• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Communal housing??

lorlor54

lorlor54

New member
I was looking at Petsmart online, and this is the description for their Corn Snake:

Corn snakes can be housed communally, although be sure to always feed them separately. They are a carnivore which means they are strictly meat eaters. Rodents comprise most of their diet. They are active primarily during the night or twilight hours and usually sleep during the day. They are ground dwellers and typically like to burrow, so be sure to use a safe substrate, like Aspen bedding, that allows him to form a burrow.

I thought they had to be housed separately?
 
You can house them together... As long as you don't mind risking one eating the other... or sharing diseases... or stressing them out when they compete with each other. Seriously though, it's best all around for most people to house them separately.
 
Only if you want them not to eat each other!
 
Yah, I plan to house them separately! I just wish Petsmart would be more wise with it's info to the public!
 
Don't we all. Just one more reason I try to steer people from buying corns there.
 
I'd suggest doing a search for cohabbing, there is a lot of passionate debate about it.
In short, it should usually only be done by experienced keepers with snakes they've had long enough to know what their individual signs of stress are.
The cons to housing communally in short are: difficulty in determining which snake might be having a health issue, the spread of disease if one snake gets something, it's likely all cage mates will get it, and possible stress from competing for the best spot in the cage with other snakes, especially if one is more dominant or two mature males are feeling the breeding season. Possible cannibalism can happen, it's more likely with hatchlings but can happen among adults too. Cannibalism with snakes of similar size usually results in both snakes dying.

So far there isn't really any tangible, concrete reasons for co-habbing corns, and most other snakes, that are of benefit to the snakes rather than the keeper, so it's generally not recommended. Most snakes are pretty much solitary and don't spend much time near one another in the wild. There are one or two species out there that are more social and some research has been done that does show those species might get an emotional benefit from being housed together but it's extremely rare and the health reasons mentioned above still apply. So it's the default position of a lot of keepers, to never house any species of snake together until you know a lot about them. It's not something that a newbie should do, which is why so many people hate pet stores that promote doing it among those with their first snakes.
 
Yah, you always see giant boas and pythons together, all intertwined and curled up together... but not corns..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top