Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Um, I have a little spotted python and I've had her for like 6 months. She was my third snake and tonight I came home to a little surprise. I was at a football game and came home and looked in all of my cages to see that all was okay when i thought that I saw my spotted python in my corn snake cage. So I get in there and open up the hide that her tail is sticking half out of and it is her. And she was constricting another snake of mine that's a corn hatchling. So i freak out and pry them apart and separate them. Now for the questions: Does that mean that she's canabalistic?? OR was she just hungry? What do I do with a canabalistic snake?? (obviously keep it away from others....) I'm just a kid in high school, would it be better if I sold her at the upcoming reptile show? I'd really rather not do that...but I don't know the slightest bit about canabalism in snakes....I mean, she eats mice....so she should be okay, right? I'm sorry for so many questions, I'm just really worried....and I hope that my little corn will make it, I can't see any bite marks on it, but it was really snippy and I couldn't get a good look. Thanks for any advice.

-Drako

It's not cannabalism unless a snake is eating a snake that's the same kind it is. Just like a wolf eating a deer isn't cannabalism even though they're both mammals. What you have is a snake that enjoys eating other animals that happen to also be snakes. Many many snakes will eat other snakes under various circumstances.

I've heard they are particularly fond of corn snakes.

Young growing spotted pythons should not be kept with any other snakes, not even other spotted pythons. They are not exactly cannibals, but they are voracious feeders that include reptiles in their diets and they can be quite indiscriminate in a feeding frenzy.

Adult spotted can be kept together, we've had pairs together for years without problems. But I wouldn't trust any spotty with a corn...

How did your spotted python get out of his cage and into another snakes cage? I've been wondering ever since I first read the story. Thanks, Scott.
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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws.
But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
—Martin Luther King Jr

I'm not sure how she got out of her own cage, I've looked it over many times and there's no possible explination.... There are no holes or anything, so I got her a new tank that's on the way, She got into the other because part of the lid that goes on the edge of the tank came off while I was away....so she got in that way. It's a mystery to me how she escaped though, so I have another cage on tope of her own now....

-Drako