Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got a 5 mth old amel 1.0. He is about 12-14 inches. Ate his first meal with me no problem and is very active. I set him up in a 55 gal tank. I know that is large but I had it and he doesn't seem lost. I have made sure he has lots of tight spaces to hide, on both the cool and warm side. I set up the tank for a terrestrial snake because that is my understanding of what cornsnakes like. But for my esthetics I put some cheap vines on the top. Well, he loves to get up in them and sleep or hang down to the bottom of the enclosure. I had to go out and get more substantial vines to keep him from falling. He also likes to sleep between the top lip of the tank (used to be an aquarium so has the inside lip) and the screen. The screen is secure so he can't get out. I was wondering if this was normal for corns or if anyone else had any insight on it.

I also am housing my corn in an aquarium, and she does the same thing on the vines! Absolutely loves them! In fact, when she is out of her hides, she is hardly ever on the bottom... she seems to like weaving in and out of the leaves and branches. I also have a large piece of driftwood under a red-bulb clamp-lamp, and she will often climb up on that and bask. When she was small enough, she too would climb in the space between the screen and the lip of the aquarium. They like to get into cramped spaces like that, I guess because it makes them feel secure. As long as you have locking clips on top of your cage, allow him to have fun! Mindy

I have my snakes in aquariums too (for now) and one of my snakes is 36+ inches long, yet she still somehow manages to squeeze herself between the lip and the screen top. I really don't know how she does it without falling because my other female (31 inches) tries to do it too and she is constantly falling off.

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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 February:
0.1 '98 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 '00 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake

My cornsnake never squeezes between the lip and top of the aquarium because I built the screen lid to fit onto this lip. One reason why I decided not to buy the screen top for the 35 gal tank my corn is in. (the cost was the other reason). Anyway, my corn also likes to climb but I don't have any of those vine things you can buy at petstores (too expensive anyway, would rather use 1/4" nylon rope, much much cheaper, if I decide to add 'vines' to his cage).

Here is a picture of Copperfield (my amel corn) climbing the wire for the temperature probe.

All 3 of my corns found the rim of the aquarium to be their favorite hides until they were too fat to fit.