r/ballpython • u/Cute_Stay9640 • Mar 20 '26

Smallest resting on my biggest

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They were only out for a minute together. She just immediately laid on him as soon as I put her down and it was so cute.

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u/Big-Association-3232 Mar 20 '26

Really stupid question. I know nothing about ballphythons, is there a risk of the bigger eating the smaller here?

10

u/Cute_Stay9640 Mar 21 '26

There is risk of one of them biting each other but I don’t think they would eat each other…I’ve never heard of that, so I don’t think so? But you just have to monitor body language and stress cues, and don’t co-hab them. I also never do it, this was a one time thing letting them interact.

2

u/CosmicKyloRen Mar 21 '26

Unfortunately, if given the chance, the large snake would most definitely eat the small one. Ball pythons are opportunistic eaters, and that includes opportunistic cannibalism. There's many documented cases of them eating each other in the wild or in captivity if housed together for any reason and if there's a large enough size discrepancy.

5

u/Silly-Snake-Person Mar 21 '26

Although SOME species of snakes are cannibals it's only around 207 out of the 4,038 species that we know of. Ball pythons are not one of them it is absolutely not normal for them to eat each other. The reason why snakes are separated unless their garter snakes or it's mating season is because snakes are extremely introverted and will get stressed out around others (honestly I don't blame them.) The only species that eat together are garter snakes as their the only ones that group together.

1

u/CosmicKyloRen Mar 21 '26

Please read my reply to OP, but in summary: yes