Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, first off, I do not want this to be a debate. Just want to know if there are any of you who keep westerns in pairs or groups. I keep kings and hognose, I do keep some of my kings in pairs, and know the possible dangers of this. Like I said, dont need a debate, just want to know if this is common or even done at all.

by the way, i currently keep all my hogs solo.
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Chris - TX

Certainly it can be done and done safely. However, from what I have noticed is that animals of most species, that are housed in pairs or groups, are less likely to breed. That is just my personal observation over the years.

Keeping them in pairs or groups is not common for various other reasons.

1- While it is not common, hogs have eaten eachother.

2- It is much easier to keep track of animals health, feeding, crapping, and so on, if they are housed individually.

3- Stress levels my be lower in animals that are housed individually. There is no competing for food or the optimal thermal spot in the cage.

4- Like I mentioned, in my personal observations, animals that are housed individually will breed more readily when an introduction is made.

I am sure you can dig up other reasons from other serious keepers as to why they prefer to house their snakes individually.

Hope this helps.

All good points, only snakes ive ever housed together long term are kings. I personally have never had a bad experience doing this. I also have never housed getula together. I have never had any regular breeders not breed or stop breeding when housed together either. My main concern with the hognose was the size difference in males to females. If she decides shes hungry, it would be fairly easy for her to make him disappear.
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Chris - TX

I generally keep all of my hognose separated unless I am trying to breed a pair. I keep them paired up anywhere from a few weeks to several months. It really all depends on how the two do together and whether or not I can actually see them copulating, and even then I might keep them together a bit longer to ensure that copulation was successful. The only time I remove them is during feeding days as the females can be kind of ravenous and spastic and I've had a couple of males get bit by an excited female only to be spit back out because they didn't taste like mice. But that's my experience and how I do things.

Like Bob Applegate once told me years ago when I stayed at his ranch, snakes will breed when they are ready, not when we want them to. That's why he co-habitates almost his entire collection of kingsnakes, a species that is well known for cannibalism and yet, cannibalism rarely ever happens in his collection. In fact, he told me it only happened once and it was a rogue female that only acted that way. Otherwise, how he has his setup, the snakes have tubes between enclosures and they can interact whenever they want to. It's actually an ingenious setup he has, one I hope to replicate someday.
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles