Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an opportunity to get a 1 year old Corn snake from a neighboring town owner. I look at this as a sweet deal as she only wants $100 for the whole set-up. The Corn is feeding on live though. Is it hard to get a yearling to change from live to frozen? Or, should I just go ahead and get a hatchling and start off from the beginning with frozen. Of course, when I say frozen, I mean pre-killed. Not that I would take a mouse out of the freezer and give it directly to the snake..

Thoughts? I have to move quick as this snake will probably go very soon..

shouldn't be hard at all. once corns are eating well, they will usually eat whatever you offer them.

if for some reason you do have a hard time with it, just make a gradual transistion. stunned/ prekilled live mice, then frozen scented*, then straight frozen.

to scent a frozen, let it thaw in some slightly dirty bedding from a mouse tank. sometimes frozen seem to lose a little scent especially if thawed in water with a lot of chlorine in it. that or the chlorine masks the scent.

you may have to wiggle the frozen mouse to get the snake worked up, but for all of mine over the years i was able to just lay the mouse next to their hide. they'd come crawling out after 30 or so seconds and grab the mouse.

>>I have an opportunity to get a 1 year old Corn snake from a neighboring town owner. I look at this as a sweet deal as she only wants $100 for the whole set-up. The Corn is feeding on live though. Is it hard to get a yearling to change from live to frozen? Or, should I just go ahead and get a hatchling and start off from the beginning with frozen. Of course, when I say frozen, I mean pre-killed. Not that I would take a mouse out of the freezer and give it directly to the snake..
>>
>>Thoughts? I have to move quick as this snake will probably go very soon..

Shouldn't be a problem..like Aaron said an established feeder should switch over readily. Get the snake and if by chance you have trouble we can offer suggestions and experiences with switching snakes over from live to frozen. Usually simple... offer prey item, watch snake eat....lol
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Corn snakes and rat snakes...No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
Draybars Snakes

I went to see the Corn. He was in excellent shape. Clean and healthy. I have him home and he is in the spare room as it's the warmest (75 degrees). The prev owner has the heat pad in the center of the tank so I put the hide (large hide but ok for it's 20gal long tank) 1/2 over the heat pad, and 1/2 over the cooler end. He did come out of the hide last night to explore -- very active. Now yesterday was his day to eat so I opted to take him now vs letting him eat his "live" food 1st. I figured that I would have better ods in getting him to eat f/t if he was hungry. He eats 2 small white mice every week and 1/2. I don't get my frozens delivered till next Tues so it will be close to 3 weeks between feeding. He should be very hungry.. OK-- question... I see many say to feed outside his enclosre. I have a 4 qt plastic tub that I can use for feeding but I've heard you aren't supposed to bother a snake after he eats or he'll regurgitate. How do you get him back ino his enclosure then? Aso -- prev owner uses that black repti-sand. I heard that it's not good as it can get into a snakes nose and possible respiratory sys. I plan on switching to aspen after a few weeks. I just want him to get settled before I make too many changes -- ie 1st feeding from live to f/t, then his sustrate.

>>I went to see the Corn. He was in excellent shape. Clean and healthy. I have him home and he is in the spare room as it's the warmest (75 degrees). The prev owner has the heat pad in the center of the tank so I put the hide (large hide but ok for it's 20gal long tank) 1/2 over the heat pad, and 1/2 over the cooler end. He did come out of the hide last night to explore -- very active. Now yesterday was his day to eat so I opted to take him now vs letting him eat his "live" food 1st. I figured that I would have better ods in getting him to eat f/t if he was hungry. He eats 2 small white mice every week and 1/2. I don't get my frozens delivered till next Tues so it will be close to 3 weeks between feeding. He should be very hungry.. OK-- question... I see many say to feed outside his enclosre. I have a 4 qt plastic tub that I can use for feeding but I've heard you aren't supposed to bother a snake after he eats or he'll regurgitate. How do you get him back ino his enclosure then? Aso -- prev owner uses that black repti-sand. I heard that it's not good as it can get into a snakes nose and possible respiratory sys. I plan on switching to aspen after a few weeks. I just want him to get settled before I make too many changes -- ie 1st feeding from live to f/t, then his sustrate.

the "don't handle after eating" thing is just a precaution.
It won't hurt to move your snake from a feeder container to it's enclosure. You don't want to move it before it has the meal all the way down and you don't want to get the snake out and play with it for a couple of hours after it eats but placing it back in it's enclosure will not be a problem. I would switch over to the aspen as soon as possible.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes...No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
Draybars Snakes