• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Bringing the corn home

Thanks to everyone for the input and PM's. We are still looking for our new corn. The Herp guy has an albino okeetee hatchling that they are holding for me pending an older snake showing up. The hatchling looks great, seems very healthy, and has a nice appetite - I watched it being fed and it took only a second or two for it to strike. I also held it, and it didn't seem all that 'flighty'. They also brought out a full grown adult, which I had never seen before. I was surprised at how big they are.....What to do, what to do. I still have a month, so there's time to get things right.
 
Drat! I thought your next post was going to be the birthday recap! I can't wait to hear about it (and see pictures). :)
 
jessicalb said:
Drat! I thought your next post was going to be the birthday recap! I can't wait to hear about it (and see pictures). :)
Click to expand...

LOL. Nope, his party is on 6/18. I'm just a planner and trying to do it right with regards to the snake. I have to say, I really liked that hatchling. Some well-known experts have chimed in privately that, done properly with education, a hatchling would work out fine. The folks at the store seem to think so, too. I also get what those are saying regarding yearlings. I have time....

I do have a pic of the hatchling eating.....I'll see if I can upload it somewhere.
 
Here he is:

babycorn.jpg


corn%20eating.jpg
 
Lets try this:

<img><iframe title ="Preview" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" frameborder="0" style="width:320px;height:240px;padding:0;background-color:#fcfcfc;" src="http://cid-bdec72819bb7f4ce.photos.live.com/embedphoto.aspx/New%20album/corn%20eating.jpg"></iframe><img>

<img><iframe title ="Preview" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" frameborder="0" style="width:320px;height:240px;padding:0;background-color:#fcfcfc;" src="http://cid-bdec72819bb7f4ce.photos.live.com/embedphoto.aspx/New%20album/babycorn.jpg"></iframe><img>
 
So we're going today to finalize the habitat. For now, it's a 15G tank and they've set aside a thermometer, UTH, pack of aspen, water dish, hide, a light setup (a long one, not those 'dome' setups). Aside from a thermostat or dimmer switch and hygrometer, is there anything else (non-decorative) that we should explore? Is lighting really necessary? There should be a hide on the non-heated side of the tank as well, correct - or maybe one big one that spans warm and cool areas of the tank, yes?
 
Make sure the thermometer is a probe thermometer, not just a stick on one. Lighting is unnecessary, IMO. The light from the room is plenty and the more bright lights shining into their tanks, the more our corns hide. You definitely need multiple hides along the heat gradient - a shy snake will pick a hide at a bad temp over an open space at the right temp. With our little guys we have used 3 identical terracotta plant saucers to make sure the hides are the same so they will pick based on temp. They are also super cheap so if one gets broken or is particularly saturated with poop or something, you can just toss it and get another for under a dollar.
 
Thanks.....do they "sun" themselves in the light? If I've got a nice rock or something for them to go on, do they bask in the light, or would they just choose the hide over the pad?
 
Ours have never basked but we have never provided a light, either. I suspect they wouldn't if they had a choice to get their heat someplace else. :)
 
I've never seen my corn snake "bask" like a bearded dragon or other reptiles. The UTH is sufficient for heat. I would spend the money on a thermostat rather than the light.
 
So we went there today and held him while walking around the store looking for tank stuff. He moves around, but not too much that I fel like he's trying to escape. He actually seems to like being held! He just slowly slithered around our hands looking about, tasting the air. In fact, the only time he got a little "fiesty" was when we handed him back to the worker to put him back in his little tupperware bin. His movements got quicker and he did NOT want to go back in. Very interesting......

Against the advice of some and following the advice of others, we're going for the hatchling. I think we'll be fine....my son will just need to be monitored when handling him and we will use the 'over the padded bin' approach when he has him.

Anyhow, we swapped out a couple of cheaper things and upgraded the thermometer and UTH pad a little. They actually recommend that white paper stuff for the tank over aspen. Anyone have experience with that? I forget what it's called, but they said that it's more absorbant than the aspen. Since we won't be feeding it in his habitat, will it pose a problem?
 
Oh - based on the pictures....can anyone tell me what he looks like? All these morphs have me confused. Albino Okeetee or Reverse Albino Okeetee, Albino reverse reverse with a slice of Okeetee? I have no clue. By the way, my son has declared that <<IF>> he gets a snake for his birthday, and its red, he's going to name it "Blaze".
 
He's a very beautiful Amel.

As for the white stuff... is it carefresh? i know there are some here that use that if they have allergies but the snakes like to push bedding into water bowls and carefresh will absorb all their water.

Aspen to be is the best choice for corns. We used both Sani chips(a really finely chipped form of aspen) and shredded aspen. Both work really well. I've found that poop and urates sit on the sani chips better than the shredded but gets in the water dish more.
 
Thanks for that. An Amel? Are there different types of Amel? He seems to really look like what I get when I google "Candycane" and other Okeetees....

As for the bedding, I do think it's carefresh. Guess we'll try it and see. We can always switch later.
 
Amelanistic is the gene, meaning the snake lacks the black pigment melanin making the orange snake with red eyes. There is a wide range in how these snakes can look. There are selectively bred traits for some of these looks. Reverse Okeetees are bred for thick white borders, and candy canes are bred for a white background and orange or red saddles. These labels are sometimes used inappropriately to attach a higher price tag or because the person labeling doesn't understand the difference.


This site is really helpful. http://iansvivarium.com/morphs/species/elaphe_guttata/
 
Got it. Thanks for that education. It seems that the amels get very orange in their adulthood. It will be neat to watch that transition. We also got Nate a scale, journal and my wife will take pics every month or so....so be expecting cornsnakes.com's youngest (by owner) progression thread. He will be tracking length, weight, and diet with pictures to go along.
 
More random questions:

So the snake is going to be in it's new habitat at the Herp Store for a few days prior to being driven about 2 miles to my house (in it's tank, hides and all). Do the same post arrival feeding / handling rules from shipping apply? I would think it's going to be less stressful for him than being shipped overnight in a container....

The store has him on live pinkies. Do I switch to frozen 'cold turkey' (pun intended) as soon as he gets home? Or do you swap between fresh and frozen for the first few feedings as a transition process?

Thanks,
K-
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top