Keeping Snakes Together

[Snake lover 3-25]

I currently have my 15" male and my 30ish" female... I have kept her with various baby snake and my now 2 yr old male has been kept with her ever since he was born... when I catch baby garters or brown dekay's snakes and even the ocasional baby corn/milk snake (far to small to eat either of my snakes) I always introduce them and then keep them in the same cage... I have been doing this for 2 yrs without problems, I think that they are both good around baby snakes or smaller snakes... soon (I hope) I will be getting a female puget baby and I want to keep her in the cage with them... I have a 20g tank with lots of hides and water, can I keep them together if their introduction goes well?:confused:

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

I would not keep corns with garters, a dekay might be fine with a garter but remember u always want to quarantine WC specimens before putting them with your other snakes as they might have parasites or mites orrr something

[Snake lover 3-25]

yeah... i just found that out via this forum.... but like i said i've done it for 2 yrs and i've never had any problems... but it is risky and mites are no fun for anyone... so i will quarantine them before from now on... but can i keep the baby that i get from you (hopefully) with them?

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

hmmm i wouldnt keep it with the large female, maybe once he gets bigger, shouldnt take long (babies grow really fast)

yeah... i just found that out via this forum.... but like i said i've done it for 2 yrs and i've never had any problems... but it is risky and mites are no fun for anyone... so i will quarantine them before from now on... but can i keep the baby that i get from you (hopefully) with them?

[Snake lover 3-25]

okay... but how big?

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

its up to u, always keep an eye on them when feeding, also since ur male is 16" he can breed so there is a possibility that if u keep them altogether he might mate with the puget

okay... but how big?

[Snake lover 3-25]

what would happen then?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

You for the most part can keep snakes of the same genus together, but don't mix things like milksnakes and cornsnakes with garters. keep corns with corns, milks with milks, and garters with garters. Corns and milks will occasionally actually eat one another so I am sure they may try it on your garter. you never know when a corn or milk could smell a bit of food that your garter has eaten and decide it wants some, and garters are not constrictors so they cannot fight back. a milksnake half the size of your garter, could easily kill it.

The only snake I keep together are garters, and I keep some corns in pairs.

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

you would get hybrid babies, i like some hybrid babies but it doesnt really make sense to me to breed a brown snake with a beatiful blue and black snake

what would happen then?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I almost forgot to add, if you keep ANY snakes together, they need to be of a similar size. I learned this the hard way! don't make the mistake because even if your larger garter is the nicest snake in the world, if it smells a trace of food on the little one or even if it's really hungy and the movement of the itty bitty snake stimulates it...

what happened to me was for one reason or another, my larger female eastern grabbed ahold of the middle section of my first ever baby albino checkered garter. the baby snake did a complete 360 degree roll out of fright and the big snakes teeth tore her skin and muscle off all the way around. it was terrible. I was much younger then, but my stupid mistake lead to a death that could have EASILY been prevented by having two snake cages. I cannot stress this enough.

[Zephyr]

Or, alternatively, keep the snakes very well-fed.
I'd think a dekays x garter would be alright, I often find them together in the wild.

[adamanteus]

I'm inclined to agree with Shannon on this one. Whilst it is possible to keep mixed genera/size snakes together, it just isn't safe. You may get away with it for ages and then, one day... disaster!
Best to keep a group/pair of just one genus of similarly sized snakes together.
Also, as Reed said, if you have mixed species of mixed sex together you are likely to get unwanted hybridization.
Personally, I keep all my species/sub-species separate.