| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Katie.Dublin |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 22:11:13
Hey, never posted on this before..
I have two corn snakes, a male and female. Female is nearly 2 and the male is over one and a half years old so not much difference between them.
They've been living together for over a year with no problems what so ever. I feed them in seperate tanks but apart from that they are together 24/7.
I never see any aggression between them and they are always sleeping in the same hide, often wrapped around eachother. So im wondering why the general consensis is not to house them together?
Maybe i will have problems when they reach sexual maturity?
What do people think?
(people who know what they are on about, not just do-gooders copying and pasting off wikipedia please..!)
Katie |
| 14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| eeji |
Posted - 24/07/2010 : 14:43:54
as well as the breeding part of cohabbing which has been covered already, the other risk is of passing infection. If one snake gets one, they will both get it. Also, if one snake gets ill its very difficult to tell which it is, eg. if you get 'wierd poos' you won't know who's it os so efeectively doubling any vet bills because both will need to be seen. |
| mikerichards |
Posted - 24/07/2010 : 11:28:50
I wouldnt worry too much about the size, even an adult corn would only need a 3ft, nothing more. Infact, the smaller the viv the more content they are likely to be!
Glad you are separating them, prevention is better than cure! |
| Katie.Dublin |
Posted - 24/07/2010 : 09:40:31
Oh and they were never sexed when I got them. I popped them as hatchlings. Yes I know the dangers but I did it properly! |
| Katie.Dublin |
Posted - 24/07/2010 : 09:38:58
Thanks for the advice people.. I think I'll sort out that other viv...
Now I'll just have to decide who gets the raw deal and has to live in the slightly smaller one instead of the giant one they have now! |
| Sta~ple |
Posted - 24/07/2010 : 09:18:01
Sorry if this is long or weirdly written.
I housed a 2 years male and a 1 year female together. No internet for me those days so I didn't know if it was wrong or not, books in library and pets shops were lame and gave different informations about many topics. Pet shop said they would be fine together and that they would not breed because you need to hibernate them and that snake breeding is very hard and that there is no chance of accidental breeding. They were fine for a while, 2 years or so later I noticed a change in attitudes, the female became very hard to feed, the male was always sat ontop of her and the male seemed to follow her everywhere, they weren't doing anything though at that point. The next year I found some eggs in my viv, chucked them away as they looked pretty nasty.
Nothing more for a few years apart from the male dominating her and her being very shy and never wanting to come out and having bad times at feeding. It's not until I came on here and incubated some eggs that I realised what was wrong so separated them, the male was fine but the female was stressed and underweight slightly and was not a good weight to lay eggs in the first place, all I can say is I am so glad and so darn lucky that she didn't become egg bound.
She has gained weight, she comes out a bit more now. The feeding problems and breeding too early or at not the right weight has probably had some effect on her small size.
If you know the sex of the snakes and have a spare viv why don't you use that spare viv? Surly there is a way you can stack them ontop of each other so they take up not so much space? |
| KITTYCAT |
Posted - 24/07/2010 : 07:49:18
I housed my supposely 2 females together from hatchlings, they used to curl up together i thought they were happy.Then to my surprise when they were only 1n half yr old one layed eggs. I seperated them, turned out the male was dominating the female ,i thought she was just a fussy eater but once seperated she came on in leaps n bounds a much happier snake. Hope you are aware that your female is too young to breed and keeping them together there is a high risk of that happening which could kill her. The rule is 3yrs - 300grams. I would seperate them just now, also had they been sexed b4 u got them.
P.S Hi n Welcome to the forum |
| mikerichards |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 23:37:24
Ok, I will be honest, and blunt, so I will apologse if I sound rude, I don't mean to be.
By keeping the two snakes together you are potentially risking her life, at the very least her well being. So by waiting, you are purposefully putting her in a stressful position. That is irresponsible, its also a little silly, because, no matter what signs you may look for, there may be none, just eggs or a dead snake.
Is that risk you are seriously willing to take? |
| Katie.Dublin |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 23:20:06
Wow its my first post on this site but im learning, and appreciating the answers..
Despite how ignorent i could sound here, i really wanna avoid splitting them up! I have another Viv in the attic that i could set up but i had it in my head that i would wait until i saw some signs of friction or agression between them before taking action! For the past year and a half they have just been living together perfectly. Also, the male is 6 months younger than the female. Does that make a difference?
I dont want to sound like a retard here by the way! Just making use of the forum and peoples different experiences. |
| mikerichards |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 23:10:27
They don't need to be hibernated to breed, and the female doesn't have to be a certain size, all that is needed is a horny male, they don't care if the female is of size, a healthy weight, or even willing, they just pester until she gives in, quite simply, males are rapists, they don't bother with courtship, they just go for it, and pressure her into submission.
That's the reason why its a bad idea.
Through the many years, it has been acertained that ideally the female should be at least 300g and 3ft, the age of 3 years is preferable too, but not essential
I have seen females die because they have been bred too young, mostly through ignorance to be fair, although people do take the risk in the race for the new morph.
The real question is, knowing that she is too young, and most likely too small, are you willing to take risk with her life??
I will add also, its not just her life you are risking, its her general well being, a female that is hounded by the male can get so stressed that she goes off her food, that she could hurt herself trying to escape his advances, and quite possibly kill her.
The above reasons are why I and many others regard co habitting opposite sex animals which are too small to breed, irresponsible.
Think of the male as a paedophile (extreme I know), would you leave him in a locked room with a young child, knowing what he is capable of??
Food for thought. |
| hillzi |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 23:03:02
quote:
Originally posted by Katie.Dublin
thanks hillzi
No problem, sorry I'm not quite with it tonight so I'll draw up my opinions and suggestions tomorrow.
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| Katie.Dublin |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 22:50:41
mikerichards, firstly thank you for the reply.
I read up briefly on corn snake breeding.. about hibernating them and such. However i have no intentions of doing this. Both my snakes are over 18 months old and so according to you have reached sexual maturity. Seeing as how they live together full time, do you think they would ever breed 'naturally' or without my intervention? I have never seen any courtship behaivours or anything like that between them.. |
| mikerichards |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 22:43:38
Basically, the reasons are these, as babies they can have canabilistic tendencies, so they may eat each other, in some cases they even eat themselves.
As for adults, same sex as far I am concerned is not so bad, however, housing opposite sex animals is irresponsible, the reason being is that corns become sexually mature at approx 18mnths, whilst this is fine for the male, it can have dire consequences for the female.
However, judging by your post, you already been told this, and don't think you need to worry.
You can judge me as a do gooder if you please, and to be fair, you would be right, I do good by the animals, and I respect the reasons, you would be wise to do the same. |
| Katie.Dublin |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 22:21:52
thanks hillzi |
| hillzi |
Posted - 23/07/2010 : 22:18:01
Hey there welcome, heres a worthwhile read http://www.thecornsnake.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1070
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