Can two corn's live together?

Caburgle66 · 21st December 2009, 10:13 AM

I have a two year old male corn snake. He is really chilled out, not aggressive in any way. I was thinking of buying a second male in the new year. However some have said that corn snakes are solitary animals and that they WILL attempt to eat eachother. So not really sure what to do at the moment.....

Tom · 21st December 2009, 10:30 AM

Welcome..

1st, i believe snakes should be kept apart, apart from breeding.
for a few reasons..

its not that your snake will go " ohhh a snake, dinner ", its when you feeda snake, the scent can be on the other reptile, or it could be they stike to feed at the same time etc etc..

another issue is its twice as hard to check, and monitor your snake, if there is a runny pooh, who did it?..
if one getsill, then there both ill... etc etc..

another problem comes from un-known sexed reptiles, "poss male" poss Female, not good, you should not keep any togeather, males do, and can duel for mating, and if by mistake a female, and male are housed togeather, he will be ready to breed before she is..
hence, to young to breed, poss egg bound, maybe pysiclay not ready, andcan lead to big problems, even death.

so to be honest, no, i dont like the idea, some will say " ive had no problems " true, they might not, but i would listen to the people who HAVE had issues, problem is, no-one has a problem till it happens, be it a week, month year..
then when it does happen, its horrible to hear, and also foryourself to deal with.

i cant see the point in risking it.
is it worth the risk?..

corns can be rubbed, 50litre are fine, get a heat matt, run it under both, its no more space than a 3x2x2..
Tom.

2Geks · 21st December 2009, 12:23 PM

this is from yahoo answers, they all have differnt reasons lol :)
Can i put 2 corn snakes together? - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers

JohnC · 22nd December 2009, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomAshby

Welcome..

1st, i believe snakes should be kept apart, apart from breeding.
for a few reasons..

its not that your snake will go " ohhh a snake, dinner ", its when you feeda snake, the scent can be on the other reptile, or it could be they stike to feed at the same time etc etc..

another issue is its twice as hard to check, and monitor your snake, if there is a runny pooh, who did it?..
if one getsill, then there both ill... etc etc..

another problem comes from un-known sexed reptiles, "poss male" poss Female, not good, you should not keep any togeather, males do, and can duel for mating, and if by mistake a female, and male are housed togeather, he will be ready to breed before she is..
hence, to young to breed, poss egg bound, maybe pysiclay not ready, andcan lead to big problems, even death.

so to be honest, no, i dont like the idea, some will say " ive had no problems " true, they might not, but i would listen to the people who HAVE had issues, problem is, no-one has a problem till it happens, be it a week, month year..
then when it does happen, its horrible to hear, and also foryourself to deal with.

i cant see the point in risking it.
is it worth the risk?..

corns can be rubbed, 50litre are fine, get a heat matt, run it under both, its no more space than a 3x2x2..
Tom.

I agree with Tom, nicely put.

Tom · 22nd December 2009, 09:55 AM

good link 2geks..

thanks john..

Rob · 22nd December 2009, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomAshby

Welcome..

1st, i believe snakes should be kept apart, apart from breeding.
for a few reasons..

its not that your snake will go " ohhh a snake, dinner ", its when you feeda snake, the scent can be on the other reptile, or it could be they stike to feed at the same time etc etc..

As long as you feed seperate and keep them seperate for about an hour this will not be an issue.

Quote:

another issue is its twice as hard to check, and monitor your snake, if there is a runny pooh, who did it?..
if one getsill, then there both ill... etc etc..

If you see an unusual poo and one of the snakes are ill, it's quite simple, seperate them. I would always monitor any snake even those living alone for a while before considering a vet visit just in case it's a one off poo. Keep them seperate until they have both poo'd then you can tell which one has the problem. A runny/unusual poo isnt the only way of spotting signs of being ill, change in feeding and charactor is the biggest signs. It's not always the case that if one gets ill they both are, if it's an airbourne illness, then seperated reps will get it anyway, if its a contagous illness then they will get cross contamination in the early stages unless you keep them in lab conditions.

Quote:

another problem comes from un-known sexed reptiles, "poss male" poss Female, not good, you should not keep any togeather, males do, and can duel for mating, and if by mistake a female, and male are housed togeather, he will be ready to breed before she is..
hence, to young to breed, poss egg bound, maybe pysiclay not ready, andcan lead to big problems, even death.

Again, corns are easy to sex, young can be popped and grown ons can be probed. 2 males will only duel in the presence of a female, without her, there is nothing to fight over. Caburgle66 has a 2 year old male and is looking for another male, finding another 2 year old male will be a very easy task, there should be no mistake.

Quote:

so to be honest, no, i dont like the idea, some will say " ive had no problems " true, they might not, but i would listen to the people who HAVE had issues, problem is, no-one has a problem till it happens, be it a week, month year..
then when it does happen, its horrible to hear, and also foryourself to deal with.

The ONLY issue to happen that is horrible and unforgiving in the above is if the snakes are to attack each other, but as I said, as long as they are fed seperate, this will not happen. Corn snakes are not canabalistic and the only reason young corns have been known for it is because they are often fed together.

Quote:

i cant see the point in risking it.
is it worth the risk?..

corns can be rubbed, 50litre are fine, get a heat matt, run it under both, its no more space than a 3x2x2..
Tom.

This is fine for reptile rooms but what about people that want a display in their living room?

How often do you hear of the above problems? not much, and when you do, it's always because people haven't used common sence. Which is all I have described above, nothing that takes a rocket scientist to work out, just good old common sence.

Caburgle66, what you got to remember is that their isnt just 1 way of keeping reptiles, there are many ways, some more than others.

What Tom has explained works very well, as does my way. I keep 2 pairs of adult corns together, mine are housed in 48x18x18 vivs and there is ample room for them to go their seperate ways should they wish, although more often than not, they are sitting together. I use the methods that I have explained and as far as I can see, I have eliminated any risks.

So in short, I say you can keep corns together.

Hope this has been helpful to you.

Rob.

Caburgle66 · 30th December 2009, 08:22 PM

Thank you to everyone for your comments. It has now left more confused than ever. Obviously my biggest concern is that two corn snakes will fight eachother. As long as I do not feed them together they should be ok, but i am not sure that i want to take that risk...

Rob · 30th December 2009, 08:43 PM

2 corns will not fight just for the sake of it mate no.

JT · 30th December 2009, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomAshby

Welcome..

1st, i believe snakes should be kept apart, apart from breeding.
for a few reasons..

its not that your snake will go " ohhh a snake, dinner ", its when you feeda snake, the scent can be on the other reptile, or it could be they stike to feed at the same time etc etc..

As long as you feed seperate and keep them seperate for about an hour this will not be an issue.

Quote:

another issue is its twice as hard to check, and monitor your snake, if there is a runny pooh, who did it?..
if one getsill, then there both ill... etc etc..

If you see an unusual poo and one of the snakes are ill, it's quite simple, seperate them. I would always monitor any snake even those living alone for a while before considering a vet visit just in case it's a one off poo. Keep them seperate until they have both poo'd then you can tell which one has the problem. A runny/unusual poo isnt the only way of spotting signs of being ill, change in feeding and charactor is the biggest signs. It's not always the case that if one gets ill they both are, if it's an airbourne illness, then seperated reps will get it anyway, if its a contagous illness then they will get cross contamination in the early stages unless you keep them in lab conditions.

Quote:

another problem comes from un-known sexed reptiles, "poss male" poss Female, not good, you should not keep any togeather, males do, and can duel for mating, and if by mistake a female, and male are housed togeather, he will be ready to breed before she is..
hence, to young to breed, poss egg bound, maybe pysiclay not ready, andcan lead to big problems, even death.

Again, corns are easy to sex, young can be popped and grown ons can be probed. 2 males will only duel in the presence of a female, without her, there is nothing to fight over. Caburgle66 has a 2 year old male and is looking for another male, finding another 2 year old male will be a very easy task, there should be no mistake.

Quote:

so to be honest, no, i dont like the idea, some will say " ive had no problems " true, they might not, but i would listen to the people who HAVE had issues, problem is, no-one has a problem till it happens, be it a week, month year..
then when it does happen, its horrible to hear, and also foryourself to deal with.

The ONLY issue to happen that is horrible and unforgiving in the above is if the snakes are to attack each other, but as I said, as long as they are fed seperate, this will not happen. Corn snakes are not canabalistic and the only reason young corns have been known for it is because they are often fed together.

Quote:

i cant see the point in risking it.
is it worth the risk?..

corns can be rubbed, 50litre are fine, get a heat matt, run it under both, its no more space than a 3x2x2..
Tom.

This is fine for reptile rooms but what about people that want a display in their living room?

How often do you hear of the above problems? not much, and when you do, it's always because people haven't used common sence. Which is all I have described above, nothing that takes a rocket scientist to work out, just good old common sence.

Caburgle66, what you got to remember is that their isnt just 1 way of keeping reptiles, there are many ways, some more than others.

What Tom has explained works very well, as does my way. I keep 2 pairs of adult corns together, mine are housed in 48x18x18 vivs and there is ample room for them to go their seperate ways should they wish, although more often than not, they are sitting together. I use the methods that I have explained and as far as I can see, I have eliminated any risks.

So in short, I say you can keep corns together.

Hope this has been helpful to you.

Rob.

Erm what can i add, nothing This post ^ explains everything! This comes up soo often, sticky?

Tom · 30th December 2009, 11:26 PM

sure..