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hello to all

dllsninjaturtle

dllsninjaturtle

doostman
about 2 weeks ago i bought my first snake. shes a two year old creamsickle corn. I've never been around snakes much I've maybe held three in my whole life. my redneck step-family have sayings like the only good snake is a dead snake. or all snakes have the same last name SNAKE. anyway i myself have always been fascinated by them.
I have been working for two years as a vet tech and gotten pretty confident at handling animals(no snakes mostly dogs and cats, some hawks hogs horses goats.anyway well I really wanted a snake It took me like two months to convince my wife to allow it. I decided on a corn snake and with the help of this site was able to convince her that corn snakes were good pets.
So I went to see my local reptile store. the guy in the store was kinda quite not real helpful he had some babies and he had a 2 year old. I liked the color of the 2 year old more but i was a little apprehensive. bigger snake meant bigger bite. well the store owner convinced me that the older female was a lot safer choice. she eat good and was very docile. I bought everything i needed 20 gal,book,heatpad,water bowl, 2 hides, aspen, 2 temp guages and a humidity guage. took her home set her up and let her go. she explored for a couple min then went into her hide. i left her for 7 days like the book said. but she rarely came out. if her head was sticking out of the box and you walked up to her or passed her she would hide. I was getting kinda worried. well day 7 comes i am afraid shes hungry so so i try to gently shake her out of her hide(Ive learned since that this isnt good.now i just lift the hide.)finnally she came flying out climbing the glass looking for a place to hide i gently picked her up and moved her to her feeding box.I must admit i was very nervous holding her. which is weird because i have to wrestle with vicious dogs daily and im very confident. I fed her two fuzzies she ate quickly and still was looking for mice but thats what the man said to give her.
I put her back in and left her for three days.
finally the big day came i was gonna get to hold my pet. I was so excited and nervous. But once again i went to shaking her hide and scared her out she was very frantic i picked her up and she just freaked trying to go anywhere as fast as she could so i put her back in and began to research there was nothing helpful in the book so once again i turned to cornsnakes.com. three days later today i tried again i wore gloves to help me calm down more. i gently lifted her hide waited couple sec then slowly picked her up from the middle and pulled her out she was great after about 5 min i took of the gloves i took her outside she seamed very happy. I think she was i def was. i held her for about 30 min(loved it) then put her back she explored her terrarium more than ever. for the rest of the day she has just kicked it. I am so happy. my only problem is i want to hold her again and dont want to wait till tomorrow. anyway maybe boring to you snake veterans but it has really added some excitement to my life. I am completely alone in my part of the world as far as snakes and would enjoy any new snake friends. any info is appreciated. thanx
 
Welcome.
I think maybe an older snake is a better choice for new snake owners. I got my snake "used" and have had little problem with her. I see people's hatchling problem posts all the time.
You're not alone if you read this forum, if there's something you don't find in search or on the stickies at the top of the forums you can ask.
You've got what you need to start. Now that your snake's house is set up keep an eye on the temperatures until you know how it heats. A thermostat for your heatmat is helpful.
 
Welcome to the obsession and congratulations on the new family member! ;) I'm looking forward to pics...
Also, it's awesome to see a neighbor on this forum. I live in Las Cruces, NM (about 40 minutes away from El Paso). Which store did you get your snake from? We have a great one here called Awesome Reptile and they have pretty cheap prices for feeders and snakes (when, not if you decide to get another one... :) ) Also, they run the county reptile rescue and are quite knowledgeable. Anyways, welcome to the forum!
 
Absolutely not alone! We all have to start learning somewhere sometime, I also have a hard time with the picking up of the snake, but once up the snake behaves very well. And I can understand it being very scary being swooped on to be picked up!
 
Welcome and good luck with your new snake. Don't be too afraid of a bite, really. Have any of the dogs at work taken a nip at you ? I promise you that the dog bite is much worse. I'm not sure what book you purchased with your snake , but Kathy Love's book is generally considered to be a very good source of info for the new snake owner. Anyway, like Alan said, keep an eye on those temps. Heat mats without a thermostat can get too hot fast.
 
Ahh how cool. I lived in Cruces while i went to NMSU. I'm from Anthony NM. I got her from sun city reptiles in NE El Paso. I will def have to check Awesome reptile out. I have to get used to this girl first but i can see myself getting a male someday.and i will make sure to get some pics up.
 
Ive been bittin many times and almost bitten daily by dogs. and i know for sure dog bites hurt way worse. its just physiological. I almost wish I could get bitten and get over it. but i dont want her to ever bite if i can help it.
 
It might even by psychological, but I know what you mean. You'll get christened eventually and then say " that was it ? " Be confident and don't hesitate when reaching in for her. Make sure that you've washed your hands first, so that they don't smell like anything. Remember not grab for the head or tail, they hate that. I'm sure you could do a search here for threads on handling that will have advice from people much more experienced than I.
 
Welcome, and enjoy! You've certainly come to the right place for learning about these fascinating creatures. Be warned - they're definitely addictive, especially for an animal lover as you already are! Don't worry about boring the veterans. I'm NOT one, but the veterans have always been helpful for me. If they were bored, they were either too polite to say so, or they just skipped those posts! Again, welcome.
 
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