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Will a corn snake eat other snakes?

dan803 said:
Oh get over yourself. I don't argue about husbandry practices but I might argue with somebody who rudely condescends me just because I stated the obvious. I didn't tell anybody they couldn't post, I was just commenting. Honestly, I don't think I said anything to deserve that.
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Dan, relax. I was saying you seem MORE intelligent and conscientious than the original poster.
 
I believe the problem often lies in pet shops. I always see warning signs that say never to feed live rodents near both the reptiles and the rodents, so why not stick another warning right underneath that warns against cohabbing? They want to sell off the snakes, that's why. They wouldn't want to discourage anyone from buying two snakes instead of one. It's all about the money. Newbies see baby snakes snuggling together at Petco and assume they need a companion for live. It's logical. They have separate containers for beta fish, but not for snakes. There should be a clear warning by all snakes that says something like "Snakes are solitary animals and should not be housed together. This setup is strictly temporary."

It wouldn't cure the problem but make more people aware, hopefully.
 
dan803 said:
I believe the problem often lies in pet shops. I always see warning signs that say never to feed live rodents near both the reptiles and the rodents, so why not stick another warning right underneath that warns against cohabbing? They want to sell off the snakes, that's why. They wouldn't want to discourage anyone from buying two snakes instead of one. It's all about the money. Newbies see baby snakes snuggling together at Petco and assume they need a companion for live. It's logical. They have separate containers for beta fish, but not for snakes. There should be a clear warning by all snakes that says something like "Snakes are solitary animals and should not be housed together. This setup is strictly temporary."

It wouldn't cure the problem but make more people aware, hopefully.
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There is a bigger problem than that, I know at Petco, our "Care sheets" state that snakes of the same species can be kept together. It sickens me and I have, more than once, written an email to corporate about how our care sheets need to be updated. But, I doubt they will listen...
 
dan803 said:
I believe the problem often lies in pet shops. I always see warning signs that say never to feed live rodents near both the reptiles and the rodents, so why not stick another warning right underneath that warns against cohabbing? They want to sell off the snakes, that's why. They wouldn't want to discourage anyone from buying two snakes instead of one. It's all about the money. Newbies see baby snakes snuggling together at Petco and assume they need a companion for live. It's logical. They have separate containers for beta fish, but not for snakes. There should be a clear warning by all snakes that says something like "Snakes are solitary animals and should not be housed together. This setup is strictly temporary."

It wouldn't cure the problem but make more people aware, hopefully.
Click to expand...

You're totally right. I will say that as a person who was very involved in the fish keeping community for 10 years or so, we waged a campaign against Petsmart to provide accurate size information on their cards. They were selling animals like pacus (2-3' as adults), clown knifes (solidly 3' as adults) and other fish that get BIG, too big for the vast majority of people, and they weren't properly labelling their tank cards or highlighting this info in any way.

It had some impact in SOME stores, but was never universally effective in spite of our attempts to go after corporate.

Unfortunately it really is up to the individual store owner and their staff and is dependent on how well those staff are trained, which is usually not too great.
 
I would say even stores that do train their employees to a degree still can fumble on correct information. The pet store where we purchased two of our corns has a reptile guy that actually keeps snakes, etc., and is generally fairly knowledgeable about snakes. So when he said it was okay to cohab our hatchling corns, we figured he must know what he's talking about (he said he usually gave them individual tanks at about a year)

The two we bought were cohabbed until we came to the forum, and did a little research. We ordered supplies for another setup that day. (FWIW, he did mention things to watch out for when cohabbing, but didn't emphasis the risk quite enough in my eyes).

I figure when there's a preponderance of people who have far more experience than me, saying that cohabbing is not a good thing, those are the people I'm going to listen to. I adore my snakes and want them to be happy (okay, bit of humanizing there) or at least minimize their stress and maximize their safety.
 
Hey there folks.

I separated my bull snakes, and I bought a giant male corn snake today, and I see what you guys mean by them getting stressed out when they are kept together. My boas and bulls did not display this behavior. The new male had been co-habbed almost all his life with another male.

When I brought him home, the female corn snake would not stop crawling on the male. The male kept twitching, and his hemopines came out and they kept linking tales. Maybe the male was musking in defense? I don't know if this behavior was mating behavior or territorial defense, but the male snake was too freaked out. I picked him out and held him a while, then when I put him back in, it was the complete reverse situation. The male kept going onto the female snake and she kept trying to get away and shook her tail like crazy. I decided there was way too much stress on them and so I keep them separate.

Just to clarify before people start jumping overboard and thrashing about, I have been aware of this new male snake's health for a long time. The snake is very healthy and if I had gotten it from an unknown source I would have had him in quarantine. This is an exception.

At the moment I am still researching corn snake mating behavior.
 
I know it is breeding season for them. I will make a post about it in the Breeding section. Tomorrow I will upload some video feed of my snake collection and you can see my snakes.
 
You almost made Turbo Corns!

But seriously, good call on the separation after recognizing the stress. It's always a shame to see animals suffer when people are trying to stick to their guns and make a point (and I've seen it way too many times.) I commend you for not doing that.
 
What are Turbo Corns? If you mean a cross between Corn and Bull, that was never the case. My bulls are small and my corns are adults. I kept the bulls together, but not the corns and the bulls. The bulls were seperated because one got bigger than the other and I am still studying their behavior. My boas are still together. I wonder what coloration comes from a blood-red corn and an anethristic?
 
boabass6 said:
What are Turbo Corns? If you mean a cross between Corn and Bull, that was never the case. My bulls are small and my corns are adults. I kept the bulls together, but not the corns and the bulls. The bulls were seperated because one got bigger than the other and I am still studying their behavior. My boas are still together. I wonder what coloration comes from a blood-red corn and an anethristic?
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That is what a Turbo Corn is and oops, I read that last post of yours wrong.

An anery and bloodred will produce all normals, het for bloodred and anery. Unless the blood is het. anery (not terribly unlikely) or the anery het. blood (less likely.)
 
lefty_mussolini said:
That is what a Turbo Corn is and oops, I read that last post of yours wrong.

An anery and bloodred will produce all normals, het for bloodred and anery. Unless the blood is het. anery (not terribly unlikely) or the anery het. blood (less likely.)
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Thanks for the info. You can't always tell just how many traits some of these corn snakes carry. There might be a lot to this red one. He's got stripes all down his back. I will give a link to some videos showing off my snake collection this afternoon some time.
 
There is no accurate way to tell if something is het by looking at it though. If it wasn't sold to you as a het it isn't likely.
 
Outcast: Been over that already in this thread...in fact a bunch of those same pictures are already posted here.
 
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