# What other animals could I keep in my snake tank



## Pickled Peter (Sep 14, 2009)

Hi
I have a Honduran milk snake, out of curiosity i tried to feed it a locust around last Christmas and it has stayed alive in the snake tank since then and only died last week.

I was wondering if maybe instead of a locust I could get a slightly more interesting animal such a small lizard or maybe even a corn snake which I could keep in the same tank.

Has anyone got any recommendations of any animals that would be suitable or has anyone ever tryd doing something similar. Any info regarding this would be welcome.


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## hermitman64 (Sep 14, 2009)

I think the general consensus will be that adding another species to the tank is usually not a good idea for several different reasons. It's simply not worth the many opportunities for risk that would be introduced into to the system. I know less about snakes than many on the boards, so I'm sure others will have better answers than I can give.


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## Pickled Peter (Sep 15, 2009)

I was wondering if there may be some exception. I know it is not common practice to keep reptiles of different species together however if I remember correctly when I worked in a pet shop my colleague managed to put a water dragon in a terrarium with sum sort of skink and no problems occurred. My friend has new babe corn snakes could there be any possibility of putting one of these cornsnakes with my milksnake


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## dtknow (Sep 15, 2009)

If you have to ask, then you are not ready to try it.(...certainly not a baby corn with an adult milk) I'll leave it at that.


If someone has had extensive experience with two species, and a large enclosure, and knows about all the potential problems, then they can attempt two put two species in one enclosure.


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## Lucas339 (Sep 15, 2009)

snakes can and will eat anything that they can get into their mouth.  the fact that your  milk didnt' eat a locust doesn't mean it won't eat a lizard.  i suggest if you want something else, getting another cage for it.  unless you want it to become a snack.

putting a locust in a snake cage and leaving it there was irresponsible.  while they may not eat snakes in the wild, it still could have chewed your snake up in the search for food or as a defense.  very irresponsible.


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## tjmi2000 (Sep 15, 2009)

Milk snakes are members of the kingsnake family which are known ophidiophages.  Furthermore, many species of snakes, milksnakes included, eat lizards so I think you have your answer.


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## Pickled Peter (Sep 15, 2009)

I find it hard to believe that the locust could have harmed the snake and I only put the locust in their as an experiment to see if it may eat it as I had heard that corn snakes could eat them.

I thought that people may know of an animal that would be harmless to the snake such as how the locust proved to be. I do not think the snake would try and eat any other reptile or insect as it only eats pinkys because of the scent and the heat coming from them neither of which would be present in an insect or reptile. In addition the snake has only been fed pinkys since it was born and therefore it is unlikely to see many other items as food.

I was already aware that milk snakes where closely related to king snakes which do show cannibalistic tendencies however from reading articles on hybrid breeding I discovered that Honduran milk snakes have less of these tendencies than there cousins. 

All these factors mentioned led me to the assumption that it could be possible to find an animal that could co-exist in the tank.


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## Lucas339 (Sep 16, 2009)

good luck with that.  just remember that even animals fed a steady diet, will seek out other food items when they are hungry no matter how many times they have been fed pinkys.

not my money though so go for it.


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## theanimalbin (Sep 16, 2009)

I also agree with the fact that you don't mix reptile species. Heck you shouldn't even put two of the same species for domination reasons unless its for breeding. Then again.. I'm not sure how insects play out in this. As in, what happens mixing reptiles and insects besides.. lunch time.


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## Pickled Peter (Sep 16, 2009)

I'm pretty sure now that from the information iv further researched and from what ive been told on this forum that putting another reptile in the tank would be a bad idea. However I believe that the snake is very unlikely to eat an insect so in order to find an animal that could co-exist in the tank I would have to find an insect that has the same habitat requirements but one which could not harm the snake. Caution would be taken when undertaking this experiment and I would observe while only putting the insect in for short intervals at first to ensure my snakes safety. Does anyone know of an interesting insect that meets the criteria?


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## dtknow (Sep 16, 2009)

Native walkingstick if you can get one and have enough room for an arboreal habitat.


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## Lucas339 (Sep 17, 2009)

dtknow said:


> Native walkingstick if you can get one and have enough room for an arboreal habitat.


walking sticks can spray acid when provoked.


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## dtknow (Sep 20, 2009)

Yep, definetly need to look into that as far as Anisomorpha is concerned. I am not aware of the other genuses being able to.


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## josh_r (Sep 20, 2009)

you could keep a mouse in with your snake.... or even various species of mites or ticks!


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## Mack&Cass (Sep 21, 2009)

Milksnakes are colubrids, therefore the fact that a lizard or another snake is cold blooded doesn't mean a lot. They don't have heat pits, so unlike a ball python for example, they don't rely on heat to find prey. They rely on scent, and not heat. Also, the fact that it's been fed rodents all its life doesn't really matter either. I have an adult corn whose been on rodents her whole life and I would stake my life on the fact that if I threw a lizard in her tank..that lizard wouldn't have a chance. I'd say you're better off leaving the snake by itself. No reason to cause undue stress to either party.


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## burmish101 (Sep 22, 2009)

I've had a male pueblan milk get loose one night and it ate my 3 leopard geckoes lol. If you want to get another snake I would suggest something from the Pitouphis(sp?) genus. Bulls I know for sure dont eat other snakes but you would have to get one thats larger than your milk is currently. Also one of the issues with keeping 2 snakes together is hygeine. Theyll poop almost constantly it will seem and its allot of upkeep to keep the cage clean. Also they are solitary animals to begin with and would benefit from being alone in their own cage, I've kept balls with retics while cleaning cages and none of them like to get crawled on by the other one bit.


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## pandinus (Sep 28, 2009)

i do recall my local zoo having an exhibit for a long time that had poison dart frogs and a honduran milksnake in a rather large natural vivaria. mostly stayed out of eachother's way. it was certainly an awesome looking display but would probably not be so easy to replicate



John


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