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Housing hatchlings

I guess that's a matter of opinion, but I will have mine in plastic shoe box size containers, with a paper towel for a substrate, a water dish and a toilet paper tube for hiding. I don't have any experience with hatchlings yet, but this is what I came up with from researching it.
 
Well, when I _buy_ a hatchling, I set it up in a ten gallon with a bunch of hides and vines and deep aspen and a toilet paper roll. Now that I am (hopefully) hatching some, I can't (hopefully) do that with all of them so I am going with a Reptile Basics Iris Shoebox rack, with paper towel, I guess, with toilet paper roll hides and I bought these tiny paper gift bags for other hides...And creme brulee dishes for water bowls. And some shredded paper in a clump for more hiding...I actually don't know what I'm doing.
 
I have been using shoe boxes in racks for many years now and it works quite well for me. I have heat tape recessed under the last three inches. The shoe boxes fit tight enough so I do not have lids to worry about. If anything is going to break it's the lids almost all the time. I use aspen bedding most of the time. It gives the hatchlings something to crawl under. For water I use a 2" deli cup glued to the bottom of the box and a second cup inserted into that cup for water.
 
The first year I hatched corns, I used pencil boxes (burned holes along the sides for ventilation) and upgraded to shoe boxes as they grew.
 
It's hard to beat a shoebox rack - though I have housed hatchings in a variety of containers, from Tupperware to 32 ounce clear deli containers. What's important is to keep hatchlings separate and create a thermal gradient. I find this is easiest to do via a shoebox rack system.
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BTW the shipping on Reptile Basics is incredibly fast, and they come with bins and heat, assembled, packed REALLY safely.
 
Well I dunno about shoeboxes, but I want that baby!!! :p

On that note, how long is a corn comfy in a shoebox sized container???
 
Tim- what do you have your heat set at in the shoebox rack? I'm not used to such a small space to work with. I don't have babies in there yet, and it's holding steady at 84F, (in the warmest part of the bin) with a room temp of 78-80. Do you think that's too warm?
 
Well I dunno about shoeboxes, but I want that baby!!!

On that note, how long is a corn comfy in a shoebox sized container???
I'll be hatching some more of those vanishing pattern ghosts later this month.
Depending on growth rate, they can live in a shoebox for 6 to 9 months.


Tim- what do you have your heat set at in the shoebox rack? I'm not used to such a small space to work with. I don't have babies in there yet, and it's holding steady at 84F, (in the warmest part of the bin) with a room temp of 78-80. Do you think that's too warm?

Hmmmmmmm, I might just use the rack without heating it until your ambient temperatures drop. Too much warmth might cause a regurge, and with those temps a spike in ambient temperature could be problematic. When I have a whole bunch of corns, I'll often keep them at room temperature (in an un-air conditioned house) for July, August and early September.

If you have a basement or other area where the ambient temperature is lower (even the floor can have lower temps), you might want to consider going the shoebox rack route and using the heat tape. I think 84 is a good "warm area" for baby corns.
 
In case I wasn't clear- the Flexwatt is 84F. The room varies from 78 to 80. Maybe down to 76 if the AC is working hard in the rest of the house. It's the coolest room- on the east side, so that was where I wanted to put the hatchling racks.
 
It you can get a temperature gradient from 76 to 84 degrees, that would be fine. If your gradient is 80 to 84 degrees, then it isn't much of a gradient - in that situation I wouldn't bother with using heat tape.
 
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