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I am being chewed out by someone who is livid that I allow my yellow rat snakes to co-habitate. Is this really such a bad thing? Does anyone else keep rat snakes together?

Zoos do it all the time. I think if you have a big enough cage why not, especially if it's a naturalistic type setup.

I personally don't see this as a mortal sin, at least for a non-snake eating species like yellow rats. And as long as the cage is very roomy and the snakes are always FED SEPERATELY.

That being said, I keep all my snakes individually. There are lots of good reasons for this-ease of maintenance, ease of feeding, better control over breeding (and certainty of parentage), safer should a disease problem crop up....the list goes on.

Brad Chambers

It's best to keep them seperate except to breed if possible. If you do keep them together you should seperate or watch them close at feeding time to avoid accidents. If they are immature you dont want them breeding to young or small. Randy

>>It's best to keep them seperate except to breed if possible. If you do keep them together you should seperate or watch them close at feeding time to avoid accidents. If they are immature you dont want them breeding to young or small. Randy
>>

That makes sense. I do separate them out for feedings. Except for one mature set, they're kept in same-sex pairs so there isn't any unauthorized breeding.

>>Zoos do it all the time. I think if you have a big enough cage why not, especially if it's a naturalistic type setup.

Yes, I like to give them lots of room and an exhibit-style setup. It's more effort to clean, but worth it to have a beautiful habitat for me to enjoy. Because they're rat snakes, they love climbing all over things, too.

This was the picture that got me castigated:

I am not a big zoo person, but I have been to both the National and the Virginia Zoo, and I don't remember seeing any snakes being kept together.

Jimmy Johnson (Draybar) has answered this question many times, and he has doen it very well. Try reading one of his posts on the subject. http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=688028,688028&key=2005

As you know, you can do what you like with your animals, but not all methods of husbandry are equal.

BTW, nice looking Yellows.

It's always best to keep snakes separated, but Pantherophis obsoletus can be kept in pairs without problems. Most of my snakes share their cage, and they do great. As long as you give them plenty of space, your animals too will do just fine.

>>It's always best to keep snakes separated, but Pantherophis obsoletus can be kept in pairs without problems. Most of my snakes share their cage, and they do great. As long as you give them plenty of space, your animals too will do just fine.

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't do this with a Lampropeltis, but I see rats kept together in all kinds of places. Thank you

>>I am being chewed out by someone who is livid that I allow my yellow rat snakes to co-habitate. Is this really such a bad thing? Does anyone else keep rat snakes together?

While I dont keep mine together I dont see any problems for someone with experience.

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