Always nice to see some open discussion about our animals and putting some common believes to the test. Ball pythons are kept for so long in captivity that a lott is already know but to me it’s never bad to keep an open mind because knowledge is not a static thing.
I’m in the middle in a lott of subjects about keeping ball pythons just out of own testing, which is not really long because I only keep them for about 2,5 years but at least enough to see something. I do see difference between them in personality which I can not only explain by instinct. Some love to climb, some crawl though their enclosure every evening, some only put their head out of their hide and never come out. Some do really well in vivariums, but some stop eating straight away and start behaving very nervous and do much better in tubs. I do keep decorated tubs and vivariums with hides, cork and fake plants. I have the idea they have a preference for the cork because out of 15, 14 use the cork every day. Most lie their head down on it every evening and most prefer it to the plastic or stone hide. The fake plants is for an established snake nothing special but for a new one some extra cover when they feel unsecured. But I do like it myself so I still put it inside their tubs and vivariums. This as an aswer on your first post.
I don’t co-habitate my snakes but when we take them out I regularly let them crawl together, mostly snakes of about the same age together so they do see each other regularly. At least each week. The attention they pay to each other is zero. They don’t avoid each other but also don’t seem to care one bit about each other. The reaction they have meeting each other is nothing more or less than meeting any other item around like a book, a toy or anything else. When I put them outside in the grass they at first don’t pay attention to each other but when they had enough they do crawl together in the same hiding space and really pile up. I don’t really see dominance, aggression our any other emotion. I get the idea it’s simply the nicest place to relax if your a snake. I don’t have any fear they will try to eat each other, although it might be a thing when one smells like rat and the other is hungry. Just a case of mistaken identity just like one snake a few weeks ago tried to eat my hand.
A friend keeps ball pythons together in tubs for about 15 to 20 years and he never had a case of snakes trying to eat each other or any form of aggression. He did keep other reptiles together with a lot more problems. I think many people might not agree to how he is doing it, and to be honest I also would never keep them the way he does. But he believes they like it because they do lie down together. To me it simply looks overcrowded and it’s because of lack of better space but the snakes don’t look to stressed either. He does seperate the adult males from the adult females but the juveniles he keeps mixed. Most eat and shed well although some do have eating problems. Feeding he does in a seperate tub. He did breed them but the female he wants to breed he keeps alone in a tub. His brother kept two adult females and a male boa together which didn’t end well for the male because he breed himself literally to death. To me that is really a terrible thing that should be avoided at all time.
My own conclusion based on the information I have till now is that for most it’s not really bad or stressful, when you have either juveniles of about the same size and age or snakes of the same gender without, in case of males with no females around. But adult males and females should not be housed together to protect both for overbreeding. So I don’t see it as terrible as some people in other forums try to make it, at least for some time when they are young. But that said, I will not house them together myself and just keep it to a meet up when they are out of the enclosure. To be honest, if someone asked me I wouldn’t promote it either. Just a case of “better safe than sorry”.
Lizard I really don’t promote keeping together, even leopard gecko’s. It goes well for some time till you see one getting really stressed and once you seperated them you see the difference. One leopard gecko even really visible get stressed when she sees her former mate, even when they are only together on the sofa…poor thing, and they are of the same age and were together since they where babies.