Posted by:
deathstalker
at Tue Jul 15 07:47:35 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by deathstalker ]
Even breeders can be idiots. No, it-is-not-ok-to-put-hognoses-together... especially when one is bigger! Cannibalism has been reported several times just on this forum in past couple of years. Even ones that have been kept together for 2 years. I have to ask, is it really that hard to buy and find space for another 10 gallon tank? What is the real benefit to keeping them together, so they can be best friends? The non-fuzzy and feathery world doesn't work like that. It is an unnecessary risk, period. This amount of sarcasm is not necessarily directed toward you, among other things, I don't understand what the issue is here and why the question has to be repeated on this forum.
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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.
".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)
I like Colchicine's attitude on this, at least the middle part about buying another 10-gallon aquarium. However, the benefit, or "benefit" really, of keeping two snakes together in one enclosure is less enclosures to keep eyes on and maintain although you'd still be cleaning up the feces of two snakes either way, yes. And on the cannibalism...
No species of Heterodon, Lioheterodon, or Lystrophis will naturally prey on themselves, not even if they are famished. Cannibalism in hognose snakes has only occurred in captivity, by accident of course, and during feeding time I'd be willing to bet. I've had several incidents before where two hognose snakes that I was keeping in an enclosure together--such as my current pair of Heterodon platyrhinos in their early days--attack the same prey animal and almost consume the other snake as well. This is now why I feed them separately, yet I still house them together and have had no problems because they will not naturally cannibalize. The only other case a hognose snake may attack and try to eat another hognose snake is if one of them has a strong scent of toad on them--I've had this almost happen a time or two.
Really, you can keep two hognose snakes together without any worries. I actually wouldn't be most concerned about any possible cannibalism, but rather one specimen being too significantly bigger than the other, for it might crush the smaller specimen although I suppose it could squeeze out from underneath, for hognose snakes aren't exactly anacondas. But still...if you're going to keep two or more hognose snakes together, let them be around the same size, and preferably feed them separately.
Thanks,
T.J. Gould
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RE: housing hognoses together - deathstalker, Tue Jul 15 07:47:35 2003