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Hello! New Unexpected Snake Owner! Questions!

L

Lindseylollygag

New member
Hello, I recently acquired a 16in Snow corn, (thursday 4/26/12) guessing she's about 6 months old. My friend is moving for the summer and can't bring the snake along, I decided to take on the challenge. Her name is Nagini. I am very new to this and I don't know much but I am willing and happy to learn. I've visited every pet store in town and just about all websites! There is so much information. I have a few questions about digesting and heat, where is the best place to post them? Thanks!

Here she is! Also, after I noticed she likes to climb, I got her a branch :)
 

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Well hi there! And welcome from a fellow Floridian (you'll find quite a few of us on the boards). What a cute little snow!

As far as digestion and heat questions, on the main page, you'll notice several subforums with different categories that you can browse through to see if someone has already answered your question. Or, if you can sum up your question in a few short key words, in the upper right hand corner of the forum tool bar, you'll notice an option that says "Search". Pop in your keywords, and anything relevant to your search will pop up! Take a little bit to browse and read through those before posting your questions, as a lot of things you might have thought of (and a few you haven't yet) might already have answers. :)
 
Hello and welcome!

Robbie has it - the FAQs in the relevant section are a great place to start with the basic "How do I...?" type questions. Try "Husbandry and Basic Care" for heating and "Health Issues/Feeding Problems" for digestion. Post the query if you don't have any luck in those - there's bound to be somebody about who can offer an educated opinion.

There are also a couple of books that you'll probably enjoy as much as we do. "Corn Snakes: A Comprehensive Owner's Guide" by Kathy and Bill Love (Kathy's a member here) and "Corn Snakes in Captivity" by Don Soderberg. No matter how long you've been keeping Corns, you'll occasionally find yourself double-checking yourself in these two beauties! My copy of Kathy's book is my most well-thumbed volume - you can't always get to the internet for a quick question.

And be warned - you'll probably be wanting another Corn soon. They just do that to ya... Best to start figuring out now which furniture will be thrown out so you can fit in a second three-foot tank!
 
bitsy said:
Hello and welcome!

Robbie has it - the FAQs in the relevant section are a great place to start with the basic "How do I...?" type questions. Try "Husbandry and Basic Care" for heating and "Health Issues/Feeding Problems" for digestion. Post the query if you don't have any luck in those - there's bound to be somebody about who can offer an educated opinion.

There are also a couple of books that you'll probably enjoy as much as we do. "Corn Snakes: A Comprehensive Owner's Guide" by Kathy and Bill Love (Kathy's a member here) and "Corn Snakes in Captivity" by Don Soderberg. No matter how long you've been keeping Corns, you'll occasionally find yourself double-checking yourself in these two beauties! My copy of Kathy's book is my most well-thumbed volume - you can't always get to the internet for a quick question.

And be warned - you'll probably be wanting another Corn soon. They just do that to ya... Best to start figuring out now which furniture will be thrown out so you can fit in a second three-foot tank!
Click to expand...

I'm so glad that there's always someone who can come along and chime in with things I've forgotten! Thanks!
 
She's so cute! And I love your nails. And be warned- pet store employees are generally WAY off in their advice on snake care. ALWAYS double check here before doing anything, or purchasing anything. A couple of the most common misconceptions you'll hear from the typical pet shop reptile "expert" is you must feed live mice, the snake needs a basking lamp, and you can keep more than one snake in the same enclosure.

If you click on the link to my website, or visit my personal forum down in the Members Forums section, you'll find a very complete but simple care sheet for cornsnakes. It should answer just about any question you have.
 
Hi Lindsey, welcome to the forum!!!! What a gorgeous little scalebaby you have! I like snows, they can be so much more colorful than one would think, although I am still working on taking a good picture of my little snow motley girl, white snakes are TOUGH!! :)

Anyhoo, you have come to the right place. The people here are wonderful and really know their stuff.
Just sit back, breathe deeply, and absorb all the cornsnake wonderfullness, it is a great lifestyle and a wonderful addiction.
 
Thank you everyone for the warm welcome!! I'm still gathering info, but i posted my questions in the husbandry section and 3 out of 4 people suggest UTHs over lamps (and mostly everyone else.) That is my main concern right now!

I have a lamp on her and she seems fine, but I just bought a UTH and will set it up when I get the thermostat on friday. Will alternating the lamp during the day (while it's a bit hotter in the room already with the sun on my side of the house)-and UTH at night (while it's colder and I have strong fans on in the summer) providing 24/7 heat be alright? I'm mostly home at night and when the light goes off after 8 hours she gets active. (I can then see her moving about with my personal lamp on.) Sound okay? Also, 8 hrs, or 12? Thanks again guys!!
 
But see, then I remember creating a day-night temp drop will be okay for her too. All of these options are so confusing!! Bear with me guys! I am clueless to this, but I'm spending all of my time making sure she's comfortable.
 
There aren't really any "right" ways of heating them, other than do not use heat rocks! But UTHs, bulbs, heat tape and ceramic heat emitters or any combo of those are right, depending on your situation. I just have UTHs and rheostats or thermostats on all of mine. But that is because I personally don't like lamps. A corn snake doesn't really need UV lights, so if you had the heat mat on the rest of the time, it doesn't really matter how long you have the lamp on.
 
Will alternating the lamp during the day (while it's a bit hotter in the room already with the sun on my side of the house)-and UTH at night (while it's colder and I have strong fans on in the summer) providing 24/7 heat be alright?
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Bear in mind that the lamp needs to be regulated as well - it's likely to give off as much heat as the UTH and if it's already hot in the room during the day, you don't want the tank to overheat. Being too cool is safer than being too hot for a Corn.

I'm mostly home at night and when the light goes off after 8 hours she gets active. (I can then see her moving about with my personal lamp on.)
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Although that reflects their natural behaviour, the light could be causing her to hide away more than she would be inclined to.

In your position I'd just leave the UTH+thermostat on 24x7 (it won't actually be on all that time as the thermostat will regulate it), leave the light off, and see what happens.
 
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