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Everyone here has been a lot of help and I appreciate it very much. I have recieved more information in two days than I have been able to read on the www in two weeks. My students seem to come up with new questions everyday. I plan on picking up a copy of "The Corn Snake Manual" at Petsmart this week some time, but can I hold that information true to my ratsnake? Whats the difference anyway? I would like to answer all of my students questions but my policy is to tell them that I don't know but I will find out for them. I sometimes ask them to research for the info themselves, but their sources leave a lot to be desired. The burning question now concerns the gender of the snake. They want to pick out a name, but I dont trust my herping skills enough to tell them.
Once again, thanks for everyones help. Keep the forum going, its a great resource.

P.S. The kids love the pics

First things first, and if you did not realize it, your snake is in the middle of a really bad shed. Forgive me if you have rectified this already, but I'm just going by the picture you posted. If you haven't noticed this, your snake needs to be either soaked and hand-shed or placed in a very damp pillow case overnight (in the cage of course) so it can attempt to get the old skin off. Now on to the good stuff about sexing.....your best bet is to go to someone who has lots of experience probing snakes and see if you can get it probed. If not, you can always guess by the tail shape. Basically, a longer tail with a very gentle taper would indicate male and a shorter tail with a very steep taper would indicate female. If all else fails, just give it a unisex name like Chris or Pat. Anyway, good luck and keep up the good work on educating our youngsters about the beauty and fascination of snakes!! Billy

>>Everyone here has been a lot of help and I appreciate it very much. I have recieved more information in two days than I have been able to read on the www in two weeks. My students seem to come up with new questions everyday. I plan on picking up a copy of "The Corn Snake Manual" at Petsmart this week some time, but can I hold that information true to my ratsnake? Whats the difference anyway? I would like to answer all of my students questions but my policy is to tell them that I don't know but I will find out for them. I sometimes ask them to research for the info themselves, but their sources leave a lot to be desired. The burning question now concerns the gender of the snake. They want to pick out a name, but I dont trust my herping skills enough to tell them.
>>Once again, thanks for everyones help. Keep the forum going, its a great resource.
>>
>>P.S. The kids love the pics
>>

See what I mean!! Thanks Billy. I knew the shed wansnt progressing like it should, but my efforts at soaking and helping her shed just havnt yeilded much success. That pic was taken just yesterday, she still looks the same to me. Being wild caught, she doent really enjoy me messing with her too much, but I will do what is necessary to ensure her upkeep. The wet pillowcase is something I havent heard of. Do I just lay it in the bottom of her cage? Do I put her in it and tie the top? I really dont want to kill her with my lack of knowledge. I tried to peel it by hand buts she just wont stay still and she is a little nippy. It doesnt hurt, but does it hurt her little teeth when she bites?

I guess I need to work on the humidity in the cage. I think I have the temp right. 71f on the warm side 65 on the cool. The only way I have been able to do that is by putting the cage in the drafty part of the room (next to the air handler) and keeping the heating pad under the cage on medium. Maybe the air movement is drying things out too much. She does have a drinking bowl and a soaking bowl, but I nerver see her do anything but glide through or over either.

Thanks for the heads up on the shed though, I knew it wans't right, but thought maybe she needed more time. I need to feed her on Thurs. My wife and I are going to Pigeon Forge Fri-Mon.

Jason

Um, I think you should adjust the temperatures ASAP. At those temps, it might end up brumating on you (just kidding). It should be 80-85 on the warm side and about 75 on the cool side.

Thanks, I'll do that. That means that I can move her out from under the vent. Maybe that will allow a more humid environment. I'll play with the heat a little too.
I have an idea of putting the soaking bowl directly over the pad to encourage evaporation. Is this a good or bad thing? I had only turning the pad to high for the first couple of days after feeding to help with digestion. I hope it wont hurt anything to leave it on high for 4 days. I just opened a couple of very expensive laboratory thermometers (taxpayer money)so I now have one one each end and I can moniter the cage much more effectivly now.

Another thought. glass planes will fit under the screen top. They will slide right over the lip at the top of the aquarium that I am using. Could I regulate humidity and temp by finding the correct size of glass cover and keep using the screen to cover the rest since it will fit over the top?

Definitely raise the temps. Keep in mind you only need to have that heat pad under about 1/2-1/3 of the enclosure so that you have only a portion of the cage at about 80-85. As far as humidity, you can use glass or plexi cut to size to lay on a portion of the screen but don't forget to leave enough open to keep a decent airflow in there. You should probably shoot for a relative humidity of around 40-50%. In all honesty, it shouldn't be that much of a factor until shedding time and then you can just mist once or twice daily near the end of the shed cycle. Speaking of which, since your snake has by now lost all or most of it's natural lubrication to get the skin off, you will have to make it a priority to get it off ASAP, especially around the eye caps and the tip of the tail. To answer you question about the pillow case, yes, put her in it and tie the top. Before you do that, soak the pillow case and then wring it out so it's very damp, but not dripping. This will give her a nice wet surface to crawl around in and hopefully get that skin off. If it does not work, you will have to do it manually. Don't worry about her little teeth, even if they break off on your hand, they will grow back. The alternative could be devastating if you don't get that skin off of her head. If you have to resort to this, a method I have used with success in the past has been to restrain the snake under running warm water. As the warm water softens the skin you can roll/rub your thumb along it and it should catch a little and start to peel off. Once you get a section of skin coming off, the warm water will get under the old skin and help facilitate the rest of the manual shed. Again, make sure you get it all off the head (especially the eye caps) and the tail tip as these two areas are the most prone to permanent damage if old skin is left on. Good luck and let us know how it goes!! Billy

>>Thanks, I'll do that. That means that I can move her out from under the vent. Maybe that will allow a more humid environment. I'll play with the heat a little too.
>>I have an idea of putting the soaking bowl directly over the pad to encourage evaporation. Is this a good or bad thing? I had only turning the pad to high for the first couple of days after feeding to help with digestion. I hope it wont hurt anything to leave it on high for 4 days. I just opened a couple of very expensive laboratory thermometers (taxpayer money)so I now have one one each end and I can moniter the cage much more effectivly now.
>>
>>Another thought. glass planes will fit under the screen top. They will slide right over the lip at the top of the aquarium that I am using. Could I regulate humidity and temp by finding the correct size of glass cover and keep using the screen to cover the rest since it will fit over the top?

Another option is to put wrung out paper towels in a plastic shoebox/storage container (depending on size of snake), for 1-2 hours. The towels will help slough the skin as she slithers around, while the build-up of humidity will help loosen the old skin. From there it's fairly easy to manually remove whatever shed is left on her.

regards,
althea

I mist my snakes. Every couple days give your snakes a couple shots with a spray bottle. You don't have to wet the snake or enclosure down. You can mist the snake a few times when it goes into blue eye and gets ready to shed. Maybe you can let the kids trade off doing the misting. That way they will become part of the care of the snake and learn some husbandry and appreciation for these fine creatures. Maybe each student gets a week or two as the the mist monitor. Lots of variations on those concepts. Just a thought.

Here's a pic of a Mexican Bairds rat snake.

Terry Parks

Thanks Terry. I will do that. I hope that exposing the kids to this snake will save a few wild snake they might come across in the future. I am splitting the two up this week, so there will be double the opportunities for incentives to complete homework and behave!
Thanks again

Jason

Look at all our future Herpetologists. I've donated snakes to some of the locale schools. They become great projects and/or class mascots. Here is a lavender black rat snake.

Terry Parks

If you are going to buy a copy of the cornsnake manual, you need to get somewhere else besides Petsmart. Petsmart supports HSUS, and HSUS has been campaigning for years against the herp trade. Any pet store should have the book.

Alan,

Ebay and amazon usually have a few for sale, too.

I think I can help you with some of your questions that you asked in your post.

First, all Corn Snakes are Rat Snakes. They are all members of the genus Elaphe. There is a move to place most American Rat Snakes in a new genus called Pantherophis. With this in mind a Corn Snake, sometimes called a Red Rat Snake, is Pantherophis guttatus guttatus. A Black Rat Snake is Pantherophis obsoletus obsoletus. They are both members of the same genus.

The most reliable way to tell the sex of a Rat Snake is by probing. There are directions on how to do this on Kathy Love's web site. As the others have told you, get someone to teach you how to do it. If done wrong, you could injure the snake.
How To Sex Snakes With Probes