Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is a follow up to my last posting about keeping a corn and an eastern fox snake together.
I know from my reading that, in general, snakes are a solitary group of animals. Besides coming together to breed, most prefer life alone (sounds like a character from a French existentialist novel!). I'm curious, do any snake species actually like living with their fellow serpents (presuming they are of the same species, i.e., corns with corns, ball pythons with ball pythons, rainbow boas with rainbows, etc.
At pet shops you often see similar species huddled together, seemingly out of preference. However, I realize the way most pet shops keep their snakes on display is not exactly meant to make the critters happy. Commerce comes first!
Your insights would be appreciated.
Thanks.

The reason you see snakes huddled together in thos conditions in the pet shops is (I believe) due to environmental conditions in those tanks. In other words, there are only so many spots in one tank that will give a cornsnake the most comfort possible (not too hot, too cold, too moist, or too humid...or at the very least, the BEST scenario in a badly controlled environment), and individual snakes will migrate within a tank to reach that optimal position.

If a tank is poorly controlled (as many pet shop tanks are), then snakes will more readily tolerate each other's presence and pile on one another. However, this is a resignation to the environment, not a true seeking out of companionship. In my opinion, there is still a degree of stress that is unneccessary.
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

that's not the problem....

disease and eating each other is..not knowing who shed and who defecated and all...

yes..you can keep snakes together....

yes..you can keep fox and corns togther......

as long as they are more or less the same size......and the cage is BIG enough to handle it......

good luck....

feed seperate........

JY
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Some snakes will tolerate being kept with other snakes. Others will become stressed-out enough in their competition for prime basking, hiding and other favorite "spots"...as well as the stress from just being kept in constant close proximity....that they will stop eating, puke, try harder to escape or become otherwise agitated. To say that all snakes enjoy being with other snakes is not only wrong...it is actually misinformed to the point of being foolish............. Duffy

To suggest that keeping a corn snake with a fox snake is OK is bordering on irresponsible.............

all snakes want to be alone..they hate other snakes...when they encounter another snake.they chase it away or run from it.....

ok....how will there ever be baby snakes to keep the species alive...?....

friend keeps 2 or 3 corn females in each cage....

I keep one per cage.....

he gets alot better fecundity than I do..........his babies are feeding better....all his females are in better shape than mine...

his theory...they keep each other company and they keep each other occupied...therefore they are more active and less FAT.....

it works well......

....snakes will pile on top of each other in a den...in a basking spot...in cracks and crevices in rock piles and under items left in the woods by man or mother nature....

lift rocks in the correct mountain streams in Pa...found 1....2.....4....even 5 ringnecks under rocks....5 under small rocks......

water snakes lay near or on each other.....

turtles pile on top of each other.....(as with snakes it benefits for them....at least one will notice predetor and they all can run)....

yes.snakes like each other....

you been thinking like a forum reader too long.......

..........

there are correct and in-correct ways to cage multple snakes together.........

just do it right.....fox and corn....hmmmm...if she lays eggs let me know..intresting mix.......

...........right?>?

/.........
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In Kansas this year we found 5 species under one rock.

Ringneck snakes
Milk snakes
Yellow-belly racer
Black Rat
Worm Snake

Lots of snakes, in fact we found over 1,000 (mostly Ringnecks) in 5 days. 16 different species.

Snakes of different species DO live together other than for brumation.

Kerby...

...
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

Snakes of different species DO co-habitate in the wild - that is a fact , not an opinion. Not all species of course, and only certain species do, but they do. Finding different species under the same rock in the wild IS co-habitating.

Can different species co-habitate in captivity without ill-effects? You bet they can, BUT not recommended unless you have all males together or all females together of different species. And would be rare in most captive breeding programs.

So, I agree that they shouldn't be in captivity, but I know it happens in the wild.

Cheers

Kerby...

The issue was not "Are they found in a location together in situations other than brumation?" The issue was "Do they LIKE to be with one another?"

I have never said that you cannot find snakes of different species in one location. I don't think finding five separate species under one rock (a really cool find, by the way!) is the norm, by any means, but it's certainly not outside of the realm of possibilities by any stretch.

What I AM saying is that when you find multiple snakes in close proximity to one another, it is a situation of their mutual acceptance of one another due to a common need for whatever environmental condition that location provides them (shelter, warmth, humidity, etc.) As far as I know, the cerebral cortex (where higher forms of thought are created within the brain) is absent in snakes. That being the case, "liking" the company of other snakes is simply an emotion they cannot possess. That being the case, they do congregate, but it is for meeting a common need, not because they like each other.

That was, and remains, my only point in answer to the original question being addressed.
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

"yes.snakes like each other.... "

I'm sorry, but that is simply a misunderstanding of the need for snakes to rely upon their immediate environment to regulate themselves.

You are anthropomorphizing them, because they are huddled together under one rock, by saying they "like each other." Quite frankly, given the lack of any real cerebral cortex in snakes, it quite likely that they do not "like" anything at all, but merely react positively or negatively to various stimulation scenarios.

CAN you house two snakes together without harmful effects? Sure, it can be done. I've done it myself in the past. SHOULD you? Probably not, for a variety of reasons. Do they LIKE being together?

No...not at all.

They tolerate one another for matters of convenience, comfort, and reproduction activities. Even so, introduction of one snake into another's domain IS a stressful situation, and as reptiles, stress in snakes is a dangerous issue, the outcome of which cannot accurately be predicted by even the most competant of keepers.
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

exactly

snakes just aren't social animals like people, dogs, elephants, etc. they might not run at the sight of one another, but although i'm no expert i must say i suspect they're happier alone.
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0.1.1 corn snakes
1.1.1 African giant millipedes
0.2.0 Dalmatians
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