Co-habbing N. water snakes. Bad idea??

I know the co-habbing thing is a hot topic, but I'd like some advice. Again, I have another friend who just received 4 northern water snakes from craigslist. She's been wanting a snake for a while, but I didn't realize she was going to get 4!

Anyway, she just posted on my forum about it, and it seems she's got them all in one tank. Please *gently* explain, if you have a moment, why this is a bad idea. I'll also point her to the search discussing this topic in other threads. I'm not familiar with these snakes, so I don't know how aggressive they are. I've subtly mentioned that co-habbing is not the best, but I don't want to debate it on a fish forum. We have very few herp people there.

Here is the thread if you'd like to see her photos. She says they're a foot long. Thanks for reading, and any constructive input here would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.petfish.net/forum/index.php/topic,70177.msg695125/topicseen.html#msg695125

*edit* Yeah, she's keeping them together.

I don't have any experience with the species, but I would assume the same things still apply..
Does she want to breed them? Because they will breed this way, and if not full grown the females are at a great risk of becoming egg bound.
Does she know if any or all are healthy? In the chance that one or two are ill- she won't know which it is (who had diarrhea or a regurgitation) and together they will spread the illness.
Does she feed them in the tank? How will she know when the food disappears that they all ate? Maybe one hungrier guy ate all the food, lol.
I don't know the liklihood of canibalism in this species, but surely whatever they are, the chances go up as a snake gets hungier- see above scenario..

That's about all I'd say, but I wish her the best!

All very valid reasons, thanks, Tom!

I guess she's putting her pond comets in the snakes' reservoir as the previous owners did. She's letting them eat as they like. Again, I don't know anything about the species, so it's hard to comment to her. I would assume they'd need belly heat, but she's not using any. I should just stay out of it, me thinks.

Yeah, Bad idea these guys will eat each other. I had babies last year that died eating each other. When I kept them in one cage.

Northern Water snakes are not the best first snake. They can be mean. Beautiful snakes mind you,lI miss mine but I personally like the ones with attitude.

Yikes! I knew you would know.

Trixter, I'm so glad you have personal experience with them. Kayla's such a sweet girl and probably one of the biggest animal lovers I know of. I know that she'd never intentionally want to harm them. I'm going to send her over here, and hopefully she'll post here for more info. Nothing worse than starting out all excited and then having something terrible happen. I've seen so many fish novices jump into something without research, all the fish die, and they just give up on a fantastic hobby.

(((Trixterpup)))) I just saw your post on her thread!! Thank you so much for the photos and the advice to her. YOU ROCK!

Nanci said:

Yikes! I knew you would know.

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Never been bitten. She was a sweet heart with me. She passed on last year, I was very upset and saddened.

I really like water snakes.

Now that I have achieved my goal of capturing an adult black racer, my next goal is to capture (and release) a water snake. I've always been kind fo afraid of them.

Nanci said:

Now that I have achieved my goal of capturing an adult black racer, my next goal is to capture (and release) a water snake. I've always been kind fo afraid of them.

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Most folks confuse them with Cotton Mouths. Up here we don't have them so for me I just reached into the water and grabbed the snake. I had no fear but my girl just screamed to be careful that it wasn't a water moccasin. I had to reassure her it wasn't one.

Yeah, I'm a little nervous about that aspect...

I used to keep them when I was a kid. They where the first snake I ever kept long term. I can't imagine keeping 4 in one cage as a beginner snake keeper. You'd never be able to reach in without being bitten.

That said, one of my snakes was sweet as can be from the day I caught her. She was calm as any corn snake and bit me once, but only because I surprised her.

Just to keep on topic - it would stink having 4 in one cage... literally. Their poo stinks, and it has lots of liquids. They eat fish after all. That would be one messy cage.

Well, Trixterpup came over (and thank you again for that!) and posted some info. She didn't seem to notice, or didn't care to notice. I think she wants to do what the previous owners did, which was keep them all together.

After the debacle I went through with my friend getting a retic. python as his first snake, I'm feeling a bit gunshy. I don't want to be overly aggressive with her, but at the same time, her living arrangements are very strange and I don't know that this will work out for her in the long run.

Anyway, thankyouthankyouthankyou, Trixter. And for all the replies here. Maybe in a few days she'll start wondering about things and start asking questions. In the meantime, TPup is over there being the "herp pusher" on my kids with all his photos of his amazing collection. I'll probably have to change the name to Petsnake soon. :laugh:

I'm JUST kidding, don't stop. I'm actually loving it. That's the most action that board has seen in a long time! I can't wait for Bot to come on tomorrow and start crying in his cheerios!

I know! Ask her if you can have one! That will cut it down to three!