Housing Multiple Snakes

James,
Good things to consider. Thanks. That is what I am looking for....I want to have my eyes wide open so I don't loose these guys. By the way, what is RI? And also, I've had someone tell me that the North American species will not get mites unless they get them from an African snake. Any thoughts on that?
Snyds

Why can't people understand that reptiles are not fish? that you just can't throw multiple species in one tank? [honestly, it's not wise to do with many fish, as well!]

Originally Posted by Snyds

James,
Good things to consider. Thanks. That is what I am looking for....I want to have my eyes wide open so I don't loose these guys. By the way, what is RI? And also, I've had someone tell me that the North American species will not get mites unless they get them from an African snake. Any thoughts on that?
Snyds

RI - abbreviation for Respiratory Infection

I've never heard of that other thing either. I've seen North American snakes get mites from South American snakes, Australian and Asian snakes just as easily from African snakes.

In fact, (if I recall correctly), the common snake mite actually originated from Asia (thanks, Burmese pythons!)

Yeah what MDC said.

As far as the mites go what I have learned is they get them one of 2 ways. Cross contamination with an infected snake or a bad batch of bedding. Any snake is prone to getting mites because they are carriers of them including the North American species. Mites aren't hard to get rid of but it is still a pain. It took me 3 hours to treat my entire collection when I saw a mite on a snake I received. Even though my other snakes didn't have them I still treated as a precaution.


The cheapest way to keep snakes housed separately would be to go get sterilite boxes (or tupperware) then buy a heating pad wide enough to be set between the two boxes. The col thing is sterilite boxes come with automatic locks on them. Then setup their habitat and your done. Oh yeah don't forget to get a thermostat so you don't set your snakes enclosures on fire for the heating pad. Oh and those boxes also hold humidity better. The most expensive thing is going to be buying humidity and thermometer for each enclosure.

That way it doesn't cost you a bunch in order to separate them.

Here also are a couple of links to kind of give you a pretty good view of why most people will say no to housing two snakes together. Also the northern water snake is pretty aggressive and a corn is not.

http://aquaticpredators.com/forums/i...showtopic=7951

http://www.rcreptiles.com/forum/about1343.html

Thanks Evil Cowboy. Some great links there! Phew!