Me or the lps "reptile expert?"

Alright, I've had Kahn for about 3 months...and I've learned TONS from this site (thanks guys!) I just got another corn named Zack (no pics yet, Ive had him about a week and he's a bit skiddish, I'm waiting for him to settle before bringing out the flashy camera.)

Well my friend just thought corns were awesome, and her and her boyfriend bought two the same day I got Zack. Okay, fine. She only has one set up viv for them though. I said that would hold them over for a week or two until she had $$ for a new viv,since they were only hatchlings.

I told her she can NOT house two corns together...especially in a 10g glass tank. I told her about stress levels, terriroral issues (we don't know the sex of the snakes), and cannibalism.

But she went to her local pet store and their "reptile expert" said it would be fine to house them together as long as she fed them separtely.

Now arises another issue....only one is eatting. Her snow "Nanni" ate 2 pinkies this week and Trouser (her common) hasn't eatten yet. So Nanni is going to grow faster and be stronger than Trouser who hasn't eatten at all and who just sits curled in the corner.

I'm worried that problems are already starting and its only been a week.

How can I talk some sense into her? How long can two hatchlings really live together in a 10g tank? :shrugs: :shrugs:

She's never owned a reptile, and I grew up around them, so I said I'd help her...but now she isn't listening to me! :eek1:

As frustrating as it is, there isn't much more you can do. You've offered help and advice. It's up to your friend now. :shrugs:

Ranting or nagging may only endanger your friendship. It could also cause her to not ask for help when you might do some good. If the worst does happen, I would only suggest not saying "I told you so."

Here's hoping your friend comes around before anything bad happens.

Try directing your friend to this site. Hopefully she will get the knowledge that will help her corns grow to be healthy and live a long life.

Or you can try recommending the Corn Snkae Manual by Kathy Love

Penman6668 said:

Or you can try recommending the Corn Snkae Manual by Kathy Love

Click to expand...

Sorry Snake not Snkae

She's my best friend, so I would definently say "I told you so" to her, haha, then she's say "F you" and we'd proceed to flip each other off, then go be fat kids and eat ice cream.... I have horror stories about the ends to some of her other pets... I told her about this site, but she is never online. I know she'll never come on here. She said she bought a corn snake guide and it said the same things...it was okay to house corns together. :shrugs: I don't know. I have a feeling I may be adopting these guys in a few months or a year...she loses interests in things....I don't think she is thinking of a 10+ commitment. :sidestep:

10+ year commitment***

Maybe you could print out some of the info from the site and give it to her.

from what i've heard corn snakes shouldnt be houses together

infact i have seen video footage shame on the eaten corns

what a terrible shame, i also have a friend who doesn't listen and it is really really frustrating. I sometimes wonder why people have certain animals or reptiles. Its frightening.

Unfortunately a lot of people think the owners of reptile shops are some kind of god, so they listen to them and no one else.

I do to my local reptile shop for supplies and nothing else. At the end of the day they want to make a sale and if they can sell you two snakes they will swear they can be housed together just to make the sale. Shame on them.

I hope your friend see's sense and realises that these snakes need proper care. We all make stupid mistakes but not taking advice is more then stupid.

OK i got that off my chest, i feel ok now :crazy02:

Isobel

HEY Shorty, i noticed you love dogs too

If the little common is just sitting around huddled in a corner and not eating, it is showing reason enough to be separated. It is STRESSED and cohabitation is not helping. For the good of her pet, she needs to separate them.

Unfortunately, many people will listen to the """expert""" that tells them what they want to hear. She doesn't want to buy another tank and have 2 setups, so the advice she got from the """expert""" is what she is going to listen to. You can only do so much, the rest is up to her. It's unfortunate that she is choosing to continue to stress the little non-eating normal out and she may end up losing it if she doesn't wisen up.

:-offtopic
Maybe because a reptile expert (salesperson) is afraid of scarring off customers, money wise, but ..........I would think that selling two Viv's, four thermometer, two uth heater, etc, etc. would be more profit for them.???

It's a win, win to me. :shrugs:

I'm not sure if you would consider this an option or not, but a 10gal tank and heat mat aren't too expensive. If you are really worried about the health of the snakes, you could find a tank and UTH and 'donate' them to your friend. Maybe that would inspire her to split them up. And if it doesn't, then you can either return the tank and UTH for a refund or keep them and have them for another future snake of your own.

You need to slap some sense into her!!! :bang: I recommend you print off some info from this site and some pictures of corns eating other corns (there's quite a few on here if you look up cannablism and/or cohabitation) How bad would she feel if one ate the other and then died because it couldn't digest/ regurge the other? I would be so mad at myself if I decided to be ignorant and something bad happened to my little Stimpy Not to mention a load of cash down the toilet. If all else fails I guess it's up to your friend to straighten herself out.

Good luck convincing her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

zwyatt said:

I'm not sure if you would consider this an option or not, but a 10gal tank and heat mat aren't too expensive. If you are really worried about the health of the snakes, you could find a tank and UTH and 'donate' them to your friend. Maybe that would inspire her to split them up. And if it doesn't, then you can either return the tank and UTH for a refund or keep them and have them for another future snake of your own.

Click to expand...

Good idea!!! Anyways here's a pretty "compelling" pic if you want to try to scare her into seperation. http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31192

Just scroll down and you'll see the corns. You could even show her the pythons for more evidence.

She didn't buy the snakes from her local pet store where her """expert""" is located. She bought them at Petco with me. The guy at Petco said the SAME thing as me....DONT HOUSE THEM TOGETHER! So she went somewhere else to get a 3rd opinion...shes even ordering a 3rd corn to put in there! She wants an all black corn (Ive seen charcoal, but Ive never heard of an 'all black' corn.) I'm really stressed about this...and I'm in college and I just sacrificed a week's worth of groceries to set up my new corn, Zack,...I can't afford to buy another housing unit for her. I'm about to get a 55g complete setup reptile tank for my 2 guys when they get bigger (I'll split the tank with an opaque divided of course.) So $$ is tight. I've already rescued toads, a hamster, and fish from her in the past after the "new pet feeling" fades away. :twoguns:

I'm afraid, she doesn't think about the commitment. She has about 4 or 5 MALE guniea pigs housed together...babies...I can't wait until they are full grown and start fighting... She just bought 2 baby chicks because they were cute and they are going to have "house chickens" and now 2..soon to be 3 corn snakes in one 10g tank. She's the same age as me..20.

And at her grandma's house where she used to live she has a dying 7" Koi fish and a 12" waterdog in a half full filthy 10g tank. She had a 6" oscar in there too...but that met its demise. I won't mention what happened to her poor parakeet.

I'm really worried about these corns!!

Of course I'm only the friend....so I can't tell her no. I'm a Vet Tech major in college and I want to work at an SPCA to help abused animals...and I'm seeing them so close to home and I feel helpless. I don't want to lose my best friend over her animals...

Well, it's definitely a tough situation, and I don't know that anyone can really solve such a thing. I think you've either got to lay down the law and let her know where you stand, or bite your tongue and hope for the best.

I know if it were my best friend, I would tell him to pull his head out of his.....and make things right.

However, I realize (and NO offense at all) that girls tend to react more negatively towards these types of arguments, where guys can usually just shrug it off and still be friends.

Hopefully, it will work out.


Oh, BTW, I think you misspelled your newest snake's name
ZacK...shame on you :grin01:

Well, early on in the thread the idea came to me that you should offer to buy the normal from your friend. But then you said she is ordering more I guess she is just doomed to be one of those "animal collectors" I was reading that there is an actual mental disease that causes this problem , animal collecting that is...

Anyway, off topic. I hope you can find an answer to this problem!

Rebecca

Just get a grip on yourself lady!! You are training to help animals and you are knowingly letting your friend get away with this, quite frankly its disgusting, you are as bad as her, screw your friend and report her!!

Too often this happens, my neighbour neglected his dog, i was friend with them, but being a man i busted the poor dog out of the garage he was kept in and took him down to vets, the poor dog was underweight and suffering skin conditions. Dog now rehomed and the neighbour fined £2500!

Get some backbone and sort her out. Animals kept in captivity totally rely on us, we need to be there to care no matter what. Would she treat a human like that??

Get her sorted...

I agree with Philip - any animal we keep depends on us for its survival, they can't just up sticks and leave if they're not happy (well a cat might but the snakes certainly can't). I have 3 cats, a tank of tropical fish and am soon to acquire a corn (tonight hopefully).

I clean the fish every week / 10 days, make sure their tank is nicely stock with plants etc, the cats are spoiled rotten and I wouldn't have it any other way. Even so, I still feel guilty if one of the fish dies, or if one of the cats comes home with an injury.

If I knew one of my friends was mistreating animals I would be having serious words. What she is doing is amounting to cruelty whether intentional or not and it must be sorted out.

Anyway - my rant over.

Danny B

Take her to Target or Wal-mart. Walk to the "storage/organization" aisle. you know the one with all the totes, sterilite tubs, and closet organizers. you can buy a sterilite tub with a lid for anywhere from $2.99-7.99 depends on how fancy or big you want to get!
now if you dont already have one, go over to hardware, buy a drill with bits.
go to a petstore, buy a mini-UTH heat mat. they're made for plastic tanks.
now this might set you back all of $40 for all of this (drill being most expensive). if you dont need to buy a drill, you might spend all of $20.
use the drill to drill holes into the sterilite tub. line the bottom of the tub with papertowels. put in a water bowl, and a couple of hides.
TA DA! new home for hatchling.
there's no excuse to cohabitate hatchlings. you dont need a 10 gal glass tank. you can use plastic sterilite tubs which are much cheaper. a sweater box sized one can hold an adult for life.
I've known people in the past who had lots of pets and didnt care for them. they'd get a hamster, lose interest in it and go out and buy something else and it would happen again and again. soon they had a house full of neglected animals. I would do what I could to persuade them to give up the animals to me or anyone who wanted to care for them. Usually there isnt much you can do. Except just wait until they say "oh i dont want this one anymore you can have it."
and there is no such thing as an "all black corn". There is no such thing as a melanistic corn snake. there are anerys, like Guinness in my avatar. they are black and grey, or brownish grey. they lack any red pigment.