Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all! I got my 1st corn snake yesterday evening. I tried today to handle it and all it does is freak out and "run" from me. I afraid that it might turn and try to bite me. I want this to be as stressless as possiblefor both the snake and me. Then snake itself is about 1 foot in length and is an albino. It isn't feeding time just yet. Not til next friday per PetSmart. Maybe I need to give him/her more time to adjust???

Also, I bought a UTH and a rheostat. I'm quickly finding that therheostat does apoor job on temp control. My main concern is that the substrate is in the 80's but the air temp is low 70's. Should I switch out hte UTH for a ceramic heater or heat lamp? Trying to avoid using extra light if possible.

Thanks in advance!

It's freaking out because it's in a new environment. It's generally a good idea to give a new snake at least a few days, poss a week to settle in before handling. After about a week take it out for a few minutes at a time, build it up gradually so it gets used to your smell. Also, if it does bite you don't yank your hand back as this would damage the snake more than you.

Not sure about the heating, I use a heat lamp for most of the year but add a heat pad (under the tank) to keep the temp up during cold winter months (I live in nice cold N. Ireland :s )
Hope that helps a bit!

I thought there were no snakes in Ireland
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You can only take my money for so long. And then I don't have anymore, and then I get angry!"

i knew snail was special lol
but yeah, true. i'm always so jealous of people showing pictures of the lovely snakes they find out walking. best i can hope for is a big worm!!

I got a corn a few months back, and he's a runner too. Well used to be, as he's calmed down quite a bit. Don't handle him for a few days, and mine freaks out whenever I touch the top of his body...they're a little bit calmer if you go underneath and pick them up.

A fair amount of hatchlings do not like to be held & most if not all of them calm down in time..

i only hold my hatclings when needed while i am cleaning thier cage and they all calm down once they put on some size.

Also, your heat pad is doing its job of creating a hot spot... put a small hide box directly over the heat pad and your snake will be pleanty warm. Air temps are really not that important so you will not need a light for your corn snake...

Also, most people will tell you not to take advice from chain stores (Petsmart, petco, petland, etc.) Do some research on the web and pick up a good book on corn snakes to help answer your questions as they arise.

Good Luck!

~ Mike Russo

I am surprised you mentioned petland.... I have an interview as a manager of fish and reptiles on Thursday. I have never heard of the place but they are opening a store here in town. What are they like?
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You can only take my money for so long. And then I don't have anymore, and then I get angry!"

I work at a Petco as a reptile specialist, and I actually agree - don't rely on the store to tell you everything about the animal. Most Petco's and Petsmart's don't have the knowledgable staff mine does (most of our workers actually own animals in the departments we work in, and have experience with them, in some cases, decades of experience), which is truly sad for the animals. I'm the "snake spoiler" at my Petco, because I'm the one who's anal retentive about making sure our snakes are as well taken care of as corporate will allow (the cages are so tiny!).

By the way - anyone have corns that like to pretend they're vipers? We've had a couple in our last few shipments of them, and while they calm down with lots of handling, I've never seen anything quite like a 10 inch snake threatening to eat me. They're not hurting anybody (they're not big enough to), but I'm just wondering what could be the cause. Just antisocial or what?

~jenny
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1.1.1 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
2.1 betta fishes (Vicious, Killer, and Butters)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
2.25 chickens (Jacques the rooster and his harem)

but what I really want is more ball pythons!

im the fish reptile guy at a pet supplies plus and we also sometimes get the little rat snake vipers. we a few months ago we got some real nippy ones that were all about 2 feet but really skinny. two corns and an albino texas.
the albino is the funniest, its all bugeyed really bad and it gapes its mouth open and hisses and wags its tail like a little rattlesnake.
i just handle them once every few days and lauph at there little teeth. theyre all very pretty and great eaters, just little assholes, and i even managed to sell one of the corns that actually calmed down some.