Researching Care and Ownership

[Moneypit]

I am a recent Corn Snake owner (two of them, an Amel and a Normal) and like most people newly into a hobby, have been doing as much reading as I can on the history and care of Corn Snakes.

So, this leads me to my post. I thought I did enough research to get started, I stopped at many local pet stores which inlcued two "mom and pops" and five chain stores. Based on the unanimous feedback from all of these palces, I purchased my two Corns from two different palces and then proceeded to set up my 20 gallon tank with a hot and cold side, hot and cold hide, water bowl and a combination of a store bought and home harvested branch (baked at 400 for 1 hour).

My new guys settled in for four days and then I fed them both and they both ate F/T without hesitation. In the meantime I joined several forums and started reading past and current posts.

This is when I learned it is best to keep these guys seperated. I even came across several posts here and elswhere being very critical of people not doing research and cohabitating snakes. This gave me pause, because I made this same mistake. However it wasn't because I didn't even do the basic research (as was pointed out elsewhere). I relied on the advice from seven pet stores, not one said "bad idea". All said no problem. PetSmart and Petco said Corns are community snakes and will be fine with several in the enclosure size I have...

Well, now my snakes are moving into a larger enclosure that I created a PVC divider for and of course had to reinvest in two new heat pads, lid etc. Construction on two new, large DIY enclosures is under way.

I am glad I found this forum, there are a lot of friendly and helpful people. and I appreciate all the advice I can get. Despite some of my early mistakes, the snakes are doing great, eating like champions and settling in.

 

[Senusenu]

Unfortunately not all pet shops have the best info. I work at Petsmart and always advise housing snakes singly, including corns, even tho our info says they're communal. The risks are too great for me to be comfortable keeping them together. It's too bad you had to spend so much more money because of the mistaken info they gave you I try to help folks save their money rather than buy a bunch of stuff they don't need. This forum has tons of good information for you. Good luck with your new snakes, corns are just awesome

 

[TheFrogman]

Unfortunately I did the same thing and went through the same issues. Sometimes the Internet can be your enemy, I have even found a vast difference of opinions from forum to forum, website to website and etc, etc, etc.....

I've read articles in magazines and books that disagree with what I've learned on forums and even here.

Ya just need to go with something or someone you trust, and hope the information is correct, with that said I trust the people here very much but, as my Chemo Oncologist says, when in doubt, always get a 2nd opinion

 

[Aquaph8]

I'm a fish nerd and just learning about snakes but I've learned people often have a hard time treating these smaller pets like they would a cat or dog. There's a lot of its just a "snake" mentality that goes around which lead people to feel its OK to house them together even though they know there's that chance of an issue. I find the less costly the pet is the worse this is true.

 

[Floof]

With the bulk of pet stores, cohabitation = bigger sale (get 2 snakes instead, they need company! Oh, and now you have to buy a bigger tank...).

There's also that dilemma with people thinking that reptiles MUST be like dogs/cats/rats/mice in that they NEED friends or they'll get lonely and die of depression. After all, we're hard-wired to think everything else on the planet needs the exact same things we do. Companionship included.

Then there's the people who will half-ass things to save money or space... Such as cohabitating their corn snakes... Then turn around and profess it to be a perfectly acceptable and even preferable practice. Two reasons for this sort of thing... One, because they just don't know any better yet and refuse to admit they may be wrong. Or two, they want to justify their own crap care by convincing the masses it's fine.

Most pet stores don't know diddly squat about reptiles. There are good ones out there, don't get me wrong... But they're very few and far between.

I am also very glad you found your way here, and that you had an open mind to the information here. One less keeper who has to learn that lesson the hard way.

 

[Aquaph8]

I was at a store that specializes in reptiles last weekend and the employee tried to tell me to keep two corns together. I'm glad I came here before I bought too. Infact all three stores I've been to in Tucson have had multiples together, babies and adults.

 

[TheFrogman]

Most Corporation stores keep multiples together, In fact my local PETCO has 3 Ball Pythons in a single 20 Gallon, so sad but my local Mom and Pop store which is where I do the bulk of my shopping does it right.

 

[AliCat37]

My local pet store says "you can Keep two in a cage, but it isn't recommended".
What? A somewhat decent piece of advise?

Glad you came here and found out the best thing for your snabies before it got bad

 

[Senusenu]

We get people who absolutely insist on putting two animals together that it's best not to do so. Hamsters, fish, reptiles. They think because "nothing has ever happened before" that nothing ever will and cannot be convinced otherwise. The number of people who come in and tell us their bearded dragons "love" each other because they're always piled together drives me nuts. How to be utterly clueless about the animals you own.

 

[smigon]

We get people who absolutely insist on putting two animals together that it's best not to do so. Hamsters, fish, reptiles.

Are you saying these three kinds of animals shouldn't be housed together? Some species of fish shouldn't, but most are better off in a school. Reptiles, same thing, some are fine together. Most hamsters are fine together, some even prefer to have company. Syrian hamsters cannot be kept together, they are solitary creatures.

I disagree with your statement that all animals should be alone.

 

[Senusenu]

I didn't say all animals should be alone and I have no idea where you got that idea from my statement. I was confident the implication was about animals that clearly should not be housed together (oscars and fancy goldfish, male and female bettas, two syrian hamsters, etc).

 

[Senusenu]

I mean surely, schooling fish should obviously be kept in a school because it's healthier for them to be so, did you think I was saying tetras and livebearers should be kept in singles???

 

[smigon]

"We get people who absolutely insist on putting two animals together that it's best not to do so. Hamsters, fish, reptiles.".

Your statement absolutely implicates that putting these three animal types with others of their kind "it's best not to do so". Maybe you meant CERTAIN species of these animals shouldn't cohabitate, but your statement reflects only these three animals, and we can only go on what you wrote, not what you meant (we aren't mind readers!), since you did not specify what species of each do not get along with others.

I now understand what you meant, you meant certain species of each of the animals can't be housed together, but your original statement lumped all of those within that family or genus together, when you really meant the species.

If this is your thinking, then I agree with you, it just came out wrong on paper!

 

[Moneypit]

I think part of what I am experiencing in my quest for knowledge is demonstrated here. There are different levels of knowledge and while one might mean one thing, stating it differently can lead to confusion.

With all my reading, my understanding on cohabiting corns is now:

They are communal in that they can be housed together for a period of time if needed but it is best to have them separated. While they do tolerate other corns, they prefer to be solitary. This is beneficial to the hobbyist because it is easier to track and control the health of individual snakes. In the extremes, it prevents a rare but possible instance of an unexplainable turn to cannibalism.

 

[Nanci]

For cornsnakes, it all comes down to this:

There is no benefit to the snake when it is cohabitated, only risk.

 

[willythesnake]

I have to say research before I got my corn was also intensive as you mentioned because I was interested in buying two. I first searched online (and found this site), called a couple breeders and THEN asked the pet store. Fortunately for me, the response was unanimous in telling me that I should keep them separate as only bad things can happen from keeping them together.
PetSmart, when I went to visit them, had a real herp nut there and he was quite excited for me getting my first corn (coming from owning a leopard gecko). I guess it all really depends on who you get when you ask.

 

[Moneypit]

I would expect many people, like me, became interested after seeing one in person and handling it. It was only because of this initial exposure that I made my purchase after weeks of driving around locally and then started my online search for forums to participate in.

If I had found this forum and the others first, I would of purchased specific morphs from established breeders. The wait until spring (no shipping when it's been in the teens) would of allowed me time to build enclosures and learn more.

But who am I kidding? I found two Corns I really liked and wanted them now. Just glad I found a good forum to rely on for support. I'll still be checking out those morphs I like. The new split enclosure leaves me with an empty one ready for a single.

 

[Mari]

For cornsnakes, it all comes down to this:

There is no benefit to the snake when it is cohabitated, only risk.

An (ex) friend of mine tried arguing with me, yelling at me and saying that I was a novice and that I couldn't know what was best for her snakes who were cohabed (and one was a year older than the other). I kept asking her why she'd risk it, and she said, oh well nothing bad has happened so it's fine! I wish I'd had this line to throw back at her. :sobstory: Where's Nanci when I need her?