Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased my first cornsnake Saturday at a reptile show. I'm a gecko person, but recently my fiancee and I decided we wanted to purchase a single pet snake, so we chose a corn. He's a gorgeous male Blizzard, about 3 feet long (rough estimate - haven't measured length) and 242 grams. The person I purchased him from told me he was an exceptionally clean blizzard, and from what I can tell (don't know a thing about morphs), he is. Anyway, I fed him for the first time today (took him out of his cage to do so), and he ate great. So here's my questions for now, I'm sure I'll think of more later. 1.) am I supposed to calcium powder/supplement his mice? I feed them regular mouse food. The man told me to feed very small mice, but I started off with a fuzzy. 2.) To those of you who fresh kill mice - how do you do it? the man told me to take one and "stun" it by knocking it's head against something, but I can't quite bring myself to do that. Is there an easier way, or do I need to switch him to F/T? 3.) If I ever wanted to breed, what morph would cross well with Blizzard? I was thinking a Candy Cane or a Butter, but I have no clue what I'd get. I'd like to get a female tjhat would throw various morphs with him. I'm not looking to breed any time soon, but I'd like to get a female as a baby and raise her. I love the bloodreds, but would I get all normal hets if bred to a blizzard? Sorry for the length of this. I appreciate any help/advice/informative website, etc. I'll post pics later - don't want to handle yet after feeding. Thanks!!!

No, you don't need to supplement the mice with anything. If you are breeding your own mice, the best food is rodent blocks, using seed based food is usually just too much fat. Supplementing the mouse food with some veggies every once in a while would be good too.

A snake the size you have "should" be able to eat a full grown mouse. So you know, it should leave a bit of a lump after the snake has eaten it.

Of all the ideas I've have ever heard, the easiest way to kill a mouse is to hit it's head against a wall/counter/etc.

If I were you I would try to get the snake to eat frozen/thawed mice. They are much easier to deal with and no threat to the snake. Remember, live mice can severely injure a snake.

As far as breeding it with something, the best way to get a variety of morphs is to get a normal het for charcoal and het for amelanistic (but this is easier said than done; where I live it's hard to find anything het for more than amelanistic). If you were to pair these 2 types together you could end up with normals, amelanistics, charcoals, and blizzards.

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alstiver@hotmail.com

Current snakes:
1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla Coil)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
To be added in Spring:
0.1 '98 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 '00 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake

from the info i've gotten from researching and mostly from this forum, i don't believe that calcium suppliments are nessecary like they are in geckos, because snakes get the calcium they need from the bones of the feeder mice. i'm not sure of the best way to 'fresh kill' your feeder mice, but everyone on the forum agrees that f/t is the way to go, mainly because they're easier to keep and grab from the freezer, and more importantly, because live mice may harm the snake.
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-ryan
fancher@email.com

Okay... so next time I'll attempt a F/T small mouse. How do I get him switched over to eating one? The man I purchased him from fed live/stunned mice. When he ate today, it seemed to be the slight movement of the fuzzy that triggered his feeding response. Also, is it okay to feed every five days to increase growth instead of once a week? Thanks guys!

i was worried about my snake not taking frozen thawed but she did and didnt have a problem with it, just make sure its warm so the snake will notice it more...one way to stun or kill a mouse is to put it in a pillowcase and swing it around nd hit it off something hard (wall, ground) or i read something about somebody rolling a pen over the rats back behind its shoulder blades and it breaks the neck or something. i would reccomend frozen thawed as everyone else reccomended it to me it seems to be the best choice, so then u can have your own feeding schedule and always have food on hand for your snake
Chuck

Well the size snake you have needs to have an adult mouse. If you feed it an adult mouse, I wouldn't feed it more than one adult mouse every 6 days. Or you could try 2 mice every 10 days. If you have trouble with him recognizing the frozen mouse, just dangle it in front of his head and he will see it, or try putting the snake and dead mouse in a seperate smaller container (paper bags work good). If he is anything like a normal eating corn snake, there will be absolutely no problem with him eating frozen thawed.
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1.2 Corns
1.1 Graybanded
2.1 Banana Cal Kings
0.3 Solomon Island Ground Boas