Just a few questions

[Cursed_Witch]

Hi there all... hope you had a great thanksgiving

I have been searching on this site for information but i couldn't actually get enough info of what i want to ask..

so ill just post my questions hoping i would get some answers... you all have been a great help to me so far and i thank you for that.. i wouldn't have gotten this far without you guys..
Sorry in advance for asking too many

**Now thats its closer to winder and weather is colder.... does that effect their shedding? because Stewie.. (male normal okeetee) has been shedding every single month... but this past 2 months he didn't.... so i am not sure if the weather affects it or not... and should i actually spray his tank add humidity for him to shed? i just am not sure if its ok if he doesn't shed.

**Another reason could be.. because i think he is undergrown.. i am not sure.. he is about 1 1/2 years old... about 34 inches but i still think he is too small.. i have seen pics of cornsnakes that are 1 year old and they are not as thin. and if he is undergrown.. what can i do?

** Now he has a new habit. he never had a problem eating.. he always ate right away and with all the lights on and me with the camera taking snapshots.. but the past month or two, he hasn't been eating unless i leave him alone with his food ad in the dark... and i posted pics of how he is eating lately... in that thread about funniest thing your corn has done.

** I'm thinking it is time to upgrade his viv... he is in a 10 gallon now... but my question is... should i go 20 for a 34 inches snake? and if yes... should it be the long type or the high type? and also.. i know that means i have to upgrade his house and his water bowl.. although i have never seen him in the water bowl ever.... but does that mean i have to upgrade the heating pad also? and oh.. does the heating pad like have a durability limit? like does it stop after a certain period.. i am having trouble mainting a steady temp and i cant tell if its the pad, or the thermostat affecting or the thermometer itself.

thanks for taking the time to read this and i would appreciate any answers to any of the questions..
I'm just worried a bit and i have to act now if it is time to upgrade him.

 

[DAND]

**Now thats its closer to winder and weather is colder.... does that effect their shedding? because Stewie.. (male normal okeetee) has been shedding every single month... but this past 2 months he didn't.... so i am not sure if the weather affects it or not... and should i actually spray his tank add humidity for him to shed? i just am not sure if its ok if he doesn't shed.

He'll shed when he grows. With the weather getting cooler is he eating as much or as often? If he's slowing down eating he won't grow as much. Slower growth equals longer time between sheds.

Spray if the humidity is getting too low or while shedding to assist the shed.

**Another reason could be.. because i think he is undergrown.. i am not sure.. he is about 1 1/2 years old... about 34 inches but i still think he is too small.. i have seen pics of cornsnakes that are 1 year old and they are not as thin. and if he is undergrown.. what can i do?

The length for his age is fine. The width will fill in, in time. How often and what size prey item(s) are you feeding?

** Now he has a new habit. he never had a problem eating.. he always ate right away and with all the lights on and me with the camera taking snapshots.. but the past month or two, he hasn't been eating unless i leave him alone with his food ad in the dark... and i posted pics of how he is eating lately... in that thread about funniest thing your corn has done.

As long as he's eating and eliminating I wouldn't worry about the new eating preference.

** I'm thinking it is time to upgrade his viv... he is in a 10 gallon now... but my question is... should i go 20 for a 34 inches snake? and if yes... should it be the long type or the high type? and also.. i know that means i have to upgrade his house and his water bowl.. although i have never seen him in the water bowl ever.... but does that mean i have to upgrade the heating pad also? and oh.. does the heating pad like have a durability limit? like does it stop after a certain period.. i am having trouble mainting a steady temp and i cant tell if its the pad, or the thermostat affecting or the thermometer itself.

A 20L would be perfect for him.

The water bowl should be large enough for him to soak in if he needed to.

The heating pad could stay as long as it is keeping the tank at the appropirate temperature.

What kind of thermostat are you using? If you are using one that cuts off the power when the desired temp is obtained you will have a fluctuation in temps.

 

[Roy Munson]

**Now thats its closer to winder and weather is colder.... does that effect their shedding? because Stewie.. (male normal okeetee) has been shedding every single month... but this past 2 months he didn't.... so i am not sure if the weather affects it or not... and should i actually spray his tank add humidity for him to shed? i just am not sure if its ok if he doesn't shed.

As the snake grows, shedding will be less frequent. Increasing humidity will not prompt a shed cycle, and I wouldn't advise doing it unless he has a bad shed.

**Another reason could be.. because i think he is undergrown.. i am not sure.. he is about 1 1/2 years old... about 34 inches but i still think he is too small.. i have seen pics of cornsnakes that are 1 year old and they are not as thin. and if he is undergrown.. what can i do?

There's no strict formula for snake feeding. If you think he's skinny, feed him more. His length sounds fine for his age. What's he eating, and how often?

** Now he has a new habit. he never had a problem eating.. he always ate right away and with all the lights on and me with the camera taking snapshots.. but the past month or two, he hasn't been eating unless i leave him alone with his food ad in the dark... and i posted pics of how he is eating lately... in that thread about funniest thing your corn has done.

Everyone does things differently, but I consider feeding-time to be quiet-time. If he wants to be left alone in the dark with his prey, then I wouldn't call that a feeding or behavioral problem.

** I'm thinking it is time to upgrade his viv... he is in a 10 gallon now... but my question is... should i go 20 for a 34 inches snake? and if yes... should it be the long type or the high type? and also.. i know that means i have to upgrade his house and his water bowl.. although i have never seen him in the water bowl ever.... but does that mean i have to upgrade the heating pad also? and oh.. does the heating pad like have a durability limit? like does it stop after a certain period.. i am having trouble mainting a steady temp and i cant tell if its the pad, or the thermostat affecting or the thermometer itself.

Yeah, he's outgrown that 10gal. Go ahead and buy him the enclosure you plan on keeping him in throughout his adult life, and put him in it. And you may have to upgrade to a larger heating pad. You'll have to set up the new tank, and do a bunch of trial and error to get your thermostat output consistent with desired temps as measured with a separate thermometer. This may be difficult if there are big swings in ambient temps in the room.

thanks for taking the time to read this and i would appreciate any answers to any of the questions..
I'm just worried a bit and i have to act now if it is time to upgrade him.

Yep, it's time to upgrade. Good luck.

 

[Cursed_Witch]

Hi Dand, thank you for replying
to answer you...

He is not slowing down on eating.. he is eating everyweek.. i feed him one fuzzy sometimes medium, sometimes large, every 6 or 7 days... I think lenghtwise he is the right size.. just thickness he isnt...
And i am not sure why he did not shed yet.. he has been doing it on a steady level for the past year and a half i have owned him.. even winter time... i just dont understand why he isnt now... im thinking he could be bothered by the size of the tank.
He does eat everytime and he does defecate as well... no problem there... just the stubborness he has is anooying...sometimes i had to leave him out wiht the food overnight.. and im always afraid he would get cold as the feeding tank does not have heating...so i usually put the feeding tank inside the viv so it could give it some heat...

would the 20L be final? meaning i wont have to upgrade for him again? and should i get the short type of the long type or it wouldnt matter? he does climb alot but he still doesnt understand that he is too big to fit under the rim.
I guess i need to test the heating pad.
I am using the thermostat that would automatically shut itself when the temp reaches the max i have set it in. But whats happening is that i never changed the settings but now.. i see it still runing to get it to lets say 85 degrees while the thermometer with the probe tells me its already 88 degrees .. so i cant tell what is causing it.

 

[Cursed_Witch]

Roy.. its always nice to see you again. Youre always here to help us.. thank you again

If i were to feed him more.. what would the schedule be.. i replied on the top that i feed him medium to large fuzzy every 6 to 7 days. BUt sometimes those fuzzies come the size of a large pinky

He never had problem about being left alone.. but he may be changing his habits... i guess as long as he is eating.. it doesnt mattter how

Tell me Roy, a 20 gallon would be final for him or do i need to go bigger or get a certain type... since im going to buy a new one.. i just want to make sure maybe i can buy a bigger one from now. And should i get high or short type? he would get about 5 feet as total size right? 34 inches is almost half.

There are no swings in my room.. because i never open the windows.. the only thing that does open is the door of the room.. but it does get cold in that room.. when i come home from work. it is about 63 degrees... could be that the thermostat cant keep up cause its cold?

 

[Roy Munson]

It's nice to see you too.

I saw the pics in the "funniest thing" thread, and he's slender, but definitely in no danger of starving. And he's certainly very pretty. I'm going to use the fuzzy he's eating in that "heads up" pic as reference in my comments. I wouldn't exceed the size of that particular fuzzy yet, but I would give him two of that size every 7 days for a few months. Then you can bump him to single feedings of a larger prey size. I don't know what the availablity of mouse sizes is for you, but on that schedule, he'll be ready for weaned mice in a few months. At that point, I would order f/t from a reputable online source (I use The Mouse Factory). TMF vaccuum-seals its packages, so you can buy enough for 6-8 months all at once. Then you won't have to worry about size availability. You really don't have to worry about having too many weaneds, because he can go to two of those per feeding when you normally would bump him to full-size adults (I've done this with a number of snakes).

And I agree: as long as he's eating, I wouldn't worry about how he's doing it.

A cold room shouldn't be a problem for the thermostat, but it's possible that the heating pad output may never catch up with your desired stat setting in cold ambient temps. That's going to be part of your trial and error experimentation with the new set-up. I'm not a big fan of lamps, but they can be used for supplemental heat as long as you play games with water bowl placement, bowl size, and tank ventilation to keep the lamp from drying out the enclosure too much.

Roy.. its always nice to see you again. Youre always here to help us.. thank you again

If i were to feed him more.. what would the schedule be.. i replied on the top that i feed him medium to large fuzzy every 6 to 7 days. BUt sometimes those fuzzies come the size of a large pinky

He never had problem about being left alone.. but he may be changing his habits... i guess as long as he is eating.. it doesnt mattter how

Tell me Roy, a 20 gallon would be final for him or do i need to go bigger or get a certain type... since im going to buy a new one.. i just want to make sure maybe i can buy a bigger one from now. And should i get high or short type? he would get about 5 feet as total size right? 34 inches is almost half.

There are no swings in my room.. because i never open the windows.. the only thing that does open is the door of the room.. but it does get cold in that room.. when i come home from work. it is about 63 degrees... could be that the thermostat cant keep up cause its cold?

 

[MegF.]

I would continue to feed him as you have. He may just be a more slender snake. They're all different and at some point he'll probably fill out a bit. If the fuzzy is really small, give him two small ones instead. He is a little young, but a year and a half is plenty old enough to go into breeding mode. It's a little early in the year (my male went off food around January if I didn't brumate) but he could be just going off food like many males do. I think mine was about the same age as yours when he quit eating for the first time. 20 gl. is fine, but I usually put them in a 30 gl. as a final tank. Most corns don't reach 5 ft. Mostly around 4 ft. is more common. As long as you have sufficient belly heat you probably won't have to worry about the fact that your room temp is low. I worried the first year and used supplemental heat for the cool side but after that I never have and all do just fine. My house routinely stays in the low 60's.

 

[Cursed_Witch]

thanks for saying he is pretty.. he is a good looker ..
I have tried to give him 2 , left him alone just like im doing rerenctly but he only is eating one out of them...
I dont know what weaned are ... but if i were to get from online.. it should be in bulk and what i dont undertand is that if i get fuzzy... in a few months if lets say it was time to upgrade him, i wouldnt? i would still give him instead of one, id give him 2? is that what you meant? cause i dont want to buy a large quantity if he is going to upgrade that soon...
or else.. im going to have to get another snake! haha .. i am considering it.. but now that i need to get a bigger viv for Stewie .. i dont have the space in my room.

Yeah i think the temps are going to be a problem.. i have an extra lamp someplace in the basement as we have a whole zoo, frogs, turtles, fish, salamanders, lizzards.. im sure i can find one extra..
any specific type of bulb? basking? heating? voltage?

 

[Roy Munson]

Weaned mice are small adult mice. Mouse sizes: pinky --> fuzzy --> hopper --> weaned --> adult --> jumbo.

A lot of corns don't seem to like the multiple-prey-item feedings. In those cases, you're stuck with feeding frequency and prey-size as far as growth manipulation is concerned.

What I meant about the online f/t is that if you ordered a bunch of weaned mice when he is ready for them, you wouldn't have to worry about having surplus when he's ready to go to adults. You could bump him to two weaned mice instead of bumping to a single adult. But if he doesn't like multiples, you could increase the single-weaned feeding frequency a bit until he's ready for adults.

I really would try to get the temps right with undertank heating alone (as Meg said). If you use a lamp, you'd want to use nothing more intense than a 40 watt incandescent bulb in one of those "shop light" fixtures (metal cone thingy).

thanks for saying he is pretty.. he is a good looker ..
I have tried to give him 2 , left him alone just like im doing rerenctly but he only is eating one out of them...
I dont know what weaned are ... but if i were to get from online.. it should be in bulk and what i dont undertand is that if i get fuzzy... in a few months if lets say it was time to upgrade him, i wouldnt? i would still give him instead of one, id give him 2? is that what you meant? cause i dont want to buy a large quantity if he is going to upgrade that soon...
or else.. im going to have to get another snake! haha .. i am considering it.. but now that i need to get a bigger viv for Stewie .. i dont have the space in my room.

Yeah i think the temps are going to be a problem.. i have an extra lamp someplace in the basement as we have a whole zoo, frogs, turtles, fish, salamanders, lizzards.. im sure i can find one extra..
any specific type of bulb? basking? heating? voltage?

 

[MegF.]

Or you can use a red heat light. They will dry the enclosure more though.

 

[Cursed_Witch]

Follow up

Hey everyone
I just am so confused that i had to ask some more questions..
First i would like to say that i am planning on upgrading Stewie sometime during the next few weeks

I have mentioned about his new eating habits.. (To save you from going back and reading... ill briefly explain again)
He seems not to eat until he is separated with his food and one of his houses is put with him in the feeding tank and all the lights are shut off.. thats the only way he has been eating for the past 3 or 4 weeks..

Now... He has only been active during the night and sometimes during the day... what he is doing the most is just lay there on top of the aspen neither on hot or cold side.. in the middle...expanding himself... not curled up
he did not shed for the past couple of months and he is still slender as some of you have called him.

The past 2 feedings..he has not eaten..i have done exactly the same way as the past few weeks (in the dark, with house etc....)

Now i am a bit suspicious that there is something wrong with him.
His temperatures are all OK....
i have read some people mention about hibernating... is this what he is doing?
is there something i should know about? or check to find out if he is sick or so? could it be because his viv is too small for him that he is having this behavior?

i would appreciate any answers,
thanks.
P.

 

[MegF.]

He should not be hiberating unless the temps are down and usually I cover mine with dark towels so there's no light either. I'm wondering if he's not well. It might be a good idea to have a vet check him. Double check your temps to make sure they aren't too low either.

 

[Cursed_Witch]

He should not be hiberating unless the temps are down and usually I cover mine with dark towels so there's no light either. I'm wondering if he's not well. It might be a good idea to have a vet check him. Double check your temps to make sure they aren't too low either.

thanks Meg
i checked the temps. they are fine. right now it is 84 on warm and 72 on cold.
but he is acting so lazy untill its really late in the evening when he starts to climb in his viv.

 

[MegF.]

Could be just him then. If he's actively climbing in between times, I wouldn't worry too much. Could be impending shed as well. How old is he?

 

[Cursed_Witch]

Could be just him then. If he's actively climbing in between times, I wouldn't worry too much. Could be impending shed as well. How old is he?

like i said he hasnt shed for 2 months now.. if not going on 3.. i cant keep track of time as it is flying by.

he is about 16 months old... last time i think he was 33 or 34 inches but looking at pics here i think he is not grown as much as he is supposed to... Roy and a couple others did say he does look slender...

i have not weighed him at all..but i have some pics of him in another thread..
his eating habits have changed and he who used to be in hides ALL the time except when he climbs late at nights now is outside the whole time..

if it is impending shed...what do i do? i really dont want him to get any skinnier....


thanks Meg for all your help

 

[MegF.]

Almost sounds like a male being a male. He's a little young, and it's early in the season but it's possible. Mine usually went off food in January except when I brumated him. I keep records on my animals so that I know when they fed and shed. You might want to do that so that you can keep track of behaviors and how they feed.

 

[Cursed_Witch]

Almost sounds like a male being a male. He's a little young, and it's early in the season but it's possible. Mine usually went off food in January except when I brumated him. I keep records on my animals so that I know when they fed and shed. You might want to do that so that you can keep track of behaviors and how they feed.

SO what do i do in this case where he decided to go off food?

haha yeah i do keep records of all his feedings and sheds.. i even take zillions of pics as you see.... but the past few months work and family has required alot of my time..
But this will be over right after the holidays.....its alot of pressure already and last thing i wanted is Stewie to get off food...

Can you tell me what i should do or try please? like should i try to feed him again or wait a week, *i tried to feed him sunday*

 

[Roy Munson]

My emoryi male went off food about a month ago, and I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with him. He's about the same age as your snake, but he was iffy at this time last year too. I decided that I'd had enough of his business, so I brumated him (even though he's not breeding in '07). My Miami male is being a little funny right now too. He's been refusing sporadically. Again, I don't think there's anything wrong with him either. None of my females seems to be affected by the winter photoperiod, but I've noticed that a few of my males are a little off. :shrugs:

 

[Cursed_Witch]

My emoryi male went off food about a month ago, and I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with him. He's about the same age as your snake, but he was iffy at this time last year too. I decided that I'd had enough of his business, so I brumated him (even though he's not breeding in '07). My Miami male is being a little funny right now too. He's been refusing sporadically. Again, I don't think there's anything wrong with him either. None of my females seems to be affected by the winter photoperiod, but I've noticed that a few of my males are a little off. :shrugs:

Hey Roy nice to see you again

I guess what youre saying... males are more likely to do this..
so does that means i am supposed to brumate him?
and how do i do that? and that is normal to do?

 

[Roy Munson]

Hey Roy nice to see you again

I guess what youre saying... males are more likely to do this..
so does that means i am supposed to brumate him?
and how do i do that? and that is normal to do?

Hi. :wavey:

In MY experience, males are more likely to have funky feeding patterns from winter through the breeding season. You don't have to brumate, but if done properly, it would minimize weight loss during the winter months if he's not eating anyway. Of course, you don't want to brumate an unhealthy snake, so only do this if you're reasonably certain that his refusals aren't the result of a larger issue.

If you want to brumate him, make sure it has been at least two weeks since his last feeding, then shut off all of his supplemental heating and leave him at room temperature for a week. After that, find a dark place with temps from 50-65* Fahrenheit, and put him there for 2-3 months (changing water weekly).