baby royals together. thank you.

[kenchenzo]

hi everyone i have just purchased 3 baby royals and i was wondering if i could put them together.
they are all from the same parents but i haven't had them sexed yet.
thanks everyone.

[gonesnakee]

ALL snakes are best off individually housed no matter what except for breeding purposes, no time to get into all the reasons why, a quick search on group housing will pull up lots of cons though, Mark
P.S. some species such as Garters do OK together, but not without risks

[emseeKAY]

as mark said its generally a good idea to split them up. some people advocate that you can house a pair together (all year round, not just during breeding season) but from what i have gathered most people house them individually. search the site and youll find enough cons and to me the cons outweigh the pros.

[gonesnakee]

Snakes that are always housed together tend to make for poor breeders as well.
A male that only sees a female a few days a year will breed WAY more than one housed with a female 24/7/365 Mark

[Freebody]

Originally Posted by gonesnakee

Snakes that are always housed together tend to make for poor breeders as well.
A male that only sees a female a few days a year will breed WAY more than one housed with a female 24/7/365 Mark

so what your saying is, snakes are just like married people lol as for the topic even if they get along and all that stuff its still turns into a real pain in the rear to seperate and feed them in containers and teturn them back to their cages.... with what mark said and this tip, those 2 alone make me not house anything together GL

[kenchenzo]

thanks everyone they are apart at the moment anyway so i will just keep to that.
i thought most took there snakes out of there vivs to feed anyway.
i do with all of mine.

[percey39]

I dont take any of mine out of their enclosures to feed as i dont see any reason for doing so. Snakes will smell food not just see a hot object and bite. I find if you move them to feed your more likely to have a young nervous snake regurgitate its dinner and you are more likely to bitten when handling after feeding.
I would house seperately as its easier and will cause your snakes less stress if you have not got enclosure made for two snakes ie 2 hot spots, 2 cool spots, heaps of hides, perches and the list could go on and on.

[kenchenzo]

the main reason i take them out is so they don't eat the substrate.

[gonesnakee]

Originally Posted by percey39

I dont take any of mine out of their enclosures to feed as i dont see any reason for doing so. Snakes will smell food not just see a hot object and bite. I find if you move them to feed your more likely to have a young nervous snake regurgitate its dinner and you are more likely to bitten when handling after feeding.
I would house seperately as its easier and will cause your snakes less stress if you have not got enclosure made for two snakes ie 2 hot spots, 2 cool spots, heaps of hides, perches and the list could go on and on.

Exactly & glove or hook training will help as well.
I have snakes that will come right at anything that enters their cage as it may be food, but when they get a glove to the face or pushed with a hook they know right away its not food & then are fine.
On the regurge thing most folks do not realize that snakes that have just recently eaten will regurge their prey if they feel threatened to make for an easier/faster escape & likely also to have the "predator" have a nice gross rodent to consider while they flee as well.
Last week when feeding baby Diamonds I didn't wait long enough before moving their tubs (that they live in) back to the shelf & I watched 2 of them spit their meals up right in front of me as a direct result of me startling them.
I got the one to take its prey again after about a 5 minute tease feed & then the lil bugger spit it up again when I went to put his house back on the shelf DOH!
By me just moving the tubs they actually live in I had 2/20 intentionally regurge their meals & have had multiple baby snakes do so in the past as well.
If you startle them right after or during a meal they can & will regurge as it is part of their natural defence DOH! Baby Kings/Milks will do this quite often being nervous hatchlings.
I house all young snakes & all my Corns, Kings etc. on papertowels so no worry about substrate ingestion, well unless a kingsnake eats its papertowel due to a blood spot & they will now & then try to or will.
I have had adult kings pass them before even LOL
All the bigger Pythons are on Aspen & do just fine.
Kept in mind in the wild they ingest all kinds of crap & as long as it is small it will be passed. Substrate with long pointy chunks of course being bad you want small chunks or the Aspen "flakes" kinds, nothing with long slivers in it, Mark
P.S on group housing, risking cannibalism, stress & snakes hide stress/illness very well, unsolicited breedings, young females becoming eggbound due to being bred too young/soon, who's defecated? who's regurged? cross contamination issues etc. etc.

edit - also on the taking out for feeding thing, ever feed 50 snakes at once? a few hundred?

[kenchenzo]

i just wouldn't want to chance it myself.

[Freebody]

i would like to get a kingsnake, they sound like they can be real entertaining with some of the dumb things i always here they do.

[Lankyrob]

I feed mine in tubs but would reconsider if i had many more to feed, it is more time consuming than feeding in the tank. The arboreals eat on their perches and it is much easier to just give them the food then shut the tank and let them get on with it.

[gonesnakee]

When dealing with Pythons its far safer to leave them in their tanks to feed as well or lets take a hungry snake out & stuff it into a bin to feed & then while its still in food mode take it out & put it back into its enclosure.
Good way to get a nice tag & constricted IMHO Mark
P.S. yes KS's do have their moments LOL

[Lankyrob]

When putting the snakes back instead of lifting the snake to the viv i lift the feeding tub to the viv so that the snake can slither stright back into the viv. I dont have to touch the snake then and there is ,ess chance of regurge or me getting tagged.

[kenchenzo]

i do the same i lift the tub to the viv & let them go back in. i don't pick them up after they have eaten.