Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got home from my weekend trip home late this afternoon and when I got back, Annika was in the proces of shedding. I let her finish and settle down for a bit before I checked her out. It looks like the vitals are clear (both eyes and the tail) so I offered her a mouse pinky. She was most certainly interested and hit it pretty hard! I thawed three more mouse pinkys (I wish frozen mice thawed this fast!) and dumped them in her tank. She downed all three of them. I think I am going to wait a few days and then offer a mouse.

Things are looking pretty good here!

jorj

That's great news!....congratulations!

A hard lesson well-learned, AND a good outcome!,....that's a combination that's hard to beat..LOL!

Now you know how important a role temperatures are in the proper husbandry of snake keeping, and what can happen if they aren't monitored and maintained correctly.

Hope the snake continues to do well for you, and I'm really glad to hear things are looking better.

best regards, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Many thanks to you for coaching me through this!

I am doing some research on what to do for a new enclosure. I am debating between the 40 gal long (36"x18"x16" from the local pet store or a Vision cage. As much as I would like a Vision, they are a lot more expensive and none of them have the right proportions for where I want to put it - the ones that are long enough are too deep. I am open to other suggestions for good enclosures as well.

As for heating, I would like to go to an under-the-tank solution. I am looking into my options for that as well.

A few months ago, I got a baby corn snake from a local Petco. I am guessing that in a year or two she will look a lot like the one in your picture. Anyway, the girl that sold it to me strongly recommended getting a fluorescent light because it provides some vitamin to the snake. I did a little research on this and found that some people recommend it and some say it doesn't really matter. I have not used any lighting other than the red heat lamp and the standard room lights that are only on when I am in the room. Should I add the vitamin light?

thanks

jorj

Whatever you choose for caging, just remember to allow for a temp gradient that we talked about earlier, cool side 75-78, and the warm side 81-85...with a hide on each side for good measure.

Forget about the vitamin light..LOL!,....the store employee is told to "push" these extra items by the manager to make the store more money, and/or they don't know what they're talking about in the first place. This happens ALL the time in pet stores, many pet store employees don't know the first thing about many of the animals they sell. Since many inexperienced customer's are clueless about their new animal's needs, they make tons of extra money doing this. UV light is ABSOLUTELY necessary for Iguanas and such for proper vitamin synthesis, but is not needed at all for colubrids such as corns in the least.

The underneath heat is a good idea,....just remember to monitor it closely at the substrate level where the snake actually IS!,....also, keep in mind that any hide box will act like a tent, and retain more heat from the underneath source, so monitoring temps in the hide itself is smart too. If it gets too warm inside, the snake won't be able to benefit from the hide on the warm side if it doesn't want to go in it.

Just basic common snake sense really!..LOL!

Get yourself a cheap booklet or two about cornsnakes and other Ratsnakes too. They will be very helpful, and you can refer to them whenever you want. I think everyone involved with snakes should own some good literature on the animals they choose to keep. This way you get some handy information you might not have known about before hand, and can also prevent certain things from happening before they occur..........sound familiar??..LOL!

best regards, ~Doug

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

The petco employee didn't know what she was talking about.
UVB light is required for most species of lizards. It is not required for corn snakes, or any species of snake that I know of. Maybe some of the insect eating snakes, maybe some of the tree snakes, but definitely not corn snakes. They do just fine w/o UVB light.

Note that corn snakes are primarily nocturnal, you might find them out and about in early morning and late evening, but you rarely will find them out and about during the middle of the day.
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I decided my old sig was too big.