Male company

[GGarter]

I was wondering if there are any problems in keeping a male and a female in the same enclosure from babies....?

I am starting to build my hideouts for my atratus' I'm getting in september.

How big should they be?

I'm getting babies, but I want to build them so they'll fit when the snakes grow to adulthood.

Greets Tore

[Snaky]

I've not had any problems with keeping a male and female together from when they are babies.

I've not held atratus, but they are quite big. I would use about the same size as for radix.

Very nice as additions :)

[Stefan-A]

Isn't T. atratus one of the smaller species (of the ones commonly kept in captivity)? I know the Rossman et al. book says something like 100 cm maximum length, but I was under the impression that most remain significantly smaller?

Anyway, there shouldn't be a problem, but the female might get stressed by the male constantly trying to mate (like mine does). I'd assume that keeping them from babies would be easier than introducing them later on, which in my limited experience isn't difficult either.

[Snaky]

Like I said, I don't have them myself... I've mostly seen young one's, but I always remember them as big (but I sometimes wonder if my memory still functions like it has to:D). Someone with atratus is the best person to answer this;)

[GGarter]

I'm quite certain they are one of the small species...:p

About the hideout, how big a ground area/volume should it have?
I'm building two.

[Snaky]

It does not really matter, but I make it so the snake has just enough room to lay in there all crawled in a circle. (Hope you get what I mean, don't think it's proper english:o.) But I've noticed that also a large plant (much larger) that you juste lay on the ground and where the snake can crawl under is a good hideout for some snakes.

[Stefan-A]

Well, they say that the perfect size for a hide is just large enough for the snake, but no bigger. Frankly, I don't think it's that important to have a hide that's as small as possible, anything that conceals the snake is big (or small) enough.