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Hello. New Corn owner :)

K

Kidme

New member
I just got my first corn snake yesterday. It's just a baby and about 13 inches long. Not sure of gender, but I don't plan on breeding so it doesn't matter much anyway. I got my snake from petco, but after doing more research that probably wasn't a wise decision, but I'm dedicated to giving it a good life. At least this Petco does feed pinkies. It's pretty lively, crawling all over and trying to escape. Hopefully my sliding top tank is secure enough! Pretty nervous about having an escapee. I gave it a hide made from a band-aid box and it hasn't used it yet. Last night it was sleeping stretched out the length of the tank, but it curled up this morning.

I'm still a little nervous with it, even though I know I have no reason to be. I'm pretty much like that with all new animals as I get to know them though. I'm trying to let it settle before I handle it much though. For now I've just been sticking my hand in there a bit and it has crawled up to sniff me twice.

My snake looks like some type of Miami phase, according to what a friend told me. The only thing is that it doesn't have any black on its saddles. I'll try to get a good picture of it soon and maybe someone here can help me :) There are far too many color varieties for my inexperienced self to keep track of!
 
Hello! Welcome to the forums. Don't worry about all the negative feedback about Petco. I got my snake from Petco as well.

How big is the tank you have him in? I think rule of thumb is to give him at least 3 days to settle in before handling him and then slowly increase the amount you handle him.

Anyway plenty of good advice on here. Post some pics!
 
Usually they say give it a week to settle in! I hope you have a life time full of fun with your new lil baby!

Can't wait to see pictures!
 
Kidme welcome to the forums this is a awesome site alot of great advise on here so come on in and join us and congrats on your new baby. ;)
 
thanks everyone :) I've heard quite a bit of conflicting advice about when to handle the new snake. I'm sure it depends on the snake too. But, to play it safe, I haven't been picking it up. I have had my hand in there and it's getting used to that. It will crawl over me and such. I just worry about feeding it. I asked Petco and they said it was last fed last Friday, so that's been 8 days now since it ate. I read that they shouldn't eat until a week after you bring it home. But is two weeks too long of a stretch? It's still quite active at least.

here are some pictures. From checking out some other threads, I think I have a Miami phase normal. I checked more closely and it does have some black, but I think because of its small size it's just harder to see.

311470_606332747655_50403151_32836496_1983310699_n.jpg

snake tongue!

bottom view
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/377841_606333730685_50403151_32836500_1769625317_n.jpg[/IMG

getting to know me
[IMG]https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/388593_606332533085_50403151_32836495_632657068_n.jpg
My friend pointed out that it has a scream mask pattern on its head :laugh:


Still doesn't have a name. I'm going to look into sexing a snake by looking at tails a bit more to see if I can make a bit of an educated guess. So far I'm learning towards Prince Phillip or Poppy, but nothing final yet. Call it "it" is getting a bit old quickly though.
 
I bought my corn on a Wednesday and didn't feed him until the 2nd friday. it's no problem to let them skip a feed. but i think you should be fine feeding yours on friday. also take everything the petco said about him with a grain of salt. chances are the person who told you that doesn't even know anything about that particular corn. I got 3 conflicting stories from the petco associates. so just go ahead and feed whenever you want about a week from now is my advice. good looking snake though.
 
He is just beautiful or she lol very nice colors it has and yes it does look like it has the scream mask pattern lol very cool. ;)
 
Just held the little booger! I know it hasn't been a week though, but it didn't seem too stressful. The snake was crawling around and I stuck my hand down in front of it and it crawled over my hand. I couldn't resist temptation and held it a bit. It just crawled over my hands, never taking a break from moving, but it didn't seem like quick, fretful movements. After I put it back in the cage it went back to crawling around. Didn't try to snap, or dart away. Just doing its snake-y thing. I tried looking at the tail to guess the gender, but I can't tell where parts start and parts end lol I'll give it another go next time, but I think I'm leaning toward calling my snake a she. My guinea pigs are both boys and my hermit crabs have boy names, so time for a girl I think! From other posts I've read, I'm guessing if I post a picture of the tail, other posters probably still couldn't tell me what it is?

I love being a corn snake mommy so far! Half hour later and it's still crawling around. I don't think I have a nocturnal snake here :p Can't wait to try feeding at the end of this week!
 
Ok wait. So now I'm worried I did stress it out. I saw some liquid on top of the log hide. Not much, had some flecks of white, but appeared clear on a paper towel when I soaked i up. It wasn't that much and it didn't really smell. (I even sniffed the paper towel, I'm sick like that). I assume if it were musk it would smell horrid, but I read other places that they only pee when they poop, so now I'm incredibly confused. What did my little snake create??
 
As rule of thumb..yes they suggest wait a week to hold and to feed. Once it's been a week and you feel fine with it, go ahead and feed. That's when more waiting happens before you can start handling. That means once fed you need to wait 3 days before handling.

With babies I found it is hard to get a chance to hold them due to their feeding. You should probably be feeding "it" every 5 days... Feed friday..wait til Monday-tuesday to handle then feed again on Wednesday..so on..following 5 day schedule

Once they get on bigger mice you can have more handling days :) Like mine is feeding every week.

I have heard that Petco is bad but never any reasons...although I don't believe this rep for them is true for all stores BUT I defantly wouldn't truely consider all the advice they give you...I have had many pet store owners..not just petco tell me stuff and I find out later online that it was bad to buy a certain item and lose money.

Any questions? Plz search forums or post :)

I am curious as to what you are using for warmth?

Welcome and nice baby
 
Petco is bad because they aren't very knowledgeable so their animals are often not taken care of very well and tend to be more sickly. I knew this in regards to other animals so I didn't ask them too many questions, knowing that the almighty internets usually knows more. If I had known that buying snakes online from good breeders was a reputable source for obtaining snakes, I would not have gone the petco route. Live and learn. I really like my snake though. I always liked snakes but I was never especially drawn to owning one, but I saw this little thing and fell in love with THIS snake, so I don't regret it.

A second trip to petco later, I returned my heat lamp and heat rock and exchanged it for an under tank heat pad. Wish I would have read the advice about putting foil or wax paper over it first, but again, live and learn. I don't have a thermostat yet so I've only left it on when I'm home to monitor it. Since it was a holiday weekend, I was home a lot. My thermostat arrives tomorrow as well as an additional mii heat pad that I plan to affix to the side of the tank for especially cold days since we cannot control the temperature in our apartment (landlord decides when to turn on heat and for how long. Earlier in the year it was like 55 degrees inside, so cold!). Luckily it has been unseasonably warm this week and my snake isn't a burrower (though I put a washhcloth on the glass under the aspen, just incase).

I figure if the snake willingly crawled onto my hand, handling it wouldn't be outrageously stressful but maybe I'm wrong. Still waiting to feed it though, especially until I get the thermostat.
 
Any pet store can be bad...its not just petco. People there are there to work and often times don't have experience in animals.
However you took home an animal in need of a better life..that's how I see it by buying from a pet store.

Also I learned about foil on heatpads late aswell...but you can always carefully remove and place foil. Use foil tape to attach to a surface.

You'll always love your first :) I do
Good luck
 
Thanks. I find petco one of the better pet stores around me to be honest. Well, in nyc there are a lot of nice swanky pet stores but they cater to only dogs and cats. I'm having a hard time finding a pet store around here that carries reptile supplies that doesn't sell kittens and puppies because I refuse to give those guys my business. Buying an animal to rescue it really only perpetuates the cycle. I don't think there are quite "snake mills" the way there are puppy mills anyway.

Thanks sierra, I love the mask too!
 
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