Reptile & Amphibian Forums

People send me some pics of your cages. I want to see how they are set up. Send me some pics of your feed boxes. Send me some pics on how you feed the frozen or live pinkie mice to your snakes.

QUESTION: Is that book "The Corn Snake Manual" by Kathy Love any good. Does it have good information on corn snakes. Is it worth it to buy or can you read it on the internet. If so give me the site where you can read it.

>>People send me some pics of your cages. I want to see how they are set up. Send me some pics of your feed boxes. Send me some pics on how you feed the frozen or live pinkie mice to your snakes.
>>
>>QUESTION: Is that book "The Corn Snake Manual" by Kathy Love any good. Does it have good information on corn snakes. Is it worth it to buy or can you read it on the internet. If so give me the site where you can read it.

Please buy the book. It will help you very much. And it will give you picts of setups. You also might find picts in the gallery.
My personal set ups are not for looking. I keep my corns in rubbermaid/sterlite boxes, with drilled air holes, newspaper or papertowel substrate and a water bowl. In my house the temp is high enough that most of my lower temp snakes (like corns, ratsnakes etc) don't have heat at all. The ambient is well in their ranges. A couple are on a UTH of 4" wide flexwatt heat tape.
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Sonya

my month-old setup my dad and I built literally from scratch:

My snakes:

I have two of these (male/female):
[img]http://mail.rochester.edu/~jg003h/corn/dotchange.jpg[img]

these two new additions a few weeks ago:
[img]http://mail.rochester.edu/~jg003h/corn/morpheus.jpg[img]

And these guys I got today: (two motley, one stripe)

what are thoughs tub-wear containers on top of the snake cages for!
PLEASE GIVE ME SOME TIPS ON FEEDING A SNAKE. I WANNA KNOW HOW YOU DO IT. I can't get mine to eat.

Those plastic containers (specifically the one on the left with the latching lid) house my June normals hatchlings- the last three of 14 that haven't eaten yet.

Even though I have had a great track record with getting little guys to eat, I have to pin it on luck. The two motley and one stripe I bought yesterday were suppose to be "live only" eaters, so I threw in a warmed f/t pinky and 2 of 3 of them gobbled it right up, "live only" my a$$. All of my corns eat f/t.

I use 60W lights on those tanks with no UTH until wintertime. When brumation time comes along I might plug in the UTH's and cycle the light for only a few hours a day, or just keep the red lamps on for added heat. I plan on hibernating my adult normals to give them a rest but my hatchlings probably will get a longer day cycle through winter so I can keep pounding the weight on them.

BOTTOM LINE: We can tell you how we do it, what we think is best, what works for us but really the best overall solution is to go to www.amazon.com or a bookstore and pick up The Corn Snake Manual, start from page 1 and read it clear to the back, then if you follow Kathy's advice and still are having troubles, come back to us and we'll see what we can do... Good luck finding your environmental niche...

I don't post too often, so I'll take a crack at answering all your questions (even though your questions have been answered already by others...). Sorry, no pictures, but you shouldn't need any, it's fairly simple.

For heat, you need a UTH, no light. You probably need something to control the heat, too--a dimmer or thermostat. You MUST have thermometers on both ends of the enclosure (warm end, cool end). A digital indoor/outdoor one works well. Your high side should not be over 85 tops. The cool side can be about 75. Higher temps will stress the snake.

Substrate: ditch the calci-sand. I suggest using aspen, which you can get at Wal-Mart, and is great for burrowing. If you are poking and trying to feed the snake every day, the poor thing is stressed out of its mind and needs to get away from you. Remember, a snake is not a dog, and a little snake sees you as a big predator.

I would not touch the snake at all for the time being. Forget about the feeding container for now. Wait a few days, then put a pinky on a paper towel near one of the hides and leave it overnight. Do not, I repeat, do not, touch the snake, do not bother the snake, do not handle the snake. I am guessing from your numerous posts that you are overly anxious about the snake not eating, and spending way too much time hovering over it trying to get it to eat.

Adjust your temps, change the substrate, and leave the snake alone. Then let us know when it eats, because it will. If you don't want to follow any of the suggestions made here, then things will most likely not improve, and you will eventually lose your snake. The people here have a great deal of experience, and have already given you good advice, which I have merely repeated here--I suggest you follow it.

Good luck--

Jeannie