Questions from a possible future breeder

[Fiend4Life83]

This question goes out to all of you experienced corn breeders out there:
What is the probability of fighting occuring among cagemates if a male and two females are housed together from less than a year of age until after they are sexually mature?
Also, what are the chances of the male breeding with both females, one of them, or none of them?
How often does incompatibility occur between snakes where mating never occurs? Thanks to any and all who answer this since finding this kind of info online has proven relatively difficult.

[rynwilliams]

I have a male and a female in 1 tank, they have been in there since they were both around 5months old now they are around 2 1/2 years old, they have just sucessfully bread with each other without any brumation period.
I have not seen any fighting between them at all.

[gonesnakee]

You should have no problems housing them together as long as you seperate them for feedings. Once they are sexually mature I would house the male seperate to prevent unwanted breedings. You will also find that you will be more successful breeding if you control the exposure of the male to the females. He is more apt to "do them" when it will be most effective, if he isn't around them all the time. You can pair him with the female(s) you choose & when, having some control over whats going on & the timeframe it goes on in. If you have all 3 together he may not breed both, but go with one or the other, whichever one he can force himself upon easiest. Most young male Corns are Horndogs so he'll probably try no matter what. You have to remember he is a teenage boy, lol. Good Luck, Mark I.

[vanderkm]

I don't qualify as an experienced corn breeder, but will offer some cautions about housing corns together regardless of gender. Some snakes are quite intimidated by others in their area and we found this when we put female corns together in groups of two for a couple months this spring. In one instance there was no problem, but in the other, one of the girls stopped eating and spent all her time in one of the hides. She didn't return to normal until we separated them and then she ate within a day. We experienced the same thing with the first pair of ball pythons that we owned (before we knew about housing them separately). Other people have reported that pairs of snakes that have been together for along time seem to miss each other when separated, so there may be some variation.

I think the biggest risk you take by housing young snakes of opposite sex together is that they will breed before the females are old enough or large enough to be expected to handle having eggs. Like Mark says, teenage corns are not much different from teenage anything, and there is a risk of egg -binding with young females that are bred too early. Just something to consider,


mary v.

[gonesnakee]

Good points made by Mary. I failed to mention that I keep all my animals seperate except for breeding purposes & would recommend the same to others. Mark I.

I keep all my animals seperate, this makes it easier to record feedings, defication, sheds, matings, notice any activity changes, and prevents any problems of a sickness wiping out multiple animals