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Baby corn, first time owner. looking for advise

KingPixelmouth

KingPixelmouth

Hungry for knowledge
Hey folks,

I have a new albino baby corn and I am a first time owner. It is pink and I am not sure specifically what kind of corn he is.

I have a 30 gal tank, with a UTH on one side, with a thermostat set to 85 degrees F. There is now a hid on both sides of the tank, water in the middle, and a log that stretches across the whole thing. I have had him since last Sunday.

For the first time since I have had him he finally came out to explore yesterday (this is the same day I abandoned using lights and elected to use the UTH).

My concern is that he isn't eating. I have done two things to try, I did 'brain' the pinky, two days ago. The first time I fed him I had not realized that the bright lights in my kitchen may upset him. The second time, tonight, after reading here I decided to feed him with the lights dimmed and brained the pinky and slit down his back. He didn't go for it so I put the feeding container in his tank w him and am going to leave it over night.

I read that leaving it in there is ok, and that sometimes he will want to be alone where it's dark. I know I have only had him since Sunday, and the last time he MAY have been fed would have been last Wednesday at the pet store.

I am handling him maybe a total of 10 minutes a day since I got him. He is very calm and relaxed when it comes to handling.

My questions are: Is it ok to leave him overnight with the pinky in the open plastic container in his tank?

And how long should I wait before I try to feed him again?

And I know that corns like to have a lot of stuff in there because open spaces can stress out the babies, and I know that they will spend a majority of the time hiding, especially as babies. He is drinking water, so I guess that is a good sign. I just want to make sure you vets think I am doing it right or maybe have any other suggestions. Thanks!
 
You're going to want to start from scratch with the adjustment period. While he may be 'calm and relaxed' seeming when being handled, ideally you should leave them entirely alone for a week to adjust to their new surroundings. This includes not feeding them for that week. You've only had him for 4 days. Don't offer him any more food for a week. Two weeks without food will not harm him. At that point, offer him a hot thawed pink in the evening. Put him in a smaller container that has ventilation so he's confined with the pinky and then leave him alone in the dark for a few hours. Most will eat.

Don't offer food more than once every 3 days if NOT eating. Don't offer food more than once every 5 days if it IS eating.
 
Hey there, welcome to the forum!

First off, if your snake is pink, then it's likely a snow. This morph is the result of amelanism (no black pigment) and anerythrism (no red pigment). Congrats!

As far as his enclosure, it sounds great for an adult. As you seem to already know, younger corns can get a bit overwhelmed with too much space - they're tiny and feel very vulnerable.

Your little guy may still be settling in, which is probably why he isn't out exploring everything, and perhaps also why he isn't eating. It's generally recommended not to handle them during the first few days after having moved, as it can upset them (despite how calm they may seem). Snakes are sort of harder to read than other kinds of animals. For example, I once held a white-lipped python that my parents bought right after we left the reptile show. At the time, he was very calm and seemed relatively tame, despite being wild-caught. Once we got him back to the university, he started striking at everything. It's been several years, and he hasn't calmed down a bit. Corn snakes are rarely that nasty, but "calm" to us may not really be "calm" to them.

Most corn snake owners will generally say to feed your guy outside of his viv. If you put him in a deli cup overnight with a pinky, that would be fine. Was he for sure feeding while at the pet store? If so, you might ask them what their technique was for getting this little guy to eat.

Best of luck!
 
Aaand Shiari's post is a bit more helpful than mine. :) I'm sure everything will be fine!
 
Shiari said:
Don't offer food more than once every 3 days if NOT eating. Don't offer food more than once every 5 days if it IS eating.
Click to expand...

I disagree with the feeding schedule, I would not recommend feeding more than every 5 days, if the snake is NOT eating. You do not want to stress the snake out & cause it to continue not eating.

You can leave the pinkie in with the snake overnight.

Another thing you might try, with a baby, is move the baby to a smaller bin for the time being.
I have more success in getting babies to eat when I start them off in smaller containers. I have hatchling racks that have the Tupperware TakeAlong containers, that I use for small babies. Once they are up to two pinkies, they move to a 6 quart shoebox sized bin, then they move up to the 15quart juvie bin, then adult sized bin. For me, the gradual increase in size of enclosure has been very successful in their eating.

If your baby is a pale pink color, it is likely a Snow. If it is white, orange & reddish, it's likely an Amel. Both are referred to as "albinos".
Sounds like yours might be a Snow.

Babies are especially important to give them time to settle into a new home. Adults seem to adjust a lot faster.
Leave him be, as much as possible, for about a week before handling. Wait at least that much time before offering to feed again.

After he has had some time to settle into his new home, be sure to take a couple pics for us to see. :)
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. Sounds to me like I've been a little to worried/semi-frantic about the whole thing.

I have a friend who has never even had a pet tell me to leave him the heck alone for a while. I may try to find some smaller container to put him in for now, but he is finally starting to explore and climb a little more and I'm really excited about that.

@Gillian, no he wasn't for sure eating but they said they feed on Wednesdays.

And Shiari and Heather thank you, based on what all of you are saying I think I won't even handle him until next Wednesday.

I have come into this knowing literally nothing, and set up the enclosure based solely on threads that I have read in this forum. I started feeling kind of intimidated/stupid for jumping into something that I knew nothing about...as I had the snake before I started doing any in depth reading. Luckily I had the funds to set everything up in a healthy way for it and found a good support system here.

ANY other feedback will be greatly appreciated and I will post status reports in this thread or others. Next Wednesday I'll get some pictures of him.

Thinking of naming him/her Zmeeya (Russian for snake), or maybe Plato, cause I dig philosophy :) .

I am determined to do this the right way and in accordance with people who know what they are doing and have experience. Thanks again.
 
Well, you're on the right track, & asking questions is great!
It is easy to feel overwhelmed at first. Before you know it, you will be offering advice to others. :)
 
One other thing.. the skin on either side of his body on his bottom 1/3rd half are creased...like a folded piece of paper. I can provide pictures if it sounds important.
 
Pics would help. Sounds either as if he's dehydrated or the shedding skin is stuck. Creased or folded skin (unless it's only when he's moving round) is usually a sign of trouble.
 
Do corn snakes ever have trouble with getting enough water?...i've only had him a couple days and haven't seen him drink. very possible he is drinking at night...
 
Hi and welcome to the forum. I just joined myself and am still exploring the great information here.
At the risk of sounding like the blind leading the blind, I include another site I visited to help with identifying the myriad varieties of colors and patterns of corn snakes. The site at http://www.cornsnakemorphgallery.com/ shows numerous pictures of corn snakes, but I am not always sure that the id's are accurate because I do not know enough about them myself yet. Anyway it is kind of fascinating to see all of the variations from other owners and through time I may be able to better identify what I am seing.
 
Hey everyone. As far as the creased skin it has gone away after a few drinks of water. As far as not drinking water...I dont know if this was the right thing to do but the last time I handled mine when I put him back into the enclosure I literally put him in the water and he had a good 30-45 second long drink. I am not experienced enough to comment on the water drinking but I hope he drinks up for you!
 
That's the only time I ever see mine drink. as I put them back in the tank, I put them next to the bowl and sometimes they have a good gulp. It's definitely worth "showing" them the water sometimes if you suspect dehydration.

The old timers will know where to find the bowl, but newcomers might not have found it yet or might not feel confident enough to venture over to it. Try surrounding the water dish with ground cover like plastic foliage. If they can get to the bowl whilst remaining partly hidden, it might make them more inclined to drink.
 
The only visible sign I have ever hear of is one that someone mentioned in this thread where the sides of the snake may have folded skin along his body and maybe look creased like a folded piece of paper. Other than that I personally don't know.
 
The folded/creased skin is usually the key sign and sometimes the eyes appear to be dented or sunken in (if it's very bad).

The skin effect needs to be visible at all times to indicate a problem. A bit of folding and creasing as they move around is normal, and can appear when they're at rest, depending on how they're positioned.
 
Well....he died. I had him for 9 days. A UTH on one side at 86 F, hides on both sides, water. I have been leaving him alone for a week as I was advised and the next try was supposed to be tomorrow. He had been in the same corner of the tank for 3 days before I started to get suspicious.

I dont know what I did wrong. He drank water and his creases went away..he hadn't eaten yet since I had him but I was under the impression that this can be normal for new snakes, especially babies.

Maybe its my fault? I dunno. If you read through the thread it sounded like I was taking everyone's advice... There was a 15 day guarantee at the pet store so I am about to take him in and trade him out but I don't want to kill another snake.

*sigh*
 
I'm so sorry for your loss. The fact that he seemed to be dehydrated could either have been the cause or a symptom of an underlying health problem. Hatchlings sometimes don't make it for reasons we can never explain. Some experience developmental issues as they grow which aren't immediately obvious.

When you get your new one, be sure to completely disinfect the tank and all of the fittings, just in case it was something communicable. As advised earlier in the thread, leave your new arrival absolutely alone with no handling for a settling down period of a week before offering food.

I'm sorry you've had such a rocky start. It's always awful to lose a little one even when you've only had them for a matter of days.
 
I agree with Bitsy. Things like this can happen with young little corns. Especially from the stress of living in a pet store for any length of time (espcially if they have a bunch of corns in together, which I've seen many pet stores do).

It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong at all and had the proper set up. Don't be too disheartened and don't blame yourself! It can happen, *especially* from pet store purchases.

In general (of course not as a hard rule) it's safer to buy from breeders.
(just be sure to do your research on a breeder first)
 
What store did you get him from? If Petco, then they have a 15 day return policy for animals.

Also, with the fact that they couldn't tell you if it had eaten, I would not purchase another snake from that store... I tend to push people away from the Petco that I work at, because I am not the one that feeds the snakes every week, and am not sure which ones ate, and which ones did not eat. I do my best to get them to go to one of the mom-and-pop shops in town where they keep records of their feedings and sheds.
 
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