Hello from Birmingham in the United Kingdom,
Beware I waffle in my posts, I think it is a medical symptom because I type as if I was talking so if you are in a hurry I should skip most of my posts.
I am a reborn snake keeper, I had a "Grass Snake" for three years while I was at boarding school in Surrey and a few weeks ago while I was browsing the internet I spotted a corn snake and fell in love. Oddly enough what I was researching had nothing to do with snakes or even animals for that matter but there you go that is the internet for you. To cut long story short I answered an ad where a young girl was selling one of her hatchlings and she said she would get back to me and I told her that I was at home most of the time so she could contact me whenever she could.
I got all excited and got one of my old fish tanks ready for the possible new arrival, heat mat, substrate, water bowl, branches and hides. Over the next two days I rearranged the tank "furniture" time and time again, oddly enough that isn't something that I do with my own furniture but I just wanted to make sure the little thing would be happy and comfortable in it's new home.
Having not heard anything from the young girl that I had initially called I one again started looking at adverts on a UK snake site and I answered another ad and as it turned out the lady was in that day and said I could visit. Clutching my £35 I went on the half hour train and bus trip to Coventry and came home with my first corn snake which I named Sashay and I popped him into his tank and he looked around for about ten minutes when I got a text message from the young girl saying that her father was driving close to where I lived an they were bringing the snake with them.
I had ten minutes to hide the first snake's aquarium in the spare room and cobble together a second tank as I did not have the heart to let the young girl down as she seemed so sweet when I had chatted to her. Once again more substrate, water bowl, branches etc etc and well it looked ok, if not perfect. Anyway my second corn snake Kavorta joined the family.
They were both born during summer and so they are still quite small but even so I looked at the tanks and decided that I could do better for them so I went and got them a new 24" vivariums each and anything else that I thought they might need including some silk climbing plants and set all that up for them over the next couple of days.
I popped each into it's new home and they both vanished up into the plants right at the top of the vivs and that was the last I saw of them for a couple of days when I decided to feed them and I diligently took each in turn out of it's viv, fed it and put it back where they once again vanished back up into the silk plants to hide from me.
Anyway, here I am two weeks later, most of which I spent watching fervently for any sight of movement or action in the vivs, almost slightly disappointed that the corn snakes are amongst the most inactive creatures that God created. Not to mention that they are both so small that I am terrified of hurting them when I pick them up. I got more satisfaction from watching my first automatic washing machine when I first bought that in the early '70's, that was so exciting that I sat in front of it for a couple of weeks as well finding things to wash just so I could watch it!!!
Anyway, Sashay now comes down from the plants whenever I open the glass and he seems to know which of the glass sections slide and that he can pop his head out and get onto my hand from there but Kavorta still hides away from me except for at feeding time. I daresay that she will get braver as time goes on and hopefully she will come down to greet me like Sashay does. ….. Time will tell.
I realise that this is an American forum and that the classified adverts won't be of much use to me sitting here in the UK but it is nice to spend a bit of time reading other people's advice and stories because I find that sort of thing more fun than watching stupid reality shows and repeat programs on the television not to mention that I will learn from them.
Right I am off now as no doubt you are bored with my daft rubbish introduction. Have a good day and maybe we may "chat" sometime. Bye for now.
Beware I waffle in my posts, I think it is a medical symptom because I type as if I was talking so if you are in a hurry I should skip most of my posts.
I am a reborn snake keeper, I had a "Grass Snake" for three years while I was at boarding school in Surrey and a few weeks ago while I was browsing the internet I spotted a corn snake and fell in love. Oddly enough what I was researching had nothing to do with snakes or even animals for that matter but there you go that is the internet for you. To cut long story short I answered an ad where a young girl was selling one of her hatchlings and she said she would get back to me and I told her that I was at home most of the time so she could contact me whenever she could.
I got all excited and got one of my old fish tanks ready for the possible new arrival, heat mat, substrate, water bowl, branches and hides. Over the next two days I rearranged the tank "furniture" time and time again, oddly enough that isn't something that I do with my own furniture but I just wanted to make sure the little thing would be happy and comfortable in it's new home.
Having not heard anything from the young girl that I had initially called I one again started looking at adverts on a UK snake site and I answered another ad and as it turned out the lady was in that day and said I could visit. Clutching my £35 I went on the half hour train and bus trip to Coventry and came home with my first corn snake which I named Sashay and I popped him into his tank and he looked around for about ten minutes when I got a text message from the young girl saying that her father was driving close to where I lived an they were bringing the snake with them.
I had ten minutes to hide the first snake's aquarium in the spare room and cobble together a second tank as I did not have the heart to let the young girl down as she seemed so sweet when I had chatted to her. Once again more substrate, water bowl, branches etc etc and well it looked ok, if not perfect. Anyway my second corn snake Kavorta joined the family.
They were both born during summer and so they are still quite small but even so I looked at the tanks and decided that I could do better for them so I went and got them a new 24" vivariums each and anything else that I thought they might need including some silk climbing plants and set all that up for them over the next couple of days.
I popped each into it's new home and they both vanished up into the plants right at the top of the vivs and that was the last I saw of them for a couple of days when I decided to feed them and I diligently took each in turn out of it's viv, fed it and put it back where they once again vanished back up into the silk plants to hide from me.
Anyway, here I am two weeks later, most of which I spent watching fervently for any sight of movement or action in the vivs, almost slightly disappointed that the corn snakes are amongst the most inactive creatures that God created. Not to mention that they are both so small that I am terrified of hurting them when I pick them up. I got more satisfaction from watching my first automatic washing machine when I first bought that in the early '70's, that was so exciting that I sat in front of it for a couple of weeks as well finding things to wash just so I could watch it!!!
Anyway, Sashay now comes down from the plants whenever I open the glass and he seems to know which of the glass sections slide and that he can pop his head out and get onto my hand from there but Kavorta still hides away from me except for at feeding time. I daresay that she will get braver as time goes on and hopefully she will come down to greet me like Sashay does. ….. Time will tell.
I realise that this is an American forum and that the classified adverts won't be of much use to me sitting here in the UK but it is nice to spend a bit of time reading other people's advice and stories because I find that sort of thing more fun than watching stupid reality shows and repeat programs on the television not to mention that I will learn from them.
Right I am off now as no doubt you are bored with my daft rubbish introduction. Have a good day and maybe we may "chat" sometime. Bye for now.
