twitchy corn

[nothing furry]

I'm sure you probably answerd this question before, but I'm curious what it means.my albino will twitch when the anery crawls over...(her) I think. not 100 % sure with wich being male or female, I am sure we have male and female, though.Has anyone else delt with this. please let me know.thanks.

 

[DaemoNox]

All corns do it, no matter their gender. Its kind of like people shaking hands or dogs smelling each other, just a form of body language.

 

[RedRaydin]

Couple of questions

Hey man just curious. How old are these corns? How long have you had them? And how long have you had them caged together?

Also since they are caged together, how big is your cage?

I don't know how many threads you've stumbled upon since being here, but typically corns are suppossed to be housed seperate due to lack of room presenting a lot of stress on the snakes. Just thought I'd throw it out in case you haven't read that yet.

But if your going to keep them together you definately want to make sure you have double the amount of hides, so your looking at minimum of 4-6. I'd say closer to six. One for warm section, another for cool, one for the hot zone (or 85 degree mark).

You may want to get them sexed if you plan on doing this long term as well just because later on if your female gets pregnant too early it can present complications and be dangerous for the snake.

At least if they are hatchlings and you do this from stage one, there are some on here (and it seems as if evidence proves it), that say if they are kept together from the hatching date (or started at birth) then they may be able to co-exist better than two new corns being introduced at a later age.

Good luck with both of them though. Just providing you with some info in case you haven't heard it elsewhere.

 

[nothing furry]

I took them from some one I know, that did not care for them the way your suposed to.He kept them in a 20 gallon tank and fed the pinkeis for the first 3 feet of their life( im not sure how old they are).

I addopted them about seven-eight months ago, and i keep them in a 40 gallon breeder.

Since I've had them they both have grown about a foot, and gained tons of weight. their about 4 inches in diameter, wich does'nt seem like alot but they have easily doubled in size.

I was thinking of seperating them into their own 30 gallon, to convert the 40g. into an aquarium, but thats gonna have to wait till we move in to a house(early may). I did'nt know that you were'nt suposed to house them together, I never saw any aggresion/dominence, or change in eating habits. They even have the same shed cycle (last week of the month).thanks for the heads up,though. I'll try to change them over asap.

 

[ratsncorns]

I must be becoming psychic. When I saw the title of this thread, I immediately thought "must be cohabbed snakes". Twitching is a sign of stress. After reading so many threads on twitching, the majority of them happen in a situation where snakes are sharing a the same viv. Since corns are solitary, the only time that they are near eachother is for breeding.

It looks like you are doing the right thing, in getting them into 30g tanks. The size of the snakes make me think that you probably have two of the same sex. I say this because they both look to be of breeding age (but I am just guessing). Have you noticed any unusual behavior (besides the twitching) in which one snake is actively pursuing the other? If they are of different sex, and the female is of breeding size (300g+) I would say you should expect her to be gravid either now, or soon. This is not saying that she cant be gravid at less than that weight. There was a thread on here a while back about a female getting gravid at 100g! This is very dangerous, as it can cause a snake to become eggbound and will very likely die. Which is one reason why cohabbing is not recommended, especially in younger snakes, as sometimes you don't know you have the opposite sexes and the female may become gravid at too small a size.

Either way, its a learning experience, now you know about cohabbing. If you do a search, there is tons of information on this forum about it.

Good luck!

 

[MegF.]

To be fair, twitching is not necessarily a sign of stress. My corns when they touch each other during breeding twitch. If I rub the back of any of my adults they also twitch. It is a greeting or meeting response. I would seperate immediately though. Breeding season is now for some of us and there's no telling when those two may mate if they are male and female. If they are seriously undersized, i.e. the female is under 300 grams, I would not risk and accidental breeding and possible death from egg binding. Get one of them into a tub if necessary for now. Even without brumation, my male typically went off food in January and was out looking for a mate.

 

[Nanci]

To be fair, twitching is not necessarily a sign of stress. My corns when they touch each other during breeding twitch. If I rub the back of any of my adults they also twitch. It is a greeting or meeting response.

I've never had two of my snakes touch each other, but this interests me because my tri-color hog twitches extremely when I touch him. He was sitting on the floor the other day, and Greg says "What's wrong with your snake, why does he have that big kink in his back?" and I say "Oh, you mean this?" and wherever I'd touch Zee's back, he'd hump up with a twitch and freeze that way. So I could put a "kink" in his back wherever I wanted. Twitching is nothing like a startled jump.

Curious.

Nanci

 

[MegF.]

Yup, that's what mine do. When I introduce my breeding pairs,the male slides over the female and she does that.

 

[ratsncorns]

To be fair, twitching is not necessarily a sign of stress.

Gotcha. I have never had any of my snakes twitch so I dont know what it looks like. And since none of my snakes have any physical contact with eachother, I have never seen it. Learn something new every day. :santa:

 

[MegF.]

I'd be willing to bet that if you ran your fingers up and down the back they would twitch or hump up their spine against your hand.

 

[nothing furry]

I'd be willing to bet that if you ran your fingers up and down the back they would twitch or hump up their spine against your hand.

Your right, out of curiousity, i've used my finger and ran it down the back of both my snakes but only my albino(wich I think is female) twitches.

I realy dont think its a strees thing, cause she will only do it on rare occations, usualy after seperating them for more than 20 mins.and even than she'll do it for a quarter of the body lenght, although I could be wrong :shrugs:

and they both are at 300 grams or slightly above.( they were about 1/3 of that when I took them in, and I think the female is about 6 months older.

 

[MegF.]

Well, unless you want them breeding, I would seperate them. I would anyway even if you consider breeding them or the poor female will be pregnant constantly. I know a guy who co-habitates and the poor female has triple clutched and is terribly thin. She WILL die early, but he won't seperate them. She's finally gotten into a small area that the male can't get thru cuz he's in good weight and she hides in there all the time. I keep trying to get him to seperate.....

 

[Nanci]

Hmmm, well twitching better not be a female-only thing or my snake is sexed wrong...I wish there was someone near me who knew how to do it. Someone else who breeds tri-colors has suggested that the biting, ravenous, climbing behaviours Zee exhibits are more typically female. Gosh, but if he's a she, I got an amazing bargain!!

I'm going to twitch-test all my snakes. Unfortunately, the only other one who is actually guaranteed sexed is a female, Inez, that there's no way I can set down loose.

Nanci

 

[nothing furry]

Have you noticed any unusual behavior (besides the twitching) in which one snake is actively pursuing the other?

I have never seen any type of dominence in either of them. :shrugs:

 

[MegF.]

Twitching is equal opportunity. My males will do it also.

 

[sid the snake]

Our snake sometimes twitches when he is touched on the back, i have never really knew why he was twitching