Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I kind of feel like I am beating a dead horse, and I appologize to those of you who are annoyed by my posts. BUT..I am having trouble with seperating my two snakes, and would like some real honest opinions. If you adopted two snakes that had been together for a year, would you just seperate them without a second thought? I mean, am I over thinking this??

I have two avid herp people who are interested in giving the reverse okeetee a home..but I am just having such a hard time seperating them! (I promise this will be the last thread a start on this *blush* )

As the reply below says, snakes are naturally solitary hunters. in the wild they normally only come together to breed or, for some species, to den overwinter, which is more a function of the site than the companionship. I can assure you that if you separate your snakes they will not pine away, send postcards, etc. Just because they are in captivity does not mean they have lost their wild instincts, which tell them to go their own way.

I personally would seperate them. b/c its for the best in the long run and i Highly doubt they enjoy eachothers company no matter how cute it looks or seems. its not possible...sorry but snakes cant "play" with one another
~kin
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~Sober Serpents~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SNAKIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Corns:
.1 Normal (Gertrude) [just a pet...she started it all]
1. Orange normal (Romeo)
1.2 Miami Phase (Hector, Emily, Charlotte) thanks jeff!
2. Miami Phase part zigzag (Starkey, Mcvitty)[Emilys F2]
1. Amel het Blizzard (Dunesbury) .1 Blizzard (Detta)
1. Classic het Hypo, poss het Amel, Anery (Cobra)
1.1 Classics (Henry VIII, Cassy) [Emilys F1 babies]
.1 Sunglow Amel (Pepperoni)*1. Sunglow coming soon!
1.1 Hypo zig zags poss HET Caramel (Bernard, Abegail)
.1 Hypo HET Stripe (Gracie Lou) 1. Hypo Stripe (Gideon)
1.1 Anery HET Motley (Lleroy, Persia)
.2 Candy Cane (Peaches HoneyBlossom[Just a pet], NO NAME)
1.1 Abbotts Okeetee (Albert[Charlottes son], NO NAME)
1.1 Snow (Crickle, Isis) .1 Green Snow (Maya)
1. Caramel poss HET Butter (Topher)
.1 Anery stripe (V) [husbands snake...he named it]
.1 Orange Reverse Okeetee (Lonna)
1.2 Bloodred HET Amel 1. Amel HET Bloodred

Others:
1. Black rat (Willard)
1.1 Striped Cal Kings (Dweezil, Skunky)
1. High-white Reverse Spotted Cal King (Wishbone) *.1 soon!
.1 Albino Stripe Cal King (Eve)
.1 Banana spotted/stripe cal king (Speckle) Thanks Jeff!!!
1.1 Thayeri (Giuseppe[MSP], Cheyenne)
1.1 Creamsicle HET Motley(Orangejello, Genevieve)
1. Creamsicle motley (no name) Thanks Jimmy!!
1. Albino Striped Jungle Corn (NO NAME)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~LIZARDS~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.1 Blizzard Leopard Gecko(Blitz)
.1? High yellow Leopard Gecko(no name)
1. Bearded Dragon (no name)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~TURTLES~~~~~~~~~~~~
.1 white cheeked mud (Opel)
.1 snapping turtle (Snappy Jaws)

Yes,.... it's a fact, snakes wouldn't know companionship(except to mate) if you hit them over the head with it. You as a human from looking at them "coiled together" might like to think they are capable of being close friends, but the true fact is,....they would much rather be alone......this being said from forty years of experience with snakes.......best regards, Doug
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

Im gathering from your post your thinking of getting rid of one to seperate them? Why not just purchase another enclosure and keep both of them. I do agree with everyone else though about keeping them seperate. In my experience they seem to do much better when one snake per enclosure.
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I have come to the conclusion that there is no cure for snake addiction!

i agree with the above posts. you have nothing to worry about them being together or not. snakes will be fine.

Well..I have someone coming to look at the snakes today. I am a little nervous because she feeds live food. I have fed them twice since I have had them, and the one I am looking to rehome isn't a very aggressive eater. He doesn't constrict his prey or anything like that..he kind of looks at it..opens his mouth..and swallows it. Ho hum. She says she bumps them (the mice) on the head before she feed them..what do you guys think of this? It makes a little nervous because I have heard bad things about feeding live food.

PS..I don't have the room or the money for another setup. If I am going to seperate the snakes, the only real option is to find a home for one of them. The reason I am so nervous is because I am unsure of their sex. I am almost positive that the one I am rehoming is a male, and I think the other one is a female.

There is a huge difference between "stunning", and just plain "whacking"(killing) the prey!!. This can be, and sometimes IS very dangerous for the snake. Many times when a snake gets a "bad hold" of the prey when constricting, the animals mouth is free to "BITE THE HELL" out of the snake. I've personally had this happen on numerous occasions, and have not fed live for many years now........The snake that has a sluggish feeding response should absolutely NOT!!! be fed live, or stunned prey, especially since the one doesn't constrict it's prey!!!,as this will lead to injury to the snake in short order!!. It is always a good idea to deal with snakes on an individual basis, and not just toss a mouse in the cage and hope for the best..........best regards,...........................Doug

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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

Hmm..well, I guess I will not be sending him home with her. I really do want to make sure he goes to a good safe home that will take good care of him. I do have someone else interested that said he would feed frozen instead of live, so that sounds like my best option.

Yes,..unless the girl dealt with the one "sluggish feeder" on an individual basis,and fed it accordingly, I would give it to the other that fed it F/T prey...............best regards, Doug
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

Well..one of the snakes just went to his new home about a half an hour ago. How do I tell if the snake I still have is upset? He is doing what he normally does...nothing. I am planning on feeding him tomorrow.

On a side note...he brought over one of his adult corn snakes and WOW that snake was HUGE. He said it was 8 years old and it was about 6 times the size of my snakes! I didn't realize corn snakes got that big..I have to admit I am a little worried/intimidated!!!!

You say he's doing what he normally does. The best sign of stress in a reptile is alteration of normal behaviour, so it's likely that he's not too fussed about his cage mate going away. There wasn't any kind of emotional connection there anyway, not with snakes

As for being intimidated... If you handle your critter regularly and it has a decent personality to start out with, just getting bigger shouldn't make it any kind of threat. Corns are still too small, even as adults, to do serious damage to anyone (unless you hold its head up by your eye or something, but that's kinda asking for trouble..). With enough handling and confidence, you'll be fine Good luck,

-P
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1.0.0 Normal corn snake (Frito)
1.0.0 Creamsicle corn (Tang)
0.1.0 Ghost corn (Raynham)
1.1.0 Bay of LA rosy boas (Rivet and Cali)
0.1.0 Cape Gopher (Mole)
0.0.1 African House Snake (Casa)

well he isn't using any of the hides, just burrowing under the shavings..but I guess that is normal. Im going to clean his cage today because apparently he has PINE shavings in his tank (I haven't made any changes to the way it came to me yet), which are bad. So I am getting some aspen and feeding him. We shall see..hopefully he eats without his buddy (I think I am more upset than the snake in all reality!)

First off, you should not feel that they are going to be lonely or otherwise unhappy by the separation. Don't worry about that at all.
That said, although snakes can be kept together, there are many very good reason to keep each in its own cage. And, if you are experiencing any problems at all with them, separating them is probably a good idea.
They are most likely better off apart. They won't be sad or miss each other.
That said, I have 15 snakes in 14 cages. I do keep two female corns together in a 55 gallon aquarium. They have been cagemates for some time and are doing fine. If either snake ever showed any sign of stressing out or had any problems at all, I would separate them. And I wouldn't worry about them being lonely. My 2 cents Duffy

Thanks guys..I feel good about the home he is going to but I am still a little worried about them missing eachother (I know..silly). But..I am biting the bullet and doing it before I get too terribly attached. I'm sure he will be perfectly happy in his new home...and I can spend all my time with the one I have left..

Thanks for all the support, guys