Just got an email back from Kathy love :-
I get asked that a lot, so have written up a couple of FAQs about my
experience with the subject. Hope it helps!
FAQ - Housing Together
*
Please DO NOT keep babies (or any newly obtained corns) together!
Although some people have done it successfully, many more have had a lot
of problems. If you have to keep some together, do it with the well
established corns that have been in your collection for a long time.
The babies are already under stress with new homes, travel, and just
generally growing up. Please don't add to the stress anymore than you
have to. Cannibalism is possible, although not likely. More likely
problems include: going off feed, regurge, passing disease, early
pregnancy, etc.
It is a much better idea to get a bunch of little plastic shoeboxes or
"critter keeper" type terrariums and stack them on top of, or next to,
each other. After you have had the snakes for AT LEAST 3 or 4 months
and have gotten to know them individually, you could try combining some
of the best feeding, best growing ones in groups of two per cage.(be
sure to separate while feeding, and for 1/2 hour afterwards) There will
always be differences in feeding habits, timidity, etc. Some animals
are more prone to stress than others. You won't know which ones at
first, but after a few months you will know. Be ready to separate them
at the first sign of one going off feed, regurging, behaving unusually,
etc. They may look happy all curled up together, but that doesn't mean
they aren't stressing out.
The reason I keep referring to babies is because that is what most
people buy from a breeder. But the same would be true of newly acquired
yearlings or adults - they would also be new and suffering from the
stress of travel and adjusting to a new home. Any new animals should be
quarantined and their habits observed for a 2 - 4 months anyway. I
would not suggest that you put two (or more) together unless they have
both been in your collection for at least a few months and are
approximately the same size.
If you follow these instructions, you will often be able to EVENTUALLY
keep 2 or 3 together once they are well acclimated. Just depends if you
get a shy one. The more you keep in one cage, the more likely
complications will occur (as mentioned above, going off feed, regurge,
passing disease, early pregnancy, etc.)
Please feel free to call if I can answer any other questions for you.
Good luck!
Kathy Love
*FAQ - Success when going against the "usual good advice"*
Although it is easier to be successful following the usual advice of
keeping them separately and feeding frozen/thawed rodents, there are
many who are successful doing the exact opposite. To those who are very
careful and doing everything right while going against the norms - you
can't argue with success! Even though it is more difficult to keep
track of things with two or more together (and often, but not always,
more stressful for the corns and can result in early pregnancy and other
problems), it doesn't mean it can't be done. There are added
precautions to be taken as well as added risks. It is not usually worth
the added effort or additional slight risk for most people, but that is
something that each person has to decide for themselves. The main
problem is that it is usually beginners with new babies who want to do
it - just asking for more problems than they might already have. I can
tell you that even though I consider myself pretty experienced in corns,
if I start working with a totally new species, I will follow the
generally accepted advice with that species while gaining experience.
Only when I feel I have some success with that species will I start to
tinker with the accepted "recipe for success" that has already been
established. On the other hand, nothing new would ever be learned if
some people didn't experiment, keep records, and report their success
and failures.
On the subject of risk, we do risky things every day and have to judge
the risk vs. the benefits. The most dangerous thing IMHO is probably
shipping them, although if done properly it is not very risky. In
carefully controlled circumstances, I feel that housing together and
feeding live rodents can be a lot less risky than shipping and other
risky things we do. But please do not construe this as an invitation
for beginners to throw all of their newly acquired corns together in a
bin with a bunch of live rats!
Some experienced keepers offering advice get into the "never" or
"always" do or don't this or that. But I go more for "usually"
something works better than another thing . But each circumstance is
different. Keepers who have a little experience and actually think about
the likely consequences of what they are doing (and how to deal with
them) can often successfully do things that beginners or "non-thinkers"
will do haphazardly and unsuccessfully. Listen to all good advice, and
then make your own informed decision based on your own circumstances
and judgment.
Good luck!
Kathy Love
This was my origigonal question :-
> HI Kathy
> What is your view on keeping corn snake's together (1 male and 1
> female) all year round?
> Just a curious question
) said no i aint paying for a new snake lol ones enuff and i was like dnt u no how sexy this snake is and she sed so ones enuuf