one gets sick you don't risk them both getting sick, or if you come home to find a rat regurgitated you know who did it!

If you like the 'look' of two snakes together, why not build a 'condo' style cage, where it's two separate cages right next to each other.. They both can be displayed together without having the stress of actually living together! That gives you other decorating options as well!

But I think it would be easier, safer, and cheaper to house them separately

And don't be sorry for questions! It's better to do research and ask questions instead of going out and doing it first if you don't know!

Originally Posted by warneri

hi im just looking for some opinions on housing boas together. are they social animals in the wild? right now i have my bigger one in a 4by2 and the smaller in a 20 gallon. they are male and female. when they are adults if i have a big enough cage can i house them together? i would wait till the female is up to breeding size because i dont want her to get pregnant at a young age and become sickly from losing so much weight. i have a 5by3, is that big enough?or should i go bigger? what about housing 2 females together? or 2 males? sorry for so many questions in one post haha, thanks

They are not social animals. People that keep these animals together permanently are either novice that should have read more articles about snakes before getting them or breeders that I would never consider buying snakes from.

I once some years ago was keeping boas together (juveniles) and one morning there was one with another one half way down its throat, dead. I will never know if the boa died, then was eaten by his friend, or if the boa was attacked, killed and eaten by his friend, but what came out of this experience was that I will never, ever keep them together again. Among the many other reasons that others have pointed out here, that is the main one for me.

As for Ball Pythons, well, my son has two in a very large tank that have always been together from babies, they are two males and they are now seven years old and all is well so far. If any snakes are to be kept together, I think the Ball Pythons are less likely to kill/eat each other than the boas, but there is NO guarantee.

Mating adults, yes, otherwise, no. Snakes are solitary creatures.

There are a number of problems with trying to house boas together:

They are voracious eaters - there is the very real possibility that one will eat the other if it is hungry.

If one gets sick (regurgitates, vomits, strange feces) you have now wya of knowing who did it.

If one gets mites, and RI, or other infectious disease, it will spread to both.

This will result in having to take 2 snakes to the exotic vet (rather than just one) and in the long run, that alone would probably cost more than buying or building a second cage. Exotics vets are not cheap.

Smothering is a real problem if your snakes are not close in size (keeping in mind females tend to be larger). If they have to compete for one basking spot, or both decide that one is their favorite.

You also risk the female (if you have a 1.1 pair) getting pregnant - and then you have the responsibility of finding homes and providing for all the babies. Every season. And these guys have some pretty big clutches. Over-breeding will deplete her, and shorten her lifespan.

Save yourself time, money, and headache. Just get 2 cages. You could make yourself a duplex as suggested.

alright, thanks everyone ill keep em separate, i dont think a 10 by four would fit in my house and i dont want anyone dieing

To save space, you might consider doing two cages on atop the other (stackable!) so you only have to use up enough floor space for one cage.