Mine & Smurfy's new baby corn, Coby

[R B Customs]

Hi all,

2 new members here, My self and my Girlfriend ' smurfy'


We have been reading up on corns for a while now, and visited these forums for a browse alot recently.

Today, we got our first baby corn snake, which ( until sex is confirmed) is called Coby. I'm not sure of the morph, but it appears to be a snow mixed with something else. I havnt seen any similar patterned or coloured Corns while browsing though.


heres some piccies

Colour doesnt look right on this one, Ill try again with the aid of daylight tomorrow.

tiny lil thing.



It wasnt until i was taking these photo's that Smurft noticed something i didnt

These 2 shots were taken straigh after one another, after changin a setting on the camera. so i am 99% certain that it was the same tick or mite in both photos.

We have moved him to a tempoary viv ( tuppaware for now) with some new bedding, a new water bowl and a new make-shift hide. I let him run through my fingers and had a very very close look on all sides, top and bottom and could not see anything else, and i also used thje camera ( i have a big macro lense ) to inspect in more detail and the snake looked clean.

I'm going to buy new stuff tomorrow, so hopefuly we have kept the infection at bay.

any extra advice would be welcome though.

Rick & Laura

 

[R B Customs]

I can confirm that those 2 pics were taken within a minute of eachother. just wish i had the depth of field set a little higher to get the bugs in focus

 

[dpreston66]

Welcome to the forums. Great snake!:crazy02:

 

[Tula_Montage]

Your new snake is a lovely normal and it appears to have ticks/mites. Return the snake to the store you bought it from immediatley, print those pictures and show them why or else you will be in for a lengthy and expensive treatment plan.

 

[kcaven]

Wow! Can anyone tell what kind of morph Coby is? He/she is beautiful!! You're right Ive never run across a corn with those colors..breathtaking...very cabernet colored like a fine red wine. Cheers!

 

[mynamesrick]

Looks like a young abbotts okeetee to me, but im not sure. either way its a beautiful snake!

 

[R B Customs]

Hi guys,

a few people now have said that Coby is just a 'nromal' corn snake.

Perhaps, people have not seen them before ( I havn't and I have looked at loads of pics of patterns and morphs, but i am no expert!!) because people are more inclined to keep and breed all kinds ofweird and wonsderful morphs?


Onto the Tick issue:

When i bough the snake yesterday, The shop owner went away and came back with the snake in a plastic viv, complete with substrate, waterbowl etc.

Coby was originaly living in a different viv with a few other corns that had 'just been delivered'

since we spotted the tick, we have moved him into a temporary viv, where he seems quite happy. with new bedding etc. I have just had him out and cannot see any tick, marks etc etc and I have had a good look.

I phoned the place where i got it, and to be honest I feel like i have just been blaggged.
He explained that "as long as it's not red it is okay" " it is just a mite that came with the substrate, the bark always comes with mites, and they wont harm the snake, just buy some XYZ spray and spray the substrate with it for a few days, just dont let it get in the drinking water. Its okay if it gets sprayed on the snake" "Most people microwave the substrate before putting it in, to kill the mites and any eggs"

does any of this ring true?

WEither way, I am going to a more equipped Reptile store today and I'm going to buy a brnd new viv and new decorations and bowls etc. The other one I will disinfect and use for feeding.

 

[TWGarland]

Hi guys,

a few people now have said that Coby is just a 'nromal' corn snake.

Perhaps, people have not seen them before ( I havn't and I have looked at loads of pics of patterns and morphs, but i am no expert!!) because people are more inclined to keep and breed all kinds ofweird and wonsderful morphs?


Onto the Tick issue:

When i bough the snake yesterday, The shop owner went away and came back with the snake in a plastic viv, complete with substrate, waterbowl etc.

Coby was originaly living in a different viv with a few other corns that had 'just been delivered'

since we spotted the tick, we have moved him into a temporary viv, where he seems quite happy. with new bedding etc. I have just had him out and cannot see any tick, marks etc etc and I have had a good look.

I phoned the place where i got it, and to be honest I feel like i have just been blaggged.
He explained that "as long as it's not red it is okay" " it is just a mite that came with the substrate, the bark always comes with mites, and they wont harm the snake, just buy some XYZ spray and spray the substrate with it for a few days, just dont let it get in the drinking water. Its okay if it gets sprayed on the snake" "Most people microwave the substrate before putting it in, to kill the mites and any eggs"

does any of this ring true?

WEither way, I am going to a more equipped Reptile store today and I'm going to buy a brnd new viv and new decorations and bowls etc. The other one I will disinfect and use for feeding.

IMO thats definately a normal corn, as they grow their colours change, thats why yours appears to be so dark at the moment, eventually the reds and yellows will come in.

Yep you've probably been blagged. Ticks/mites are very hard to get rid of. Alot of people do freeze their substrate to make sure they don't get parasites from bedding such as aspen.

I'd seriously think about taking the snake back, getting your money back and getting a new one from somewhere else. Its not the best way to start out with a new hobby/snake. Or alternatively you can look up treatments by searching under the terms Mites/Ticks using the websites search function on the grey bar towarsd the top of the page.

All the best

Tom

 

[Nanci]

So anyway, in his new viv, I'd keep him on paper towels until you are positive he doesn't have mites. That bug looked like an aspen mite to me, which won't actually feed on the snake. It's way too big to be a snake mite, and it's not a tick.

 

[diamondlil]

Agreed, Nanci! That's either a giant new species of snake super-mite (probability<0.00000000000000000001) or, I'm certain enough to bet my collection on it, a harmless substrate mite.
Putting the bag of bedding bedding in a chest freezer overnight should kill them all off.
Lovely little normal cornsnake you've got there, it'll develop more colour as it grows

 

[R B Customs]

Okay,

Coby is in (another) brand new viv, with fresh kitchen roll substrate, a new bowl, and a coconut to hide in. he seems happy enough, despite all of the handleing he has been getting recently, he still has not shown any aggression at all.


I bought some reptile disinfectant and did all the new stuff, then did the old tank too. And guess what was floating in the top, swimming on the surface!

Its was pretty small, so out came the big lens

The little thing poo'd its self when it saw the flash :laugh01:

and Coby managed to squeeze through a tiny hole in the coconut, so i managed to grab this shot...

I can see how these snakes get a reputation for escaping! the hole is really small.

 

[Nanci]

So after all the excitement (stress!) you should let Coby relax for 5-7 days without handling, then feed, then let him digest two days with no handling, THEN make friends with him!

 

[R B Customs]

So after all the excitement (stress!) you should let Coby relax for 5-7 days without handling, then feed, then let him digest two days with no handling, THEN make friends with him!

Yea, I will let him chill for a while, but he is due a feed on saturday ( according to the man in the store)

Thanks for the help, hopefully someone can confirm that the mites in the pics i have taken are just associated with the substrate.

heres a few more pics that i have just got around top processing...

 

[babsfish]

What a lovely looking snake!