I have recently adopted a new corn snake from my local RSPCA (Badger), I already had a hatchling for the last 6 months (Spoon). After bringing him home and and undergoing a quarantine period I bought a larger vivarium and put both snakes in together. Badger who is 2 years old and 3 times as big obviously went over to greet Spoon who was less gregarious! :shock: I kept them together for roughly 10 mins once i was satisfied that spoon had beaten the land speed record. I have not put them back in together since. I was wondering is there a 'ideal' time to introduce snakes and if this behaviour is normal? Thank you. George.
No there is not an ideal time to put snakes together, unless they are close in size and male and female... and that is for breeding only. Putting two snakes together especially when it is of such a HUGE size difference is going to cause stress for the snakes and possibly get the smaller one killed or eaten. A quarantine period is typically a minimum of 30 days but is much better to go longer, some people will qurantine for 6 months or more. The long quarantine period is very important when the snake came from a place like an SPCA or individual. There is no way to tell what the snake may have been exposed to or how it was cared for. The best rule of thumb is if you cant afford the proper caging and husbandry to house them separately then you shouldnt get it.
Stormy's right. Snakes that are complete strangers to one another are especially prone to stress and/or aggression. And with the one being so muh smaller, I'd definitely keep them separated.
To Stormy, I would have preferred for them to have got along together but it is not a case that we do not have space/money for two - of course we do (money is no objective), else as you say we would not have bought a second snake!! I thought that there may have been a specific reason why they weren't getting along due to the circumstances that i introduced them and was hopeing for some helpful advice which your reply started out as. I therefore was quite shocked at the insulting last line of your reply making me out to be another useless reptile owner. I have extensive knowledge - except on breeding, but have never been in the fortunate position of having two at a time!!!!! Thank you for making me feel welcome! :cry:
After going back and re-reading the last line of my post I can see how that could have come across the wrong way but I am apologizing for the wording and harshness that it was presented in, but the information is the same....two snakes should not be housed together unless it is for breeding purposes. It is all to common to see people new to the hobby purchase reptiles and try to dump a bunch of them in a cage together and watch as they slowly perish from illness related to the stress of being housed together. My intention was not to offend you. I had just finished reading and answering several posts from people about feeding live rodents to snakes, one asking why ball pythons and boas dont get along together in the same tank, then followed it up with a couple of other pretty ridiculous ones. I then came here and read the post about "introducing corn snakes" and got a bit short. It gets very easy for some people that have been in the hobby for a while that spend a lot of time on these forums trying to educate and inform only to continuosly see the same things over and over again. Typically the questions are asked after the fact when the damage is already done, like when a ball python hasnt eaten for three and a half months and come to find out the last time the owner offered food it was a live rat that took a nice chunk out of the snakes side.
Thank you for taking the time to rectify our rather sticky correspondence. Fortunately no harm has been done. I have handled both of my snakes on a regular basis since their introduction and they don't seem to have taken it personally!! They have both had a meal since too (dead fluffies - for your info). You are obviously very passionate about your reptiles, I wish that people were educated a bit better before purchasing snakes (then I wouldn't have had to adopt from the RSPCA in the first place).
my brother has an okeetee and a blizzard the okeetee is about 2 times as big as the blizzard and both live in the same cage and are happy as far as i know.
