Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two baby corns in a 20 gallon tank. I plan on keeping them there even when they're adults, and I don't believe that will be a problem. But now I'm being offered a third baby. Can all three stay in the same 20 gallon tank when they're adults? I'd love to take her, she's a beautiful snake, but I'm in college at the moment and don't want to spend the money on a whole new set up for her. If anyone has input, I'd appreciate it, as I'm rather new to the whole snake thing. Thanks!

>>I have two baby corns in a 20 gallon tank. I plan on keeping them there even when they're adults, and I don't believe that will be a problem. But now I'm being offered a third baby. Can all three stay in the same 20 gallon tank when they're adults? I'd love to take her, she's a beautiful snake, but I'm in college at the moment and don't want to spend the money on a whole new set up for her. If anyone has input, I'd appreciate it, as I'm rather new to the whole snake thing. Thanks!

You can go to Wal-Mart or K-Mart and get a 28 quart plastic sweater box (around $5.00) to house your new corn snake. Add some substrate, a water dish, a hide and get a regular heating pad when you buy the sweater box (around $12.00). Place this , on low, under one end of the sweater box and you have a nice snake habitat. Doesn't take up much space and is very affordable.
There are many opinions (pro and con)on keeping more then one snake in any habitat.
My personal opinion would be at the very least buy one sweater box but preferably two. They could actually share the heat pad.
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Jimmy (draybar)

A 20 gallon tank is only large enough for one adult corn. You can use rubbermaid storage boxes as housing for corns, they are inexpensive and work well. Be aware that corns will breed without any effort on your part, so if you have a male and female together, they may breed too young, which can be fatal for the female. There was a message posted a little lower down about corns less than a year breeding...so be careful.
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-audri
Webpage/Pics

Ok, so Im odd, but I dont house any of my adult snakes in less than a 50 gallon setup. I think of it this way, our adult corn is 5 feet in length.... 20 gallons is not much room for her to move around and stay healthy. I keep a two seperate pairs of Ball pythons in 100 gallon set ups each, (50 per snake) and our Carpet Python has around 150 gallons worth of space to herself. Why house even one snake in such a small area?

Moosemonitor

I like large separate setups for adult snakes. Plan on couple more corns and some pines - maybe a bp too. Would like to house each adult in homemade 5'x2'x1.5' cages. The only snakes I plan on housing together are garters.

Some of the cons of housing together are premature pregnancy mentioned earlier, spread of illness and identifying source of illness, and feeding "accidents". Need to feed in separate container.

The rack and tub setups are very space saving and economical to build and operate. Plenty of posts in cages forum for nice homemade jobs - check the old forum also.

Hey, thanks for all the advice everybody. I'd been told I could keep the two corns together in that 20 gallon tank, so I'm glad I found out it's a bad idea. Glad to hear about all the cheap ways to put a set up together. Your input is appreciated!

KB