Corn Snake Care Sheet
Boopy
,
Tuesday, 10th of August 2010 10:25:33 PM
Okay guys, due to much help from everyone here on, l have finally began my Boopy quest to setting up an environment for a corn snake! l went to a buncha Registered User pet stores today, played with a buncha Amelenistic (spelled wrong xD) corn Joined: Wednesday, 26th of May 2010, 11:03:50 snakes, they were all beautiful and friendly.
Here is what l Posts: 1040 have on my care sheet list...
29 Gallon Aquarium with Locking Viewed 5546 times Screen Top
Aspen Bedding
Spray Bottle
1 or 2 Hides
2
Thermometers.
1 Hygrometer?
Water Dish
Feeding Tongs/>
BULK Pinkies
Mini-Fridge/Freezer for the pinkies/fuzzies
etc.. (and some sodas ;) )
Sterilite/Rubbermaid bin for feeding/>
What kind of light/heating equipment should l get? And do these
tools have certain settings on them for which l can just follow the
instructions to the heat l need for my guy? UVA/UVB bulb ? Heating mat? l
do not completely get all that, so any elaboration on that would be
fantastic!!
Am l missing anything important?! If so please
tell! l am going to buy all of this in one big bulk shopping spree so the
sooner, the better!
** IMPORTANT **Can l travel with my snake?
l intend on buying it in Delaware, where they have more selection of corn
snakes, and bring him up to New Jersey, where l live...can the car ride be
harmful to him? Temp changes/stress? Or anything? Thanks guys/girls l
really appreciate all your help in helping me home a corn snake!!
He
will be a baby corn snake, so will 29 gallons be too big to start him off
in? Will he feel insecure or whatever?
Tinkle Bear
,
Wednesday, 11th of August 2010 11:26:18 PM
First of all, you need a LOT more hides than 1 or 2. 2 is the Tinkle Bear minimum--one for the warm side, one for the cool side. The bigger the Registered User tank, the more hides you need for a baby (I answered ur other question & Joined: Sunday, 2nd of May 2010, 06:10:40 mentioned this, actually). Posts: 219 Viewed 18568 times Anyway, are you sure you can have a corn in NJ? I seem to remember there
being some law against it. Like, you could only have red-eyed morphs (I
suppose this is why you were looking at amelanistics--kudos on knowing the
actual morph name!) or something. Other red-eyed morphs include any other
morph combos that contain amel--snow(amelXanery), butter(amelXcaramel),
blizzard(amelXcharcoal--whiter version of snow, charcoal is another form
of anery), opal(lavenderXamel), fire(bloodredXamel). I am probably missing
some, though. If you're set on getting one from a pet store, you will
likely only find amel & snow. You can also find professional, reputable
corn snake breeders (definitely the better choice).
Heating/Lighting: Corn snakes don't need special lighting. The ambient
lighting (indirect sunlight, room lighting) of the room it is kept in will
do fine. If you want to supply lighting, though, you can.
It is thought that snakes benefit from UVB lighting, but widely accepted
that they don't need it. Most species (including corn snakes) are either
crepuscular (out during dawn/dusk) or nocturnal, & they get plenty of
calcium from their food.
Heat pads don't have settings, & bulbs/Ceramic heat emitters are adjusted
by wattage.
Terrestrial snakes like Corns do best with belly heat to digest, so use a
heat pad. However, for a heat pad, you need a thermostat--even the ZooMed
heat pads (which claim to only get 10-15 degrees above room temperature)
get up to 140*F when left unchecked--and I am serious! I actually recorded
this on three separate ZooMed heat pads of varying sizes. For the
thermostat, you can get a really good, high quality one like the Herpstat
($100+, spyderrobotics.com) or a crappy cheap one that does the job like
ReptiTemp 500R ($27, petsmart.com--online only item). If you opt for the
ReptiTemp, you NEED a digital thermometer with a probe to set it.. You
need a digital thermometer, anyway, actually. Put the probe directly on
the glass above the heat pad, UNDER the substrate.
If the room the snake is kept in cold (under 65*F), you might opt for a
Ceramic Heat Emitter to up the heat. Low wattage, maybe 50 or 75 watts for
a 29 gallon tank. It doesn't take much to get the air temps above 70*.
I wouldn't suggest using a heat lamp for heating. They dry out the tank
REALLY fast, & really thoroughly. One of my girls has chronic
shedding/constipation problems from an incandescent light I used to
supplement daytime light over the winter. The humidity is still
recovering, & I took the thing off over 6 months ago.
Traveling: Depends on the time you will be in the car. 8 hours or more,
definitely not. I've driven as far as 4-5 hours to take home a hatchling
corn snake (got two corns & a sand boa at an expo, but the expo was a 4
hour drive from home). The snakes did great, but I kept them in my lap the
entire time, which I was only able to do because I wasn't the one driving.
Take a plastic tub (small food storage tub will do) with some paper towel
in the bottom to carry him in, in case the store gives you a crappy
cardboard thing (like Petco. they give you those cardboard rodent boxes
that a hatchling corn can easily get out of).
He could potentially get stressed out from the drive, but that is part of
the reason you should let him acclimate for a week (no food, no handling)
after he gets home. You have less of a chance of the snake dying for
whatever reason (i.e. parasites, mites, illness) if you get it from a
reliable source rather than a pet shop. Stress lowers the reptile is
immune system, so any health issues it has when you get it (especially
with such a long drive home) have that much more chance of taking hold. If
you get from a reputable breeder, the chances are that much less that it
will be healthy & stay healthy.
Kudos for feeding frozen/thaw! I love it when people know what the RIGHT
thing is!!! Lol.. For the mice, of course, you will need a freezer. For a
hatchling, a small (.5-1 qt) tub will work fine. 6 qt Sterilite tubs ($1
at Big Lots) are PERFECT for adult corn snake feeding tubs. However, the 6
qts are too big for a hatchling is feeding tub. Would make a good soaking
tub, though, in case of a bad shed.
Also, do you know of http://CornSnakes.com ? It is a great site for corn
info, & the members are great. It is a wonderful place to go & skim, to
make sure you don't miss anything. =)
thugaboo babyboo
,
Thursday, 12th of August 2010 05:47:18 AM
You need a UVA/B bulb, tropical. (exoterra bulbs are good). For thugaboo babyboo a 29 gallon you will probably only need a 13 watt. You can set the lamp on Registered User top of the tank touching no plastic. Joined: Monday, 10th of May 2010, 11:21:56 Posts: 1643 You also need a heat lamp, 50-75 watt, no more than that. Also, those Viewed 16361 times should be tropical (exoterra is tropical bulbs usually come in a green
package). Touching no plastic, the lamp can sit on top of the tank.
Heating pads are great. Again a small-medium exoterra tropical one is
good.
You should do a 12 hour rotation ( 12 hours of night, 12 hours day). Don't
turn the heating pad off, just both the lamps. A hydrometer isn't
nessesary, just mist him everyday. Aspen bedding is okay, I use cocofresh
or jungle earth,, which is more realistic.
For the car ride, just bring a pillowcase for him, & knot it. Don't put
him in direct sunlight, but don't let him get too cold. Don't blast music
either.
Bubbles
,
Friday, 13th of August 2010 05:54:47 PM
Bubbles http://reptiliaworld.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/319288-corn-snake Registered User Joined: Tuesday, 4th of May 2010, 16:02:09 http://reptiliaworld.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/319316-corn-snake-care-sheet-2- Posts: 1867 Viewed 19005 times
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