Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know im gonna get blasted for this question, and i am in no way shape or form gonna do this, but Im wondering if anyone has experiernce keeping az mt kings in same tank together? once again, i will not do this, but just wondering if this is possible...Pete

im only asking this out of courisity, because i know most if not all kings are canibals, and I know I prob would not want to stick any snake withen 20 feet of my desert king when she comes out of cooling, but just wondering if PYROS are the same way....

I brumated mine together and I am going to keep them together for breeding. I did this with my knoblochi last year and all was fine. I did have to seperate them for feeding though because I almost had a "feeding accident".

I've done it. I raised my first two up together, two females. Fantastic animals. Grew faster than I ever would have guessed and got larger than I would have guessed. Pyros are slight in build but sure can get larger than most zonata. During early Spring, the two of them went through 6 small mice at one sitting.

The secret for babies is moisture. Well, and heat. They use heat like any other kingsnake - they just like a cooler area too. But the above is true of any king/milk pretty much. Babies dehydrate easily, and when they do, they just want to burrow down and not feed. FR already said this - it is good to listen to this kind of info. So has Osborne and others. Osborne (and others) used this technique for graybands, pyros, ruthveni, etc. Keep them hydrated and you have a better chance of a great feeding baby. I was fortunate to see Osborne's setup and learned from it. Makes so much sense. Deli cup, lid with a hole or cutout and moss. Place cup partially over the heat. Simple, easy, effective. Or my method, 3/4 or 1 inch PVC pipe (one end over the heat) and some water sprayed in occasionally. I feed them right in the pipe. All good for young pyros, sinaloans, whatever. Cal kings seem to not care as much, but Cal kings and the larger getula have thicker skin. (Cals eat anything almost anytime even if you jump up and down right in front of them, swing your arms and make faces at them. Not that I've tried )
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Mark

Mark, I agree with the moisture deal and use the exact same setup with the moss and hide. I also have a dry hot hide, cold hide, fresh water, and a gradient of 68-90. Some still did not and do not eat as well as others. Guess it is just some snakes are different.

these ideas for keeping baby pyros hydrated. That is good to know.

snake adventures

Is that pyro is the photo a locale? If so, which one? Nice looking snake.

No, but it's het for albino.
snake adventures

Yup, I use the same set-up for juveniles.

Here is a link to little write-up by another "pioneer of kingsnake herpetoculture"

Hmmmm. He talks about about females shutting down before males, finicky eaters, etc.
http://www.applegatereptiles.com/articles/breedgreeripyro.htm