Help with Womas?

[Mitch91]

I have 2 beautiful adolescent woma pythons (17 months) that have always been well mannered, but the female just attacked the male completely randomly and i had to pull them apart, he is ok but i have separated them. I keep them in the same tank. The female can be snappy around feeding as most womas can be but is otherwise very tame and the male is always calm and sweet.
The enclosure is 1.2mx0.6mx0.8m and cleaned weekly
So far they have coexisted very happily and often sleep in the same hidey hole even though i provided 2 large ones.
I feed them weekly with a fuzzy rat and i think iv taken good care of them. I follow the advice i researched before getting them so why would she attack? is it an isolated incident or have i made a mistake with feeding or keeping? I am new at keeping snakes and these are my first, I was hoping somebody with more experience could shed light on it as i love my snakes and want to do the right thing by them, even if it means separating and a new tank, though i would prefer not to.

Thanks

 

[Franco]

One fuzzy rat per week sounds like a very small meal for a 17 month old woma. They may be quite hungry. Splitting them up would probably be a good idea.

 

[andynic07]

Why do you keep them in the same enclosure? Generally they will get no benefit from doing this and you have a lot to lose if one of your snakes kills the other.

 

[reptalica]

Personally I reckon u have been lucky that they have lasted this long without incident.

The only time I would be pairing them would be in preparation for mating/breeding if that's the path u choose to take.

IMHO this could be the calm before the storm.

 

[RedFox]

Womas are reptile eaters and as such can be cannibalistic. Also my woma who was born last November is on fuzzy rats. This is too small for a 17month old. I would suggest separating them and then buying some 1g increment kitchen scales. Weight each of your womas. They should be eating 15-20% of their body weight, each feed. Then you can buy the appropriate sized rats.

You can pick up scales really cheap from woolies, coles, kitchen shops, etc. I bought my scales from Harris scarfe on special for $5. I could not do without them.

 

[Mitch91]

Thanks guys yeah i realize i made a mistake now. Feel a bit stupid but i have already ordered a new large tank for the other snake so she'll only have an overnight stay in her box. I got some bad advice that they could be together if they were well fed (which i obviously erred at aswell).
Thanks for the advice about the scales too, ill get some tomorrow

 

[thomasssss]

and want to do the right thing by them, even if it means separating and a new tank, though i would prefer not to.

Thanks

just do that , it is in no way in the animals best intrests to be kept together except for breeding

Also jump on the Southern cross reptiles site and look at the care sheet / article on womas , called " womas the champagne of snakes" read it in full and it should be a good starting point for you to become a better keeper , as what your doing now is risky and unesecary

You seem like your willing to listen so all the best

 

[andynic07]

That article is really good thomasssss. Also Mitch91 don"t feel bad about making a mistake but hopefully you have learnt that you should ask a few people advice and see if all the data is similar before you make decisions like that. This forum is full of really smart people with good advice that are willing to help, some may come across a bit condescending but they mean well.

 

[leamos]

my 18mth old woma can tackle 120g+ rats, fuzzies just ain't enough. Good to hear you've got a second enclosure sorted

 

[Mitch91]

Clearly the best thing i did do was join a forum haha. And the care sheet is awesome thomasssss!

moved them up to bigger rats. The female managed after a while but the male couldnt quite get it so i gave him the rest of the smaller rats which was about equal weight

 

[RedFox]

Glad we could help. I'm sure your boy will eventually get it. I very much agree with Diane, womas really are the champagne of snakes.

 

[sara_sabian]

Just wanted to echo what everyone else has said about not keeping womas together, of all the pythons to try to keep in the same enclosures, womas are probably the riskiest. I did want to raise another possibility, is there a chance that you have two males rather than a pair? The sudden violence sounds a bit like male combat, although if they are 18 months old and feeding on fuzzy rats I doubt they are near sexual maturity yet but it's something to consider. Did you see the attack from start to finish? did it just resemble the normal strike and strangle of a feeding response or was it a bit different? (I feel like a cop now, can you describe the assailant? lol) Either way, glad to hear you'll be keeping them separately from now on

Given their history now, if you're wanting to breed them in the future I would have them re-probed to be certain. Breeders can make mistakes and male combat can be fatal, it's worth checking.

 

[Mitch91]

If I want to breed ill get them re-probed, but the breeder I got them from was very experienced (wish I'd gotten more advice from him). And the male was leaning toward the glass when he recognized me in the room and the female (presumably lol) hit him from the side and went to wrap. Only lasted 10 seconds because I pulled them apart. New tank is now fully set up, I felt a bit guilty so I splashed a few hundred dollars on more environment things for them to do lol

 

[buck]

Sounds like a typical food response from a woma. They really do lose the plot when they think food is on offer. I recently had a male bite himself on the neck and spent 5 minutes trying to coil himself thinking he had the rat. Very funny to watch but was a very good indicator of how they react when they think they are being fed.

 

[reptalica]

This forum is a care sheet all rolled into one.

 

[Wiganov]

This is a good example of how a thread like this should play out. Top work, Team APS. Woma lovers of the world unite!

 

[reptalica]

Glad we could help. I'm sure your boy will eventually get it. I very much agree with Diane, womas really are the champagne of snakes.

Agreed. We are a very impartial lot us Woma owners. 8)