How many of you keep your milks together year round?

How many of you keep your breeders together year round?

in colubrids and other species of snakes when kept together although this may be debatable. ( there is a better word for it other than adverse but i can't think of it ) . The problem is some snakes, they may not go into breeding stage with both sexes together. In the wild < think about this > the female attracts males by scent laid down by femoral glands > ? while she is ovulating > ? and males become active and interested by the scent and heighten sexual urges to breed and tracks the female or scent down. In a close set environment of limited space, this may not happen as to the male not having the stimuli to heighten his coming into the sexual breeding mode. I say all of this with my keeping of large boids and HAD to keep them together because of space and they bred fine ! But on my many years of colubrids and breeding, I found as the general rule was, after brumation the introduction of the sexes kept apart facilitated breeding response when once they were put together. It is written as so in many books. BUT maybe by percentile of tried and true methods ? ..............

The reason I asked this question is because I read an article by one of the industry leaders in milk snake breeding that he keeps his milks together year round. I was just wondering if anyone else has had any luck doing this. I keep all my colubrids in separate containers but obviously, it works for some......

I have a friend(which may be the writter of the article you read), he keeps his milksnakes and kingsnakes together year round. It is not because off any lack of space, he simply keeps them together and they do just fine. He even gets the females to double clutch every year. After being to his place so many times, I would not doubt his knowledge and ability in the least bit. It has worked for him for many many years.

Hey Michael I would almost bet we speaking of the same person. His cages are set up so that the male and females can escape each other through pvc pipes. This is an awesome idea and when I make my move to Illinois this summer, I am thinking of creating a caging system based on this. I hope I have the sme luck as he does!
I think the key to it is to ensure both male and females are fed on a regular basis. I think his reasoning for keeping them together was because some milks will breed before leaving their brumation dens with the warm up. Very interesting.....

That is the guy, his cages are awesome. I think it is a bit humorous seeing a milksnake in a two foot tall cage, but it works well for him. A very important part of his feeding is seperating the adults for at least an hour after they have eaten so the feed response is pretty much gone when he allows the adults to be together again. Having drawers below the cage is a great idea, he can cap off the exit(using pvc caps) and clean the cage while the snakes are in the drawers.

He feeds his snakes well too, they can be at a breedable size by 9 months of age. Having the opportunity to go over on a monthly basis, I am always leaving his place with new ideas and knowledge,he is one of the best guys in the business. I am pretty sure you will do just fine and having cages connected with PVC allows the snakes to get more exercise because they have more places to roam than a standard cage. Even gives them a feel of crawling through dark places like they do in the wild.

I am currently working on the plans for this type of setup. I feed my snakes very well their first year, males and females, but I don't powerfeed. I know the individual we are speaking has produced some ofthe most awesome animals I have ever seen. I could only dream of being so successful......