Your questions might clear some things up. So i thought I would post at the top since it might have been missed:
How long have you been doing things this way?
I have been knowingly bonding snakes since 1998.
Before that time i did keep rosy boas housed toegther with zero problems. I also worked a lot with hybrids and had to experiment with all sorts of methods to get hard to breed spp together-like hondurans. Hondos are very difficult to hybridize. They are not like ratsnakes and cal kings and just breed with anything..One can learn a lot about snakes through hybridization. I know that is a offensive topic for some. But when you try and get hard to breed species together it puts you down a road of experimenting and learning that give a person a real knack for ecology, husbandry and breeding.
Otherwise, just like others here. I did try housing kings early on and had cannibalism occur because i never tried the bonding process (I have been keeping snakes since the 60's). i unwittingly started bonding due to space reasons during winter around 1993. i seperated the snakes after they warmed up because i thought (like most people here)- "once a cannibal always a cannibal"-why take the risk with KINGsnakes, right??.I don't recall ever having cannibalism with kingsnakes i bonded (intentionally or unitentionally).
How many snakes (if any) have you ever lost to canabalism?
ZERO that were bonded properly. And the key word here is BONDED properly. Othwrwise i would not reccomend putting two kings together. Especially now during breeding season. Nor would i reccomend it with neonate snakes. I wait until the kings are eating small mice. I wait until they are sub-adults when i start housing and feeding them together. that is the best time to start the bonding process. The first real brumation year when they are sub adults.
If you have ever lost any due to this would you continue with this methodology?
I never have had it happen after I started the bonding process. But if it did happen to "bonded" snakes i would still continue because there are far to many snakes that i have kept this way for many years that have never cannibalized each other. if "IF" it did happen, there would be a simple explanation that was overlooked- like a starved female. Or I removed the wrong snake to the wrong cage mate that it was not bonded to.
This brings me to an imoportant anser that some had about houssing sevreal snakes togther.
When I said I house sevral females with 2-3 males during winter. I do that so that male will bond with those females. If later one during breeding time i decide to place 1 or 3 or 3 females to a cage then i can still place any of those males in with them. Or switch them around ...or pile them together. You can go crazy and have fun with experimenting with what animals you want to breed and have no worries of removing them die to them eating each other.
Once females are gravid they are put is a seprate container by themselves anyway. So they are constantly being moved around. but only within their core group that they are bonded with. Do it with other bonded groups and you are taking risks.
I want to share what happens when i place a male in a cage with an "un"bonded female. What happens is once the male hits the floor of the unit he starts flying all over the cage trying to get out like it is running for its life (sound familiar to anyone?) and then if i remeove that same male and place it back in with the bonded female(s)cage, the male immediatly calms down and even snuggles up with its bonded cage mates. What does this tell us? hmmm?
Do yo recommend ALL snakes to be housed this way?
I don't reccomend "all" snakes. Different species of snakes have different neds, quirks and tricks to make them eat and breed in captivity. For instance with Lyre snakes i found out they are near impossible to get wildcaughts to eat. Until somebody reccomended that i put a cereal box in stuffed to the rim with cardboard. The Lyre poor will cram itself in there real tight. But it what it relly does is make itself feel secure. then i placed a frozen thawed mouse in the cage at night and it was gone in the moring. i did this experiment with sevral wildcaught Lyer snakes and and they all seem to need this choice to cram themselves into a tight spot. When you provide this for them they eat. all of the Lyers i have every kept ate this way. The ones i didn't provide a super tight spot, they didn't eat. So not ALL snakes have the same husbandry requirements.
Do you recommend new or inexperienced keepers to also do it this way?
For most getula. Yes. Actually it is much easier for a novice or inexperienced person to learn than someone experienced that has been doing it for years the other way. It is a simple recipe of bonding and as long as that is adehered to it is something I definetly recommend. Maybe our next generation of herpetoculturists will make bonding kingsnakes common knowlegde in a few years.
It is really no more difficult to do for a novice than to learn to cycle their snakes. It is all new to them anyway. So it is easier for a novice than a scared keeper who has had cannibalism happen.
-I feel pain whenever i am around weed wackers because i got whipped by one once. It hurt so bad that whenever i am around them I stay far away from the moving strands. That sting still sticks in my mind.
DOES IT WORK FOR YOU?
Most definetly, YEP!. It makes things a lot easier and i get good clutches and don't miss fertilization. All i do is remove eggs. Feeding is also a joy.
Is it the ONLY way to do things?
I guess if you want to breed. it is far easier to do it this way.
Easier in a lot of different ways. Also you will be more successful without trying to go the long way around. That might make you appear more accomplished than you really are. Or should take credit for. lol!
Are there any other problems that you have experienced, associated with this method?
Yeah! Cleaning! if you expect to clean cages once a month like you did before with one snake per sweater box. That ain't gonna happen. cleaning is a constant chore when keeping sevral snakes in one bin. Just keep an eye on the units and clean when neccsasrry. But cleaning during brumation is not nearly as much as spring and summer. Maybe once a month during winter brumation versus whenever the unit gets dirty during summer. I feed my snakes a lot. So the more you feed the more crap there is to clean up.
Just as i mentioned above. just because a snake is bonded with some snakes does not mean they are bonded with all the snakes in your collection. That is why it is a good idea to house sevral together during winter brumation.
Again this is an example of why i may choose to house several snakes together. lets say for example; 2 males and 5 females in a unit during winter bonding. then when spring comes i can and seperate if neccsary to fit my needs of husbandry or which males i want with what females.. Also the extra male may just be a back up..just in case.
DESEASES:
Also some people mentioned deseases while keeping several kings together. I guess they alluded to the desease spreading while housing sevral snakes together
My answer to that would be most transferable deseases (like for example 'zonata desease) are so contageuos your whole room would be infected anyway. Same thing with mites. The Secret is don't add or intergrade unkown snakes from the outside of your collection and you won't have any problems.Period.
Otherwise i don't know or heard of snakes instantaneuosly catching the flu or colds like humans. So if there is a problem. it usually will effect everything in the area or proximity of the shelving anyway....
I mean, that is the way i assume most people keep their snakes. In shelving units.right?
The best prevention of spreadable parasites is cleanliness and QUARANTEENING NEW AQUISITIONS. We should all do that anyway. I can't stress this enough! But a person who buys a snake(s) and adds it to his collection w/o a quaranteen is asking for problems.
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www.Bluerosy.com
) like I do and feed them something bigger than thier head/largest part in their body. I do this with my FLORIDAS and do not want to extrapolate this to all getula. Feed your florida hatchlings pinks for one or two meals and move them up to peach fuzzies / fuzzies. Wait a few more weeks and move them to hoppers (maybe waiting an extra day or two between feedings for the first two weeks of changing sizes so that your snake can "get accustomed to" digesting a larger food item. Then large mice and then chicks. I told Rainer that I would like to have my adults on chicks but that not all my FLs like to move to them (10% dont). He said try and mix chick heads with hopper mice(kinda the same size) and start them on chicks at an earlier age where they have mice scent on chick heads (so they will eat) and chick scent on the hopper mice(so they get used to chick scent). Since then all but one (subborn Blaze lol) have moved to chicks and that is what is easier for me. This is what I do and if you would like to emulate it (and tweak it to fit YOU), more power to ya! I calculated it and during breeding season (now) my adult males eat 3-5 chicks per week and my females (considering 6 foot giants and 3 foot newbies) eat from 10-20 chicks per week. I feed chicks because they do not rot as quickly in hot Florida and because they do not cost as much. They work for me.
