The counter to your argument is what can go wrong with cohabitation, why it is not a good idea and outlining the things that can potentially go wrong. There isn’t some conspiracy amongst the majority of cornsnake owners to discourage cohabitation to forward some hidden agenda. The people that discourage it typically do so because they truly feel that it is putting our (and your) snakes at an unnecessary risk. I’m not saying that there aren’t people out there who have kept two cornsnakes together without problems. However, the fact that you are increasing the chances of stress, disease transmission, and cannibalism outweigh the benefits of saving a bit of space or money from having one less viv. It’s funny that, in my experience, there is no evidence that corns are anything other than solitary and that most people’s impressions of snakes in general is that they are “creepy, crawly, disgusting” creatures, yet so many people think that they need a “cuddle buddy” or whatever cutesy name someone wants to give it.
Plenty of people have kept bears, tigers, other big cats, venomous reptiles, etc in captivity with no problems. But there are still enough instances of captive animal aggression for whole television shows to be made about “When good animals go bad” and those are just the ones that are actually caught on tape. Similarly, two corns can live together for years and one suddenly become aggressive.
HaisseM said:
I would think two corn snakes could live together on the basis that i've been doing it with no problems..
Okay, anecdotal evidence from one person. Does the fact that you have kept a pair of corns together without incidence (so far) completely negate all the stories of people who have had bad experiences with cohabitating them? There are two sides to every coin.
HaisseM said:
also you talk about selective breeding.. I'm talking about regular owners (You know what I mean)
HaisseM said:
Over time any animal would become tame (we've seen it with many wild animal) So the aggression towards one another can't be as high as you claim
You comments directly suggested that breeding cornsnakes as pets in some way should mean that they are more tolerable of cohabitation. My point is that this is only true IFF selective breeding was done specifically to produce cornsnakes that are in some way more tolerable of cohabitation, but that is not being done.
I will restate my original claim because it still holds true: Again, breeding corns as pets is not the same as breeding for cohabitation tolerant pets. The arguement that corns have been bred for pets would be, at best, marginally relevant if and only if the most docile cornsnakes were allowed to breed. I think most people would argue that the foremost criteria for selecting which corns are bred is coloration, pattern, etc. with temperment being one of the last criteria.
If you are breeding wild wolves in captivity (for example) then it is obviously in your best interest to choose the offspring that are the most docile. The same holds true for most other species that are captive bred. However, again, breeding stock for cornsnakes are not chosen based solely on their temperament. Breeders want to choose specimens that have the best coloration, patterns, etc and worry about temperament last. BESIDES, there is still no evidence that a snakes temperament is related to its tolerance of cohabitation with another snake.
HaisseM said:
If they are well feed i can't see that actually happening
That’s hardly a reason to avoid cohabitation. Obviously it HAS happened, so you’re and my understanding of how likely it is, is irrelevant because it does/has happened. Again, opportunistic feeders.
HaisseM said:
and many people have stated cannabilism is a rare
Sure it probably is rare, and I would submit that the people who defend cannibalism among corns as being rare are generally those who are defending cohabitation practices…but that is neither here nor there. But how many cases does it take before it becomes a problem. If I had just one snake eat another, that would be one too many. Why would I even cohabitate them and give them that opportunity in the first place? There’s no need to worry too much about the “cannibalism is rare” argument. If cannibalism were the only reason that cohabitation is discouraged then I might take it into account a bit more, but it’s not, so I don’t. And the “cannibalism is rare” argument could just be a lack of evidence. How many people who witness cannibalism amongst there corns are willing to out themselves publicly and face a group of people who will tell them they shouldn’t have cohabitated in the first place? My guess is that it might be more common than thought both in the wild and in captive snakes. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
