I have to agree with both sides of this issue.



RobertIIII,



Officially I would agree with Draybar, Elaphefan, and jswanson737 in their advice. Don’t mix them.



Keeping large North American Rat Snakes in a solitary mode is the right thing to do if:

...You are new to snakes and haven’t learned to “read” their behaviors,

...Or your cages not spacious,

...Or if you don’t have the time (as most working folks don’t),

...Or you don’t feed them enough and they are too hungry,

...Or there is a large disparity in the size of cage mates.

...It’s true that when one is sick, you can’t always tell which

...one.



However…..



Seemingly contrary:

I keep all my North American Rat Snakes (with baby Rats, Kings and other ophiophagous snakes, all bets are off), exactly as Mark Banczak said:

“All of my rat snakes are kept in pairs. I have never had a problem with feeding, cannibalism or breeding.”

.

Considerations for my inconsistency:

Larger cages let the animals escape each other.

I have time to baby-sit a feeding, since I’m semi-retired.

I keep animals together of relative equal size.

My animals eat rats, not mice, when they are 4 feet plus.

I separate the most aggressive eaters until all in the cage have swallowed their rats completely.



I keep either pairs or triples with only one male in Vision cages (only model 222).



They brumate in the same cages. I just shut the shed down in winter.



With several variants of obsoletus I’ve never witnessed them mate but I have fertile clutches every year.



I treat the sick snake issue by treating the whole population in the cage, not the individual.



Again I recommend keeping them separate as Draybar, Elaphefan, and jswanson737 said, but communal cages, like Zoos and the European method, can be done and be advised that many of the sweater box paradigms are not the only games in town.
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Regards, Bill McGighan

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