Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my name is noah i am from toledo i have a rat snake and a corn snake and there in the same tank how do i tell if they are male or female and can they mate

well you can either probe them or pop them and their are videos on how to do each online, that said it can be very difficult and dangerous to the snake if done incorrectly. If you took them to a show then someone there would probably be able to sex them for you. As far as could they mate, if they are a male and female then yes they can, but that doesn't mean you should. Rat snakes and Corn snakes are very similiar both being Elaphe, and the corn is even sometimes called the Red Rat snake. That said though, I believe technically theyw ould be considered a hybrid and that is a whole seperate question as to the views on this. Personally I wouldn't house your snakes together because they can fight, be subject to illnesses and bacterias, and even be scared or stressed. Certainly make sure that you feed them seperately if you do continue to house them together.

yeah, I was going to say the same thing as the post above. Also, as Justin said, it's generally not a good idea to house snakes in the same enclosure except specifically when you are trying to breed them. If you do have male and female then just keeping them in the same tank usually won't lead to breeding, they require environmental cues usually to stimulate breeding behavior. Usually this involves reducing temperatures and halting feeding to simulate winter for up to several months depending on the species and then restoring the normal temp and then feeding them a lot for a few weeks THEN putting them together to breed. You would want to find breeding information on the specific species you have in mind because the details can be very different depending on what species you want to get to breed.

if you don't have the ability to take them to a show and don't feel comfortable poping or probing, you could always go to a reptile vet (can be expensive though) or a pet shop (but that can be risky cause you don't really know how much the employee really knows). Size can be a good clue, but won't always be accurate, especially if your snakes are not full grown adults...how old, and how long are they? Keeping them together is probably not the best option, as most snakes are solitary animals and only group up in dens or during mating season. Since these two snakes are not generally aggresive, you might be alright. But they could become agressive towards each other, and if there's enough size difference, one could make a meal of the other. A simple solution could be to take a piece of cardboard and make a barrier right down the middle of the cage, splitting it into two. If they are male and female, these two are similar enough that they will probably breed without any problems. Are they captive breed, or wild caught? If wild caught, they probably won't breed if not put through the wintering phase...if captive breed, they might still require the seasonal change to induce breeding response, but also might not. Many consider them different species, but in reality they probably should be the same, just different subspecies or something. You can look up "corn snake" and probably find 3 or 4 different scientific names being used, so there's not much science being applied to that anyways! There are some on these forums that are strongly opposed to "hybrids", but don't let them deter you away from it if that's what you want to do...just make sure you make it clear that the babies are properly IDed ("common name" crossed with "common name"
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-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 Dumeril's boa (Hannibal)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
0.0.1 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amel. corn snake (Morgan LaFay) RIP
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.1 garden phase amazon tree boas (Pegasus, Lenore)
0.0.1 baby yellow amazon tree boa (affectionately called
Snuggles)
0.0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (maybe Octavian)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 bassett hound/black and tan coonhound mix (Luke)
0.1 Boxer (Zoe)
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
2.0 rats (Pan, no name yet)

thanks thats what i needed to know my rat snake is 5ft and my corn snake is 3 ft

Just for your info, snakes are big enough to breed, especially if the larger one is the female. My cornsnakes that I bred a couple of years ago did so without brumation, just the change in daylight hours was enough to get them in the mood. My female laid clutches of 25-30 eggs 2 years in a row, and the were nearly all fertile, and hatched successfully. And yes rats and corns will breed, creating a hybrid.

These are my current corn snakes, just youngsters.

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Kent