Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi Im looking into getting a pair of yellow ratsnakes.What size cage would i need for the pair or do i need to house them seperately.also how hard oare they to breed?i heard they dont need to be hibernated but just put together after a slight cooling period.is this right?id appreciate any advice.thanks for your time
nick

...i'll simply say this. please use the search forum for commonly asked questions - size, feed rate, substrate, housing together. Youll get more detail.

Anyway i'll answer it now.

Don't put them together. The harmful effect list far outweighs the possible benefits (however i see none.) Search to see the whole list I wrote.
-----
-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Caligula)... coming soon

Hi Nick,
Here's a couple of answers if you don't find them during a search.
-I'd house them separately. I've kept snakes together in the past and may do so in the future- but only adult breeding pairs and always feed separately. I would not house young snakes together and even with breeding pairs I'd rather keep them separate for health reasons and to reduce stress on the snakes. It's a lot easier to monitor the individual snakes and treat any illnesses that may occur if they're separately caged.
-Cage size, depends on the size of the snakes. For an adult Yellow rat over 5 foot, I'd say at least 3'wide X 2'deep X 1'high. I've kept small rat snakes (3 foot long or so) in cages the equivalent of a 20 long tank. Anything over 4 foot needs more floor space, in my opinion. Yellow rats can be pretty arboreal, so consider adding some height to the cage and some branches to climb on.
-Brumation, some Yellows come from areas where they don't get a very long cool season (ex. Florida), but they also range up into North Carolina and definitely brumate there. I haven't bred them, so I can't confirm whether they will breed with just a cooling vs. actual brumation. I posted some links on general colubrid breeding last month I think, in another post. There is some information in the Kingsnake.com Care Sheets/FAQs/Features section you may want to check out.
Hope that helped, and good luck with the Yellows.

-----
Lora

thanks for the help.i should be getting my rats in a few weeks if all goes well.
nick