Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I have a baby snow corn male. He's a 2004 hatchling. He has eaten and shed perfectly everytime. However, lately, he hasn't been pooping as much, and I never see him drink. I hold him over his water to show him and he refuses to drink. He couldn't have an impaction from sunstrate because I use paper towels. Also, up until now, he has been the sweetest, calmest snake, just sits in my hand and wont move. But today when I took him out, he seemed a lot more active, like he was looking for something, then when I put him back in his cage, he FREAKED out and whipped around the cage as fast as he could go. Any ideas? He's never acted like this before.

He's hungry! Let me guess, you're feeding him a pinky a week? Small stool generally suggests they are using up as much of the nutrients in the food that there is, and not wasting very much of it. My suggestion is either feed larger pinkies, maybe a fuzzy, or try feeding him two pinkies at a time. Pinkies don't have very much nutrition in them to begin with, so try and increase the prey size as soon as possible. Generally, feed a prey size that is about one and a half times the width of the largest part of the snakes body.

Dont worry about the drinking, they drink when you're not around, just be sure to have fresh water available to him at all times.

Hope this helps!
Kris

His new behaviour - sounds like he's about to shed. They go blind in the run-up to shedding, so it can make them much more nervous about being handled, especially when young.

In most Corns, you can tell because they take on a slightly duller, greyish colour than normal. It's a bit difficult to tell with a snow. When did he last shed?

He shed a few weeks ago, but i think you may be right. He sheds at the same time my other corn usually and the other one is about to go so it wouldn't surprise me, thanks for the help!

Put a thermometer directly on the paper towel where you want the snake to stay most of the time. This is usually a hide on the warm side of the cage. Paper towels are notoriously dangerous if you're using under tank heat. It take many layers of them to adequately insulate them from the heat. I think you'll find that the snake cannot HIDE in a place that's the proper temperature. In these instances, they avoid the place you think they should be (warm-side hide) and instead stay on the cool end. Dangerous. They don't reach digesting temperature. This facilitates all manner of problems from attitude to digestion to inability to properly shed to kidney damage.

You should put a bottle cap of water INSIDE the daytime hide. Make sure it's not city tap water. No chlorine or floride.

Let us know what temperature you come up with directly on the paper towel in the warm-side hide.

Good luck,

Don
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South Mountain Reptiles