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I had a conversation with a friend earlier about something we had each heard a couple of times.
We've heard it mentioned that when corn snake hatchlings do actually eat other corn hatchlings that it can be fatal.
The only thing I can think of would be a size problem but otherwise I can't see it.
Does anyone have any thoughts, ideas, insights or opinions on the subject?
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Jimmy (draybar)

fv

As you can see, this one was able to get the other all the way down.

This one could not get it all the way down. It was dead when I found it.

it seemed it was fatal if I found the end of the snake hanging out of the other baby's mouth(as in Clint's photo). When a baby managed to get the whole thing down, he sometimes regurged, but at least survived.

As an interesting sidenote, there were only 2 (possibly 3) times in thousands of babies that I can remember a baby eating another one WITHOUT any hint of food being around. In all cases, they were bloodreds. None of those siblings had ever fed (which is why they were still together), yet one decided to dine on another. But I never saw that in non-bloods, except during the excitement of feeding on pinks. Now I pretty much separate them before the first shed to avoid any of those problems.

Kathy,
Both of my pics are of non-feeding hatchlings kept in the same conditions you described. The other interesting fact is that the female that produced them is a Classic, het Motley and possibly het Bloodred from your lines. I crossed this same female with a young Bloodred male this year in hopes of proving the Bloodred trait. But, assuming that the Bloodred trait is not completely simple recessive, even if the parent of my female was only het for Blood, she should have recieved some of the Blood traits.

Clint

P.S. Kathy,
How's that high white snake doing? Will it being producing any babies this year?

Do you all cull those non-feeding snakes with cannibalistic tendencies from your stock? Or are they permitted to live, breed, and potentially pass on a taste for their own kind?

I'm just kind of curious as to whether or not it's a genetic predisposition towards cannibalism. Kathy mentioned that out of all of the babies she's had over the years, only 2 or 3 ate a sibling, and all of them were bloodred. So does that line of bloodreds have this taste for corn snake bred into them?

It's like when we raised chickens, invariably it'd be the best laying hen we had, but always had one in the bunch that would eat her own eggs after laying them. We quickly culled those individuals from the stock, because curiously enough, the trait for egg eating was passed on from mother to daughter. So we always decided to nip it in the bud before it got passed on.

I dunno. Mostly just thinking out loud here.
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~*Taceas*~
rain@mainecoon.net

"And shepherds we shall be, for thee my lord for thee. Power hath decended forth from thy hand so our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. And we shall flow a river forth to thee and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti." - The Boondock Saints

The one snake I had that survived was sold wholesale (after it was feeding on mice) and I have no idea where it went.

I'm not sure if I'd keep a cannabal as a breeder or not, it would have to be pretty special!

Clint Boyer

>>I had a conversation with a friend earlier about something we had each heard a couple of times.
>>We've heard it mentioned that when corn snake hatchlings do actually eat other corn hatchlings that it can be fatal.
>>The only thing I can think of would be a size problem but otherwise I can't see it.
>>Does anyone have any thoughts, ideas, insights or opinions on the subject?
>>-----
>>Jimmy (draybar)
>>
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Jimmy (draybar)

when keeping a few (same sex/size) corns together...how long do you keep them seperated out for after feeding...so they do not bring the 'smell' of the mouse back in their enclosure with them. is waiting 24-48 hours ok?... just curious what others do
input is welcome

I'm curious about this as well. I'm part of a university campus club that has five six month old corn snakes which are currently all kept together in a twenty gallon tank. They're taken out one at a time for feeding, but immediately put back in the tank with the others. I get the impression that this could be a problem?