Python and parrots?

[AnimalAffinity]

For Easter I want to get a ball python but I am a little concerned as it would live in the same room as my parrots. Would the snakes presence stress them out. Would it frustrate the snake. I plan to have it out a lot but not when my parrots are loose?

[Pajarita]

Pythons eat little birds so I would not house it in the same room (predators and prey don't go together) and I would make super duper sure his enclosure has a good lock in it or you will end up with a well-fed python and no bird.

[AnimalAffinity]

My family isn't a huge fan of snakes so it would have to be kept in my room. I know how to cage a snake properly(a lot harder than you'd think they are like houdini) lol

[liz]

This is not a good idea. Both will be stressed. Your bird will be too near a preditor and your snake will be too near food it cannot have.

If you must go against our warnings then you have to remember to wash your hands after touching the snake and before touching your bird. The bird will be scared and you may pass mites from the snake to the bird. (My son, KoldThumb, has ball pythons and yes they can get mites that are really hard to get rid of.) If you handle the bird first that passive little ball python is going to bite you.

Think about this for a good while. You can't do your best with your bird if you have a snake.

[Wolf]

Most definitely not your best idea! I have had snakes before, but I would not do what you are planning to do.

[Saber]

I've owned both and would not recommend it either. I love both types of pets (and have owned them in the past) but it's not the best mix out there. While at first it might go ok ...they are both extremely long lived critters - that in itself should dissuade you. However, you might consider who will care for them when you cannot? For example, if you need to travel somewhere, if an emergency comes up...all sorts of issues that, while you might take every precaution (we all like to think we do), there will be situations you won't have control of and that would put their well being at risk.

While my situation owning both was temporary, as I was rehabilitating the python for a local sanctuary here, it made me very much on edge and I didn't even have them in the same room. Just knowing they were in the same house together was tempting fate, as the saying goes.

[Navre]

I used to have a lot of snakes.

Snakes might refuse to eat if they sense a bird in the area. Snakes eat birds, but birds eat snakes, too. A small snake won't eat if it thinks a predator is present. If might even kill and eat the prey, and regurgitate.

I think you're risking having a hard time with either animal, or both. My grey, who was hand reared and had never seen a snake used to scream her head off if she saw a rope, or a belt or anything else on the floor that could remotely look snake like.

[Pajarita]

Yes, Navre, you are absolutely right and reminded me of something I had forgotten! Years and years ago, I took in this mean, mean, mean male ekkie and, although he would not attack me when I first started using whatever prop to dissuade him from coming after me (long skirts, towels hanging from my waist, towels draped around my neck, a broom tied to my waist, etc), he was so smart that he figured things out and would start again in earnest once he realized it was just a prop BUT I finally found one thing that no matter how much time passed and how often I used he always feared: it was one of those very light looooong tubes made out of foam for children to use as a floater or to bonk each other over the head with! All I had to do was to grab it in my hand and he would stop dead in his tracks. And I always knew it was because it resembled a large snake.

[marie83]

No I wouldn't keep snakes and parrots in the same room as it would be stressful for both species but then I wouldn't have a cat or dog in the same room either. I would keep snakes in the same house though but the enclosures would be double secured and room kept secured too.

[martins99]

I wouldn't recommend it either. Try keeping them even if you must, put them in sperate rooms and you might need to get your pet thebest UVB light: https://ecopetlife.com/best-light-for-ball-python/. A helpful resource I found online.

Cheers,