Splitting up corns

Im one of the people who have been keeping corns in the same enclosure. Due to the amount of threads that have been going about NOT keeping them together and the reasons for this has made me think about splitting them up. My question is will splitting them up at this point cause any stress to the snakes. The reason I am asking is that they have been together for over 1/2 a year and they are inseperable, i mean they are everywhere together. They share the same hides always, when one goes to the cool side hide the other follows and vise versa. They are always coiled together, they bask together but i definitly dont feed them together. I know that the negatives of keeping them together outway the positives, just want to know if anyone has been in my shoes and split snakes causing them to stress.

No. They will not even notice that the other is gone. I think your making the best decision for your snakes.

I have one pair together at the moment as hatchlings because I'm waiting for another tank to come but aside from that all my snakes are separate as i find this best, if there's a problem you know who's problem it is i.e. regurges and if a snake doesn't like eating outside of the tank it can be fed inside with no worries!

The power of the internet has influenced me!!! I just split them up now which means one is in a 55 gal and one is in a 10 gal...not the greatest sizes (one a little big/one a little small) but it will have to do for now. Im assuming they're better off apart in tanks not quite the right size rather than together in one tank...right???

Yes... for now. That 10 gal tank will have to be upgraded at some point in the future - a 20 gal long tank would work just fine, but for now you are good to go for a while. I think you made the best choice for your snakes, especially considering that your snakes are 1.1

Thanks guys.

Hopefully youngsters wouldn't notice it. I had a pair of 16 year olds that I separated at 14 years, in a vain attempt to stop the female laying. All that happened was that they both went off their food and wouldn't settle until they were put back together. Now that the female has died, the male is showing signs of stress again.

Obviously there's no emotional/dependent bond between snakes that live together, but they do get used to a specific environment. It's been my observation that any change - viv, location, cagemates - has the potential to induce a stress response.

i too have to agree with kel on this one.
i had 2 females aged 5 and 8 that lived together for a good 3-4 years.
my 5 yr old, Skitzy is skitzoid, (hense the name) fed her every 7 days as shes extremely active. unfortunately my 8 yr old Missy had to be put to sleep on the 21st july this year, and skitzy then lived alone, she fed as normal but was no longer active, she didnt move around at all, and yet another, unfortunately, skitzy is now overweight, ive cut her food down and shes slowly loosing some weight, i put another one of my feamles in with her to see if it made a differnce and it certainly has, ive seen her skitzoid side come through again since ive put another with her. she definitely is one for company.
the point is even my local vet thinks that she was sorry for herself she no longer had her little viv mate around. i personally think that it does bother them, however 6 months is not all that long, whereas 3-4 years is quite some time. and they are still hatchlings whereas mine started as hatchlings and now have grown up together as adults. they even layed their eggs together, LOL. bless them.

just my 2 cents, but I have a male and a female that I have kept together for about 3 years now (they have breed twice with out problems). I tried to seperate them after the first breeding as I wasn't ready at that point to deal with eggs (didn't know one was male and the other was female) and they both stopped eating. I let this go on for about a month. Then just as a whim, I put them back together and they started eating with in a week and everything was back to normal. Since I have put them back together, they had another clutch (6 eggs this year) and this time I was ready and all 6 hatched in early July and are strong and beautiful. My two parents are about 4 years old now. and as long as they don't fight or cause problems I will keep them together. On the other hand, the only hatchling that I got from them last year and another yearling that I got this year to start a breeding project will stay seperate except during mating season. I haven't had much problem telling things apart between the two snakes that are living together now as the male is a snow, and is about 6 to 8 inches longser than the female, an okeetee. the sheddings are slightly different because of the scale patterns and length of the snake. As far as telling Regurge and feces apart, it isn't that hard. the female eats slightly smaller items than my male except durning the breeding months, and thus has smaller fecal matter. none of my snakes have ever regurged...knock on wood.

i have read the "negatives" of keeping two snakes together, but i believe it is a person decsion in the end. out of my six i keep two of my snakes together. they are a little over a year old and have been together (in my possesion) for about 5-6 months. but much like others have mentioned, they seem to be inseperable. i tried to put them in different cages because i was concerned about them trying to mate too soon (which i am not too worried about now because they are growing so quickly). but they hated it. the male was pacing constantly (looking for her?) when normally the two of the coil up somewhere together and lie around all day. i had the same problem with them not eating, so i did not hesitate to put them back together. they quickly went back to their normal behaviour and ate.

Now im getting frustrated....

Don't get too frustrated...everyone has their own opinion. the biggest thing that you need to do is take everything that you have read here, do a search on the forum and read all that you can find there, and then weigh the pros and cons of keeping them together versus keeping them apart. Then base your decision on that. Like I said, I won't keep anymore corns together because of some of the things that I have read here.

That's got nowt with them being together, snakes don't have the part of the brain that gives them emotions so they don't give a stuff if they're with another snake or not really they go on instincts alone. The male was pacing his tank and stopped eating because you changed his environment, it's the same as when you buy a new snake it doesn't eat straight away because it feels scared in its new home but once it realises it is safe it starts eating again. It just saves so many problems keeping them separate i had a pair of males bought a while back and one of them had internal parasites so the other contracted it too and it was me with the vets bill for two snakes when if they had been kept separate it would have only been the one snake.

I understand this. you say that splitting them up would be just like bringing a new snake home. I beg to differ with this as a new snake only takes a couple of days to a week to adjust to the new surroundings. A 3 year old snake going off of food and being legarthic for a month or more is a little different.

well im gonna stick to my guns and keep them seperated for now...

I think your right to try it Fizox, as that's what you feel comfortable with. Just be alert to the sorts of problems we've described and you should be able to head off any trouble before it causes a major issue for your snakes. Let us know how you get on.

Personally i've decided to take the risk. My vet (specialised in reptiles) told me canibalism only occures in times of high stress and it pretty rare even then. Pics i saw here of canibalism were all in tiny plastic cups.
I believe some impulses of other creatures around them may be beneficial. After all, they encounter lot's of other creatures in the wild. I don't lay in from of the tv 24/7. I could but i would become lazy and dim. And very stressed if even the tiniest thing would happen. A little stress isn't that bad.
I know people here think of it otherwise and i respect that. fizox if you want to seperate your snakes please do so. But only if you feel it's the right thing to do. Not because your adviced here. Whatever you choose best of luck to the snakes.

likewise, i just wish you luck Fizox and its whatever works for your snakes and you that matters. i personally run the risk of keeping 2 girlies together but no more than that, thats for sure. however i certainly would not keep 2 males together. but thats just what works for me.
you will get to know your snakes personalities and you'll learn what stresses them and how to keep them calm. its no problem.

jicin ~ now i usually end up agreeing with you on a lot of different subjects here, but what i have noticed about you is, you seem to mention this vet of yours that specialises in reptiles quite often, now let me tell you your not the only one that knows of a knowledgeable and respectable reptile specialist. i too know of one and he has dealt with my little darlings on a number of occasions. and please please dont take this as an offense as you do seem to very easily.

well good luck fizox. let us know how it works out for you and your little ones.

I haven't said that. I just asked my vet and that's what he told me. (I can't remember mention him often though. Just once before i think) Other vets may think otherwise but that shows theres no set awnser. Any vet will tell you a snake needs a certain temperature to be healthy. But on other subjects their opinions differ. Who's wrong and who's right? You can only decide for yourself.

Good luck with the seperation thing Fizox. Hope that it works out for you. I know that it would be a whole lot easier keep shedding straight between the two when they aren't together, and other things like that. I agree with Jicin on the canabalism issue too. the 2 snakes that I have together have been together since they were about 2 months old. I have had them for 3 years now and I still have 2 snakes. And if my future breeding pair hit it off, then they will probably stay together too. That way I don't have so many enclousers that I have to clean all the time.