Reptile & Amphibian Forums

its pretty much reccomended on these forums that chondros shouldnt be housed together or introduced except for mating.well im not saying this is not true and i do not keep my snakes together but i did notice,and anyone else who may be from nyc has noticed that the staten island zoo reptile exhibit(one of the best,if not best in the country) houses their chondros together in an enclosure not all that much larger than my largest(id say maybe less than 4 feet wide.i spoke to the keeper once about their chondros,not about them housing together but about their breeding.i was told that although they were being housed together that they were not attempting to breed them and this is because they need permission to breed any animals.this permission came from only one person in the whole country that decides who and when chondros in zoos will be bred.anyway,i thought it interesting that they would house their snakes together and since they are a well respected zoo is regards to reptiles,i started to think that maybe there are two schools of thought in respect to housing chondros and we are only hearing one of them.anyway,id like to hear what you guys think and if an enclosure is like say,3-4 feet wide,would it then be ok to house pairs together all the time?to tell you the truth,i believe every other zoo i have ever been to that had chondros,was also housing pairs together.granted i think it was only 2 other zoos i have seen them in but they were being housed together.anyway have chondros at their local zoos?

does anyone have chondro pairs at their local zoos?thats what i intended to say,sorry)

i dont think it is a good idea, but if i were to do it i would only house two girls together... two males would probably not last long together......
i went to the Sedguick County Zoo (SCZ) a few months back and got to go behind the scenes and after talking to the keeper he said that they were housing 3 together... 2 males 1 girl... and if my memory serves me correct i think he told the the girl died... either way one got caught between the other two and the outside two ripped to to pieces...

in my professional opinion a Zoo is not a good example... a zoo is most likely going to put out whatever they have just to have it on display... regardless how nice the zoo is...
i have been to the Omaha Zoo and saw the reptiles their and i was vary impressed... all the reptiles looked great and their were not too many of anything per cage... in fact they had 3 times more not on display that i got to see in the back thanks to Andrew... the head keeper has Chondros (go figure)

Shiloh
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Shiloh Hawkesworth
kansas
(Midwest Serpents)

I'm with Shilo. Who is to say a zoo knows what they are doing. Hell, a few months back some one posted a thread on which their trip to the zoo lead to seeing a dead chondro in side it's inclosure that was there for days!

Anytime you want to house 2 snake together just ask yourself one simple question.

"Is this in the best intrest of the animal or is it more for my astetic pleasure?"

The simple fact that someone has to ask the question in the firest place should say something.

But seriously, people dont listen to experienced chondro keepers, They go buy W/C and farmed animals and complain about their vet bills or that the chondros die. They Post photos about their jaya chondro then belly ache when its turns out to be a biak. They breed 2 w/c animals and get upset that they cant sell the babies and that people with pedigree mutts sell them for twice as much and have no problem selling. People are going to do what they want. Most will learn the hard way.

The book has been written by years of trial and error, why try to rewrite it.

we have chondros here at the st louis zoo but they arent housed together instead the zoo has a chondro and a emerald tree boa housed together with a sign underneath that says look alikes me personally i dont keep my chondros together i keep them seperate in neodesha cages

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kevin
1.1 redtails
0.1 green anacondas
1.1 yellow anacondas
1.1 brazilian rainbow boas
1.1 solomon islands ground boas
1.1 kenyan sand boas
1.1 dumerils boas
1.1 amazon tree boas
1.1 riverside rosy boas
1.1 burmese pythons
1.1 reticulated pythons
1.1 african rock pythons
1.1 blood pythons
0.1 childrens pythons
1.3 ball pythons
1.1 rough scaled sand boas
1.1 calabar burrowing pythons
1.0.1 biak green tree pythons
1.0 timor monitor
1.1 bearded dragons
0.1 savannah monitor
1.0 short haired fox terrier
0.1 beautiful woman
and more to come

oh no ,i agree..i feel no reason to mess with what has worked so well.i wasnt claiming that maybe i was going to do that,its just something i have noticed most zoos doing and i thought it was worth discussing.i guess the reason most zoos may do this is either lack of space,or the idea that pairs make better looking displays.either way,i felt like hearing some opinions and i did.,thanks