Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi

My bf and I just acquired a new female baby bloodred cornsnake (het for albino, but I don't care--I'm not planning to breed her). I think she's a 2008, she is very little.

We are used to boas and pythons. We know this baby has different heat and humidity needs, but we aren't sure what they are. Current set up is as follows: Apartment temp about 78 degrees with usual humidity in the low 20's. We are in Laurel, MD where the current daytime temps are in the 50s. Currently, the baby is in a shoebox ventilated tupperware, on papertowel substrate, with a water bowl and a hidebox. She is sitting on a chair next to a (closed)floor to ceiling window with mostly closed horizontal venetian blinds. We have heat tape, but we think that made them too warm, so it's presently (noonish) off.

Without the heat tape, is everything else ok? Should she be moved away from the window and further into the room?
Please let me know where a good FAQ is.

Thank you for your time,
Antigone

Unlikely to be an 08 since they aren't hatching for a few more months. Likely a late 07. anyway

Get her up and away from the window. Windows have temp fluxes and drafts. Move her to somewhere stable in the room and put one end of the box over heat tape. She can choose to sit on it or not. If it is cooking your box the tape is too hot anyway. If there is a bowl of water in with her she has enough humidity very likely.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

Greetings

Thank you. I have moved her further into the room. I also did some looking around on the internet at various sites. I'm a bit confused.
I could have sworn that the person we bought her from said that if the apartment was at least 70 (and we had a dip in temp recently when winter came back), which it is, that corn snakes don't need a heat source and don't need extra humidity. On the pages I pulled, they need 75-80 degrees, plus a basking temp of 85, and somewhere around 60% humidity (which would definitely mean spraying). The conditions described in the sites I looked at were much more similar to our boas than I had originally been led to believe. What's the right answer on this?

I put her house half on the tape, half not, so she has a bit of an option. And I think the heat tape was up to 82 yesterday, but slightly less last night.

Antigone