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Corns living together, or not

C

CornDazzle

New member
I read frequently that corns should not live together. My question
is, why does every pet store that I visit have all corns together and they have no issues? I even know of a store that has 2 corns, 1 rat snake, and 3 red-tail boas in one a @ 75 g tank...they said there are no issues, either!
Now, I have 4 Corns and a Brazilian Rainbow Boa that live independently of one another. I just wonder...what does it matter so long as they are fed separately?
 
BTW, I did not intend to sound as though I want my BR Boa living with my Corns.
Obviously, two extremes in living requirements.
 
All I can say is that pet stores do not always exhibit the best examples. Some are downright terrible in the way they keep animals.

I have seen hatchlings kept together with no problems for short periods of time, but mixing species does not appear to be using sound judgement, IMO.

There are many reasons to not keep differing species together including predation, stress, and differing care needs.

As for the keeping the same species together, that topic has been debated here in detail, and I am sure you can find a lot of information to make up your mind.

Just my 2 cents.

-Tony
 
Petstores do it save money. Its that simple. Most really don't care about their animals. Some do, but most don't. Its just cheaper for them to house together, because if they didn't, they would have to have a bunch of different containers, and that's just not "cost effective". And who says they don't have problems? If and when they do have problems, the customer is not going to see it. Unless they are really careless and let them die in plain sight. Someone was talking about corns in petstores last night in the chatroom, and he said he once saw a skeleton in one of the corn cages...:sobstory: . Its like that old phrase, if Joe Blow jumped off a bridge, are you going to jump too? Generally, you do the opposite of what the petstore recommends because 9 times out of 10, they are wrong. Sorry, really just venting about them...but yeah, you'll hear some terrible stories about petstores that should never be repeated at home.
 
Boas and corn snakes require different care. This includes the type of enclosure they are kept in, humidity, and so on. Bigger snakes also are known to eat little snakes. Little snakes can and will get stressed out when kept with a bigger species that can eat it -- and by stressed out, we of course mean not eating, regurging, bad sheds, etc. Then there is the possibility of parasite/disease transfer. Would you REALLY want to take a chance on a snake from a store that cares so little about their animals that they house them together despite all this? Or advice from such a store?

When pet stores house animals together it's to save space and money. They don't do it because it's necessarily 'okay' to house them together. Personally I would be appalled to see corn snakes housed with boas and would leave that store and never look back, and certainly would never give them a cent of my money.

Do a search around here for the co-habitation controversy. You will find there is not a single good reason -- beyond being cheap and lazy -- to house snakes of even the same species together. For the health and consideration of your snakes, avoid that pet store and their advice.
 
Keeping different species?????? I've heard of that and all I can think of is 2 big rats (rodent), a few mice and a hamster. Put them all in a cage and see what happens :rolleyes: Guaranteed its not pretty. Let's stick the owner of the pet store in a cage with a baboon and a gorilla. :grin01:
 
All that was already said, PLUS...

keep in mind that shops are hopefully temporary situations, although it would still be nice to provide a good example for customers. Remember, breeders usually sell baby snakes in deli cups over the weekend at shows, but that is not how we would suggest that a baby should be set up once you get it home, lol!
 
:twoguns: I don't know what the heck some pet stores are thinking.
I've mentioned it before, but...
I saw an "albino" (snow) corn hatchling tail hanging out of an albino kings mouth at Petco, a creamsicle hiding under a tiny water dish sharing a 5 gallon tank with a ball python in another store (I bought the creamsicle, and now they have an adult rat in their giving the evil eye to two b.p's), an adult rat snake and an adult coachwhip being very unhappy in a 10 gallon tank at another store, and it goes on and on. Grrrrrr.
 
Petstores

I have only found one pet store that housed snakes seperately and knew something about them.

My little girl and I were looking at corns at Petco when I decided that I wanted to add corns to my collection. I'd been online for a while, researching the different variations, so we were well prepared. The guy starts showing us his Rootbeer corns and Albinos. Well, I didn't say anything, because I knew what I was looking at. Well, my little 10 year old piped up and said, "What? Those are Snow corns." He started to argue. Yes, with my 10 year old... hehehe. I just said, "She's right, you know." When I asked about his Rootbeer ones, he just closed the lid and said they'd been sold. <sigh>

Petco is a great place for supplies and grooming, but I think they really don't have the resources to be educated. It's not right to sell animals that you don't take the time to research, but that is how it is. I just don't look anymore. It's much more enjoyable to chat with the breeders here and know what you are getting, from people who care about their animals.

-Tonya
 
The one pet store that we frequent and really like has started getting into carrying reptiles. They have two albino kings (babies) together in a 10 gal. Needless to say I won't buy snakes from them, or sell them mine, but the girls that work there try to take our advice to heart, as much as their boss will let them. Each time I go in I vocalize my concerns. I should talk to the owner and see if that will help. Sigh....
 
The reptile and amphibian specialist store I got all my snakes from has each snake seperate, hatchlings in litle tubs in heated cabinents and some adults on display in vivs, and has feed/shed records of each animal. Lucky for me I found such a good store after getting our first herp, a leopard gecko who didn't survive his impaction from being kept on sand at a rubbish local petshop.
 
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