Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I think my biggest corn has an RI. Tonight when I was holding him he'd have a slight wheez when be breathed out, kinda sounded like a squeek. I have him on some sort of shavings (I think Pine) and his temps raise from 78-84 degrees. I'm moving him to a 40g tank this weekend, so is there anything new I should do to help cure this problem? Thanks in advance.

Making sure the chips aren't actually pine is the first thing. Compounds in pine sap are highly irritating to most snakes and could very well be causing upper respiratory inflammation in your snake just like a person with allergies to pollen.

Other than that, having the humidity too high or too low can also predispose your animal to infections and lung irritation respectively.

My snakes sometimes make wheezing/hissing noises soon after they've eaten, or when they're eating, kind of like burps.

I wouldn't be moving a corn snake if I thought it was ill. Moving it will cause stress, which could make the infection worse.

I would not keep a corn with RI on pine shavings. Pine shavings contain dust and could further irritate the problem if the snake is breathing in dust - I'd switch the substrate to newspaper.

Often an RI can be cured simply by raising the ambient temperature and hot spot by 5-10 degrees. This is easier to accomplish in an enclosure like a sweaterbox than in a 40 gallon tank.

Tim

Third Eye

I was thinking it could be dust, so I went ahead and moved him to paper towels last night. Do you think the water bowl is enough for humidity, or should I go ahead and spray him down every night? Is there something other than newspaper that can be used as substrate, something that is equally aesthetically pleasing as it is safe for the animals? I don't much like the carpet idea, because it seems to catch scales of my lizards when they move certain ways.

Humidity has little to do with it - spraying the snake may cause stress and the idea is to eliminate stress.

I think paper substrate, whether it be paper towels, newspaper or butcher block paper is the best medium. I realize that some people like aesthetics, but the snake really doesn't care and a "whole" substrate like newspaper is safer and healthier than anything particle-based, which a snake can accidentally ingest or breathe.

In addition, for cleaning purposes, it's easy to remove all the paper and replace it. In other substrates it may not be apparent if, when, and where the snake has defecated.

That's not to say people haven't been successful keeping corns on a wide variety of substrates - I just think paper is best - especially with a sick snake.

Tim

Third Eye

I noticed a guy's website that had bedding of 25% cocofiber, fir chips(which is what mine are housed on, not pine) potting soil, and orchid bark. Now, I house my dart frogs on cocofiber/orchid bark, and this retains moisture like mad. Wouldn't this be bad for the snakes and cause scale rot?

Scale rot is caused by humidity that is too high and/or dirty cage conditions - not substrate. The medium you mention would have all the pros and cons of pine shavings.

Tim