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Mixing young snake with older snake

1K views 28 replies 10 participants last post by  Ghostface 
#1 ·
Okay here's the thing, we have a just over 9 month old corn, who's just coming up to 1.5ft, and 2 weeks ago, got an 8 week old amel who's now 10 weeks.

For now, they are both inside a 3ft viv, underneath the heat source which is an infrared heat bulb, giving them both perfect temps inside their serperate faunariums.

OH has decided that his snake, the oldest one, is ready to move into her 3ft viv, fair enough - but I wanna put it off until we have decorated her viv appropriately - branches, gotten the plants in place etc so it's not as open, and have got a heat mat and stat for the smaller snake so she can sit on top the 3ft viv in her faun.

OH has just come back from the pet shop after getting more substrate and told me that the owner told him it would be fine to put 2 corns, who have never mixed, aren't around the same size (the 10wk old has just this week started feeding on tuesday so is tiny), aren't roughly the same age, into the same 3ft viv together. And to just seperate them when feeding.

So the big question OH wants to know is - is that okay?

I personally do not want to do it at all, i'm not gonna do it. But OH insisted on me asking.

Opinions and arguements for (if any) and against it please :grin1: ty!

P.S yes I know there is already an active thread about this but I want opinions on young snake with older snake etc. :]
 
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#2 ·
Putting them together is BAD, the older one will bully the hell out of the younger one; maybe even eat him. He will most prob stop eating and drinking due to the extreme stress. This may cause him to die (if he doesn't get eaten that is). Housing snakes together can be a bad idea, even when simular size, but that is another argument. But housing snakes with such a size/age difference can be fatal. You will end up with one big fat happy snake, and one large piece off poo.
 
#3 ·
Exactly my arguement. Just not safe in my opinion but because a pet shop owner said it was okay, it must be. :roll:

Especially with the new one only JUST starting to eat which was a bloody lot of work on both mine and the breeders part.

But keep em coming people :grin1: got some convincing to do!
 
#4 ·
Personally I wouldn't house together until they are BOTH adults. Growing them up together has a whole heap of issues....what sexes are they? if male and female are you risking a snake becoming gravid when too young, this has a whole heap of health implications.

Quaranteen, the new snake should be kept away from your other one for a minimum of 3 months.

And this is besides any feeding and stress issues.

Best to wait IMO.
 
#5 ·
As you say there is another active thread about this, but in terms of your specific question about size differences, the only real concern I think would be stress.

Corn snake hatchlings are much more easily stressed than adults, and yeah some couldn't give a cr*p what you did, but others can be very timid. The 3 foot viv alone could cause stress, regardless of it having another occupant. It is based only on the size of snake, and size of viv that I would recommend giving you hatchling some stress free time in its faunarium until it grows, then you can consider the arguments for co-habitation.
 
#6 ·
The young snake won't be moving from it's small faunarium anytime soon, and when she does grow big enough, she will be going into the bigger faunarium the older corn is in now and eventually into a 3ft viv of her own.

I just want peoples opinions on why it is/isn't a good idea so that OH can read them seeing as he won't believe me when I tell him it's not a good idea lol.

Always had my doubts about this shop owner and this is just the cherry on top really.

The problem is he sees his snake as an individual and believes that just because some snakes do things, doesn't mean his snake will/wont etc, but in the interest of both snakes i'm not prepared to take any unecessary risks.
 
#7 ·
personally, the larger / smaller thing doesnt come into it for me, they are not social animals so shouldnt be kept with other snakes. As keepers i belive we should try and mimic the snakes natural environment as much as possible, so im prety sure in the wild a corn isnt going to be within 3 feet of another unless absolutly neccessary, just crossing paths or for breeding. :Na_Na_Na_Na:
 
#8 ·
I feel its time to release my side of this:

I want my Ghost to gradually move out of her faunarium(sp?) and into her viv. I have been planning this for a few weeks now.

I understand her Amery is way too small and so I suggested she keeps hers in her faunarium in the corner by the heatlamp whilst mine is free to roam.
 
#9 ·
Whats an Amery :Na_Na_Na_Na:

Even that would be far too stressful, I know i'd sh*t my load if I was in this little faun and something 8 times the size of me decided to take a nap on top of it or crawl all over/around it. Plus it would be taking up a potential basking spot for Cassie.
 
#12 ·
i dont see the problem
i once kept a royal and a beardie in a viv together with the royal inside the faunarium

Was worried about stress and setup a partition but would usually wake up to find the beardie baby had squeezed through and was sat on top of the royals tub.

2 snakes shouldnt be an issue at all
 
#18 ·
I wouldn't put a smaller snake into a viv with a larger one.

The pet shop just isn't thinking very well - they could make another sale by selling you a NEW set of heating equipment and a NEW thermostat... and instead they advise you risk the life of your smaller snake by putting it into the same enclosure as the large one!

I wonder if they're marking up their snakes an awful lot and make more of a profit on selling you a replacement snake than they do on selling you equipment...
 
#20 ·
Lol to be fair i don't think the shop even sells electrical stuff :S only ever buy the mice and substrate from them, asked if they had digital thermometers a week ago and they only sold strips for fish tanks :-| Actually resent giving them what little business we do, right snotty *beeeeeeeeep*'s.

Ah well.
 
#21 ·
Trisha, please explain, I dont want to put your Amel into the same viv, I know yours will stay in its faunarium, but I want to set mine free (relativly speaking) by allowing it access to the rest of the viv
 
#23 ·
Yes Tony you did say that, but also before you left you said that putting them both together out of their fauns in the 3ft viv would be fine because the plank over the road said so.

Anyway, I know what I wanna do, if you need any more convincing you may linger in this thread, but i'm not gonna bore people with our domestic any longer lol :Na_Na_Na_Na: get back to the 18+ forum anyway, not right seein you in the SNAKE part!
 
#24 ·
Yes Tony you did say that, but also before you left you said that putting them both together out of their fauns in the 3ft viv would be fine because the plank over the road said so.
Woah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never said that!!!
 
#25 ·
The only problem I can see with having a smaller faunarium inside a bigger one would be heating.

If you have a good temperature gradient for the bigger one, then it stands to reason that the smaller one would be either too warm or too cool depending on which end it was. The bigger snake will also easily have enough strength to move the smaller faunarium which would change it's temperature and probably upset the water bowl etc...

Is there not enough room to have them side by side rather than one inside the other ?
 
#29 ·
The woman who we saw was the breeders wife actually and she referred to his parents as "red and chocolate"... lol. Since found out she meant Amel and Charcoal, she got their records out and according to that they have no hets, so if that's the case then my baby is normal het for blizzard :mf_dribble:stunning though, never seen such a dark normal hence the woman calling that one "dark chocolate" hehe :p

Will get some pics up in a few days : victory:
 
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