Can I get a double check that we have everything in order?

[Genlisae]

We are a week in to our snake adventure and I think we have everything in order and going smoothly but I would really appreciate the assurance that we haven't over looked anything.

My daughter's snake is somewhere around 8-12 weeks old (best guess of the pet store ) about 29cm (11 inches, as near as I can tell, measuring a snake is skill I have yet to perfect, but getting better!) He has just finished his week of being left alone after arriving and had his first meal with us tonight. All went smoothly with feeding and he is now happily nested in his substrate digesting.

• Housing - 39cm x 59.5cm (15.5inch x 23.5inch) one of these type contraptions, though I have no idea of the brand or where it was purchased.
  
• Substrate coconut coir (large, loose fibre, I am an avid gardener, his substrate is washed in RO water and put through my screens when it arrives home to sift out most of the fine powder, then dried in a 250f oven and allowed to cool before being used) about 3cm (1 inch) deep.
  
• Thermostat controlled UTH with ceramic tile covering on the inside of the enclosure for better heat distribution. Temp is an even 29c (84.5F) in the warm end 25.5c (77.9F) on the cool end. This is measured by both a digital thermometer and the thermostat probe, placed side by side against the tile in the middle of the UTH under the substrate. In addition the thermometer is set to give of warning alarms if the temperature rises to 31.4c (88.5f) or falls to 22c (71.6f) these temperature limits were chosen to give us early warning of an impending temperature emergency, please let me know if you think they need adjusting one what or the other.
  
• 3 hides, one at each end, 1 in the middle.
  
• My daughter made sure to receive a care record from the pet store where the snake was purchased and has transferred all of that information to her snake journal where she has been keeping meticulous records of everything including high and low temperatures and cage cleaning.
  
• No decor theme yet, my daughter is leaning toward an ancient ruins theme, we will see how that goes.

We still need to purchase a digital scale.

Now with the questions. Sorry in advance for the length, now that I go to start asking, it seems I have way more questions than I thought I did.

The care record we received made a note the snake (has no name yet, she is waiting to get to know him) was fed 2 pinkies on may 15th. Food was offered again and refused the following week and the week after that. I am a little concerned by this. It is my understanding a snake of his age should be eating every 5 or so days. What would cause him to stop eating for 2 weeks? Along the same line, despite my concern that a growing snake should be eating more than he had been, we elected to let him settle in for a week before attempting to feed. This appears to have worked out well, he fed with no issue this evening even though it was the first time he had ever been in his feeding tank. Should I have attempted feeding him sooner though given that it had been so long since he had eaten? Or was the lapse due to eating two pinkies which seems like an awful lot for a snake of his size?

In regard to his enclosure, I understand it may be a little large for him at the moment yet in the future it will be far too small. Could anyone give me a conservative guess (approximations are fine!) of when I could be expecting him to outgrow the current enclosure? Understand it is not upgrading the enclosure that will be the issue, the issue will be finding a new piece of furniture to house a larger enclosure in the child's room and the strong arms to move it! :laugh:

It is also my understanding the temperatures we are getting are on the low side and should be reading closer to 30.5c (87f) against the tile under the substrate. Is this correct or have I misunderstood something somewhere?

The records which we (mostly my daughter) are keeping include minimum and maximum temperatures in both zones of the enclosure, notes of if we have seen him drinking, if he is active or reclusive, his length at feeding time, any odd or new behaviours, what he ate, the time we fed him and how long it took to get him to take the food and if we had to try any "tricks" to get him to eat (so far just a few seconds of a morbid mouse dance on the end of the feeding tongs). Once we have scales it will also include his weight and the weight of his food item. Is there anything else we should be routinely making note of?

I believe that is all of the questions I have for now. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

 

[Genlisae]

I did have more questions!

We would like to install a "night light" by which I mean a light to view him at night but will not interrupt his natural day/night cycle. First question, what are those actually called? Second, any recommendations on what bulb to purchase, if such a bulb actually exists?

Thanks again.

 

[Nythain]

Feeding - Lots of things can cause refusal. He could have been full from a super large meal before, he could have been about to shed, he could have just been being a grumpy butt. So hard to tell really. As for your waiting, that's probably the most popularly "correct" thing to do. And it worked out well for you and the snake so yay. A snake missing a week or two is sort of like a person just going without lunch. It's not *usually* an issue. Some snakes will go months refusing food for various reasons. As long as weight isn't being lost at a drastic rate then all is good.

Enclosure - It's really impossible to give an estimate of time/age when a new enclosure will be needed. Every snake grows so individually. If those measurements were LxW or WxL (basically, not height) then it should be good at least for a year or two hopefully.

Temps - Your temps seem ok. Maybe a smidge low but that's all really a matter of opinion.

Records - That's a lot of record keeping. Much more than the usual. So unless there's anything else specific you can think of, I'd say you got it covered.

Lighting - If you're looking for night viewing, you should look into a really soft blue or red LED setup. If you can't find anything or are in a hurry, you could look for any red bulb from the pet store. Those generally emit heat though, so you will want the lowest watt you can get. Basically, a dim soft blue isn't too disturbing because it is similar to moonlight in nature. And red supposedly isn't disturbing because snakes aren't capable of seeing that color? Personally, I'd look into a dim soft blue LED.

 

[hypnoctopus]

Sounds like Nythain hit all the main points. Baby corn snakes are food for many predators in the wild, so I wonder if he refused twice at the pet store because he was too stressed out? Until he's a little older and you know that he's a reliable feeder, I would feed him in the evening, in a small container, and leave him alone in the dark to eat.

I thought I would add that you and your daughter might like iherp.com. It's a snake record keeping website and I use it a lot. Secondly, for measuring the length of the snake, I recommend serpwidgets.com. You just need to take a photo of your snake (once he's not digesting!) with a ruler or some object you know the length of. It's a pretty easy to use tool and it's probably the most accurate you can get.

 

[smigon]

First of all, :bowdown: to you and your daughter for putting in all the time to learn about corns and their needs. We get SO many "impulse buy" questions that we do happily answer, but had they done a bit of homework they would be ready when the got the snake!

I agree with Nythain, several variables going on here, I wouldn't stress yet. My money is on shedding, and missing a meal or two won't hurt him at all.

Congrats, we are excited to see pics!

 

[Genlisae]

Whew! Thank you all for your responses, I was fairly sure we were not doing anything catastrophically wrong, but there is always that little nagging doubt. Is good to know we are on the right track.

 

[NH93]

You absolutely are on THE track! There's really nothing to worry about from what I can tell.
For the refusal... to put it nicely, pet stores aren't known for being superb in their exotic animal care. If husbandry is off, it can cause snakes to refuse food. But as already mentioned, there's a whole whack of reasons for that too. Because you had no feeding issues there shouldn't be a concern as of now.

I think you could do without the tile on the bottom of the vive. That might be why temps are a tad high on the low end and a tad cool on the warm end. Not enough to cause concern though, again.

Everything else is aces.

As for the night light, other species tend not to see red on its own. It is my understanding that corns cannot see red on its own either. I have one of those colour-changing LEDs from Ikea and I LOVE it. It's around 40" in length (able to be cut and altered) and cost around $25.00. Just one idea, but LEDs produce virtually no heat, which is what you want.

All the best!

 

[Popcorn715]

Do you already have a light fixture to use? I had an old incandescent terrarium hood so I just bought this bulb to use for now. We have it on a timer so it's only on for about an hour or so in the evening. It does put out a bit of heat...the hood feels a bit warm, but doesn't seem to be enough to make any drastic temp change in the viv.

If I didn't already have the fixture, I would have headed to Ikea for LED's right away, but after already spending so much getting our snake and everything set up for him, I decided it could wait a while. The blue light doesn't seem to bother him at all. It's fun to watch him cruise around in the dark.

 

[Genlisae]

I have several (possibly in the dozens) old aquarium hoods both incandescent and florescent. I will have to look into finding a bulb for those.

Sadly the nearest IKEA is hours away from me So many things I would love to run out and get, but no, is an all day trip.

 

[smigon]

I have several (possibly in the dozens) old aquarium hoods both incandescent and florescent. I will have to look into finding a bulb for those.

Sadly the nearest IKEA is hours away from me So many things I would love to run out and get, but no, is an all day trip.

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy a UV light. Corns don't need them and they can harm and possibly blind your snake. You need a bulb that puts off no heat.

 

[Genlisae]

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy a UV light. Corns don't need them and they can harm and possibly blind your snake. You need a bulb that puts off no heat.

No, definitely no UV, though my daughter was told by the pet store she would need one :nope: (I am told she "corrected" their advice on the spot) I was thinking along the lines of one of the incandescent fixture ended LED with as few diodes as possible.

 

[NH93]

No, definitely no UV, though my daughter was told by the pet store she would need one :nope: (I am told she "corrected" their advice on the spot) I was thinking along the lines of one of the incandescent fixture ended LED with as few diodes as possible.

Love to hear that!! Good for your daughter for standing up and saying something, too!