Can corn snakes want to mate with ball python?

My corn snake is still freaking out and wont stop hunting. My ball python is on the bottom rack right below him. I have posted a thread about this before but im just curious in general if different snake breeds still capable of mating? Or are they like dogs and cats and arent like that?

go easy on op guys

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Originally Posted by Medusa<3

My corn snake is still freaking out and wont stop hunting. My ball python is on the bottom rack right below him. I have posted a thread about this before but im just curious in general if different snake breeds still capable of mating? Or are they like dogs and cats and arent like that?

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Technically widely separate species (especially when separated not by species but by the higher taxonomic level of family) cannot successfully reproduce with each other...corn snakes are colubrids which is a whole family level difference from boidae and pythonidae (pythons and boas) and...hence the distinction of separate species, however this has been shown to not always be the case as in the hybrid pythons and boas available and occasionally produced in the pet trade...or the whole donkeys/horse/mule issue.


Perhaps your corn snake isn't freaking out over the nearby python but rather the same rack being subject to one set of husbandry standards that while correct for a ball python may not be exactly correct for a corn snake? I have never kept colubrids so I cannot speak about how different the husbandry practices would be from those of pythons.

I would agree with Osiris about checking the temperatures and such. The proper temps for a BP are higher than what is good for a corn, so the corn may be uncomfortable and trying to find a cooler spot.

Since they are different species (not breeds), I don't think they would recognize the same pheromones in another species.

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as in the hybrid pythons and boas available and occasionally produced in the pet trade

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Osiris, could you provide a source for this info? I've never heard of a boa and python reproducing. The reason that horse and donkeys can mate and produce young, albeit, infertile young, is that they are in the same genus, which is 1 step above species. Boas and pythons aren't related until you get to suborder, serpentes, which is 3 or 4 steps above species. Not to mention the fact that boa are live-bearers and pythons lay eggs.

You corn snake is just on the lookout for a female, and I'm sure that it's not the Ball it's looking for :P
Even with no females around, male corn snakes will become very active and searching for a mate. It's the high time for breeding season right now.

As for breeding them, you might be able to, I don't know how close the DNA of a ball is to a corn considering they are completely different species of snakes.
Even if the female was fertilized, there's a high probability of all the babies being infertile or dying.


My friend's female corn snake tried to mate with my boyfriend, and my male parrot tries to mate with my mom, so who know what's going on through his head xD

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Originally Posted by Kat_Dog

My friend's female corn snake tried to mate with my boyfriend, and my male parrot tries to mate with my mom, so who know what's going on through his head xD

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Pics or it didn't happen.

I think it is probably a temperature issue. Corns are kept with a 70-85 gradient (going off of memory here). If he is in a ball python rack, he would be too warm

I'll mate with just about any female...:P

Of course it's possible for them to mate. Reproduce, however, is entirely different. I doubt the corn would attempt to mate with the ball in the first place, though ;) As others have stated, check your husbandry with that commonly required for corns, and make sure it isn't hungry :)

some known python hybrids:

http://www.worldofballpythons.com/morphs/hybrids/

ive also seen a BP + green tree python cross in a snakebytes episode. it looked totally strange.

in the boa world there also seem to be some hybrids.

but python + boa? i dont think so, too distantly related. and python + corn snake is also too distantly related.

People dont like hybrids, for many reasons, like: if you breed a python that lives high up in the trees to a python that lives on the ground, how is the offspring supposed to behave? its just not natural. Also they tend to all be infertile. Also you cannot know how big they will grow and what health issues will show up. Also when you put them together, you dont know if they will mate or if they will fight and attack each other, or just ignore each other.