Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have had a corn snake for about 3 years now. its a female hypomelanistic. shes 3 years old, and about 3 and a half feet. the enclosure is 48" X 24" X 24". i just got another corn snake. not sure about the age or morph, but im guessing about a year old and a foot long, and quite smaller than the female.

anyway, introduced them outside the cage and they pretty much seemed to ignore each other. then i put them both in the cage at the same time. the new snake is pretty much checking out the place. but the female, it seems like she is scared of him. its seems like all she has been doing is trying to get away from him, and once in a while they will cross paths and she runs away.

now, since ive had her the female is mainly active at night. my concern is that since it seems like she is scared of him, that she will defensively eat him, and ill wake up tomorrow with only one snake.

ive only ever had one snake in one cage at a time, so im new to this, and was wondering if anyone had any good (experienced!) advice.

sorry so long, but i find effective answers come faster when you provide a lot of information.

It's generally not a good idea to house them together. It's especially not a good idea to put a new snake in with an established one without a good quarantine period to make sure that the new snake is totally healthy. It sounds like one or both snakes will be stressed out. Nobody will probably eat anyone else, but you will be doing both animals a big favor by getting another cage asap. If cost is a factor, get a good sized tupperware/sterilite sweater box and put holes in it. A wood burner or soddering iron works great for the holes. Get another cage and enjoy both snakes. Good luck ... Duffy

i have considered that. well aside from agitation, which is expected from any animal in this situation, i know the health is ok, becuase i have prior knowlege of the added snake. if all doesnt go as planned i might go for a second enclosure. its just that knowing the nature of a corn snake to be so calm, i figured it wouldnt be a big deal.

well, for the near future i think ill just monitor them closely.

but of course, any opinions are greatly appreciated for my consideration

At a foot long it could be this year's hatchling (They hatch at around a foot). I would -not- keep a snake that size in with an adult. There's probably a lot of stress involved, and the young one could even get injured by the larger snake just crawling around. Some people do house them together, but they always are similar sized.
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-audri
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yea, that is kinda misinformed. i realized that after i posted it. i was just giving a very broad estimate. i know he is dftnly bigger than a hatchling, becuase there were hatchlings in the cage with it when i got it, and it was at least double the size. and as far as stress goes the new snake, and smaller one, could care less about the other snake. its the older one.

but i should say a day later, and things are a lot better. but i would still like to hear opinions. becuase when i looked online i couldnt find much information on it.

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=123775,125673

thanks - i had done a search on the old posts but didnt find that (even though now i realize its hard to miss!!)

well, i will say that i use kingsnake.com for about 60% of my corn snake information. however, a post like that is exactly why i hate forums. regardless of whether people know what they are talking about, sometimes it doesnt always show...but that aside, i read all the posts and it doesnt answer the question.

i had said before that i had not found any reason to, or not to, keep more than one together, for the matter. as an issue of cannibalism i pretty much find that to be a non-issue (for a responsible keeper). as an issue of disease, i really do not see that as a reason either. the only other thing i can regard as legitimate is the issue of stress. but as this exhibits symptoms, a weary keeper would be advised to this. at least that’s what I get out of it. as for being territorial - i dont know, i never read anything stating that.

from what i observe, regarding my original post, and the one you reffered me to, i think its a matter of individual discernment. I have a decently sized, quite elaborate setup that mimics the original habitat of the corn snake. i dont care why i need a reason to do it - the fact exists that i want to and i wanted some opinion on it, as apparently so do other people. i dont think this is a question that has an answer that people can look up and trust. thats why i asked for experienced opinions, so i could arrive at an answer. its not even that im not willing to put the other one seperately, i would be willing to if i was conviced it was necessary, or even better.

p.s. I have been to several zoo's (many of them large and humane) and reptile exhibits that have corn snake displays with multiple corn snakes. and for some reason their presumed educated decision that this is ok weighs heavy on my mind.

I know that many people say never to house corns together, but I have never had any problems with it. I have been keeping and breeding corn for years and I have always housed my breeders together. I keep them set up as breeding pairs or breeding trios (one male/two females) in 4'x2'x2' enclosures. I tend to group them off as very young snakes and then raise them together. The first year, I pull out the male for the spring time so I don't have any accidental "teen pregnancies". I always feed in separate boxes so feeding is not a problem. My oldest trio consists of a pair I raised together and a four-year-old female I just added this year. They all seem very happy together, I ussually find them curled up together in one or the other of the hide spots. Both females laid this year:14 eggs and 26 eggs. The things to keep in mind are two already stated and dismissed by you: feeding and health, and the one you did not dismiss: stress. If you have snakes of very different sizes housed together, it is very likely that the smaller one will get injured or stressed. In your case it sounds like the older snake may be unhappy with the situation. If the smaller snake does not seem disturbed, and the older one calms down I don't think you should have a problem. If she doesn't settle down though I would advise separate housing. Hazel