Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a yearling amel corn a few months ago which is feeding on fuzzies (I cheated and did not buy a baby).

I know that the hatchlings sold at my local reptile specialty shop all feed on pinkies. I recently asked a few questions of a Petco employee on their available corns (just out of curiosity). The employee informed me that they are fed crickets because they're too small to eat mice.

Can this be true?

My research on corns never showed that they eat crickets.

Are they liable for abuse if corns cannot be healthy on a diet of crickets?

Just curious...

1.0 '07 amenelastic (red albino) cornsnake
0.1 '07 normal ball python

0.2 English bulldogs
0.1 piebald dachsund

that is what most petcos think corns eat. they do not in any form what-so-ever eat crickets... now every once in a while VERY RARELY i hear of dumb people who say their corns eat crickets.... corns are not insect eaters. even as hatchlings in the wild they eat baby tree frogs and lizards. i would ask petco how many of their babies die b/c they are being starved to death
~kin
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~Sober Serpents~
www.freewebs.com/soberserpents
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, A pair of Leucistic Black Rat X Leucistic Texas Rat Intergrades, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn, Ball Pythons, A reverse Trio of Candoia, Leopard Geckos, Green Anoles, a Snapping Turtle, a White Cheeked Mud Turtle, an Adult Rescue Iguana, and A Baby Iguana

There are very rare occasions when a corn will consume a cricket, but crickets do not provide the nutrition a snake needs.

IMHO no corn should be sold retail to consumers that is not taking f/t whole pinkies. For the runts that can not handle a whole pinky, it should not be sold retail (or wholesale with intent of retail) until it can hand whole pinkies.

And for me personally - though I haven't sold corns yet, it won't be until they can handle whole large pinkies. The reason being, many people buy frozen pinkies from petsmart/petco - and they have one size available that might have small or might have large - in an opaque bag that makes it hard to judge the size.

It probably doesn't take long for a corn neonate to reach a size where they can eat large pinkies, in fact, I suspect many can out of the egg. I guess I'll find out next year.
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I decided my old sig was too big.

SINCE i ran out of small day old pinkies (oops) i gave a few larger pinkies last time i fed. quite a few ate them!! from critters born on 6-9-08 to just a week old. Now cal kings can eat large pinks and probably a small one too.... BUT some of the corns couldnt get their mouths around the larger pinks, but they were on the small side anyway
~kin
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~Sober Serpents~
www.freewebs.com/soberserpents
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, A pair of Leucistic Black Rat X Leucistic Texas Rat Intergrades, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn, Ball Pythons, A reverse Trio of Candoia, Leopard Geckos, Green Anoles, a Snapping Turtle, a White Cheeked Mud Turtle, an Adult Rescue Iguana, and A Baby Iguana

I generally start my Cal Kings on small pinks (not extra small) and once they have consumed either 5 total or 2 at a single feeding twice in a row - I then move them up to large pinks.

Some of them though hatch out big enough that I suspect they can handle peach fuzzies out of the egg.

The reason I don't offer the bigger neonates peach fuzzies is just in case their mouth can handle it but their digestive system can't - don't want to start a regurge pattern!

I generally move them to peach fuzzies after their third shed. Sometimes they refuse but continue to take large pinks, and oddly, sometimes it's the bigger ones that refuse peach fuzzies while smaller ones eagerly consume them. Guess it depends upon how confident they are on their own ability to eat 'em.
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I decided my old sig was too big.

Just another reason to purchase reptiles and reptile supplies from people who know what they are doing. If we didn't spend our money at businesses that place more importance on volume sales and low overhead than hiring and paying for qualified employees then just maybe they would go away!

There are a number of people who frequent these forums that will tell you that PetCo is one of the worst places to get reptile advice/information. I agree with that assessment too.

Tim

Third Eye

Tim that is one awesome looking animal!

Andy
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Out of 3 Petcos within 20 miles of me, all three cannot maintain weight on their hatchling corns. It is a shame that something so easy to do (feed a corn a thawed pink, Petco sells frozen pinks) is seemingly not done or not attended to often enough. Also, the cages are always 84 plus degrees, which coupled with little or no food means bad news for the snakes.

Those same stores have more recently reduced their offerings of live reptiles and have fewer numbers of corns and ball pythons on display.
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Mark

That shows that employees of Petco don't necessarilly have the knowledge of snakes that they should. I tried to sell them some of my amels. last season. I was told that they only buy from petco approved vendors. When I looked at the snakes they had for sale,they were very thin and looked negelected. I don't know if they came from the vendor that way or petco starved them. Mine were much more healthy than the ones they had for sale. I did make a few contacts while looking at their snakes and sold some snakes.

I have one pet shop that buys all my babies from me every year. They normally last until the following season. I like to sell to mom and pop shops that know what they are doing. The guys that buy my clutches educate the college kids that come in every year to buy them. as far as pet co and petsmart i have never been in a petco and dont even look at the reptiles in petsmart sincei have seen them housing cali kings in groups. i do know spe smart uses dragons den ans sunshine dragons as authorized vendors for beardies i havent found out about for the snakes yet.
Tom