Introducing pythons

[javier]

How do you introduce pythons together? What is the best way to do it and what do you do if one decides one is a meal?

 

[pythonmum]

Why are you introducing them? If for mating, make sure they show signs of readiness (pacing cage, etc) before the introduction. Then put one in the other's enclosure. If there is an attack, grab both quickly and separate them. If big animals, you may want to have help standing by. No problem with a couple of Antaresia, but even then it is nice to have extra hands. If BHPs or big coastals latched onto each other, you might need more than 2 people!

 

[javier]

Well the female is cruising around unusually active and the male isn't that interested ATM... Iv read a couple of forums should I wait till he is active before introducing also iv heard introducing outside or in a open area is a good idea so if there is a scrap I can get them apart

 

[Snakelove]

I've also read that it's better to move the male into the female's cage. You'd want the female to be in a familiar environment.

 

[javier]

I think she is actualy hunting her actions are just like it when I offer her a rat... Don't thing I'm going to be offering her a snake for tea gonna have to leave it for a while
I fed them all 2 days ago*

 

[BigWillieStyles]

I would assume that you would introduce the odour of the snake first by placing one of the snakes into the enclosure when the other one is somewhere else. That way they can get the idea that there is another snake around.

 

[pythonmum]

If you are breeding, your don't introduce until they have been fasting for a while. I don't know why you are introducing otherwise, unless you hope to have a shared enclosure. If so, feeding becomes a big issue and should be done separately. For breeding, I just put the male in the female's enclosure and watched carefully for about 30 minutes until it was obvious what was going to happen. You can put female in male enclosure for breeding - whatever works best with the personality of your animals. Mine did meet during handling before breeding, but ignored each other then. Fasted and ready for love, the interaction was very different!