A few weeks ago I caught a buttermilk racer and had been keeping it because I do educational talks and lectures and it is good to have native snakes for identification purposes. This particular one was very calm and friendly and very unracerish.



I had been having trouble getting it to take mice on its own, though it would eat them if i slid the head of the mouse into his mouth. So when I came upon another racer that was very calm I decided to keep that one a bit to see if it would accept mice better. It also looked surprisingly different from my first buttermilk. It had much smaller eyes, a thicker body, and smoother scales that felt very different from the first. Also had orange eyes.



So I introduced the new racer to the first one and just put it in the same cage, watching them for signs of aggression. Immediately the first racer became extremely interested in the new one and followed her everywhere. He absolutely would not leave her alone. He didn't really touch her because he seemed tentative but it was obvious he was enraptured by her presence or something. He kept rapidly flicking his tongue out, following her around. Eventually the new one found the hide box and slithered in. The other racer almost never goes into the hide box by himself, but he slowly stuck his head in and "sniffed" her for a long time. Very slowly he went in and curled up on top of her. I came back a while later and found him rubbing his chin all over her body. I believe this has something to do with pheremone reading.



Judging by the reactions of the first racer, I think he is a male and the new one is a female. They haven't been mating as far as I know though. They just constantly cuddle. At first she didn't seem to notice he existed but now I think she enjoys his company. They are always curled up together no matter where they are and they keep their heads right by eachother. If one sticks its head out of the hidebox the other will too.



The new one did accept a mouse the first time I tried... but I can't let the male go because they are so attached to eachother now. I was just wondering if anybody had experienced racers being social like this before.
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pet snakes

1.0 sumatran short tailed python

0.1 ball python

0.1 rosy boa

0.1 corn snake

1.0 mexican king snake



other snakes that may or may not be temporary captives

1.1 buttermilk racers

0.0.2 broadbanded watersnakes

0.0.1 yellow bellied watersnake

0.0.1 ribbon snake

0.0.1 western cottonmouth

0.0.1 rattlesnake



pet lizards

1.0 broadhead skink

1.0 bearded dragon

1.0 leopard gecko



0.1 quaker parrot

1.0 fischers lovebird

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