Ami_and_Rube's_owner
New member
Actually, I think corn snakes in general are pretty cool. I've worked as a zoo volunteer and have handled and helped care for a number of reptiles, but Ami and Rube are the first snakes I have had as pets. I would heartily recommend corns for anybody who wants a pet snake. For the average person I think they are a much better choice than one of the huge pythons.
My guys continue to fascinate me with their behavior. They both are very calm when I handle them. Ami, my lavender, was a little more high-strung when I first got him, but has now become quite easy to handle. He struck at me once, which was a non-event. I wouldn't call it a bite, even though I felt his little teeth, he didn't cause me any pain or leave a mark. It was like running a toothbrush lightly over your finger. Sometimes they do their "rattlesnake impression" by vibrating their tails. Rube, my sunkissed, did that today because he was right in the middle of a shed.
The shedding process is pretty interesting. I find that I need to really have to increase the humidity when they are into the shed period to make their shed easier and have it all come off in one piece. I seem to miss seeing Ami go blue. It must be either because he is so light-colored that it isn't that noticeable when his colors fade and/or it just happens on a day when I am not handling him for a couple of days after a feeding. Something I've discovered recently is that it seems their skin has a particular texture just a day or two before the actually slough. It feels sort of "loose". A friend of mine gave me a good tip if your snake seems to be having a little trouble shedding. Just put a drop of vegetable oil on your hands and let the snake slide through your fingers. It does seem to help the process.
My snakes were being fed live hoppers when they were at the shop I got them from. I had no trouble getting them to switch over to thawed frozen. This last week they were overdue for a feeding and the shop didn't have any frozen available. So I decided to give them live prey. I was kind of interested to see how they would subdue their live prey. Man, they literally strike and wrap around their prey faster than the eye can follow!
The pet shop is proving to be a less than reliable source of frozen food, so I have ordered a hundred hoppers on-line. I'm sure my guys will be able to take larger prey before I use up the hoppers, but nothing I've read suggests that feeding multiple "small meals" is a problem as opposed to feeding one food item that is as big as the snake can handle. Any other opinions on this? I may feed some of the frozen rodents to my cats for a treat.
I'm really enjoying my pets and swapping information about corn snakes with people on this forum. My thanks to the administrators here.
Mike
My guys continue to fascinate me with their behavior. They both are very calm when I handle them. Ami, my lavender, was a little more high-strung when I first got him, but has now become quite easy to handle. He struck at me once, which was a non-event. I wouldn't call it a bite, even though I felt his little teeth, he didn't cause me any pain or leave a mark. It was like running a toothbrush lightly over your finger. Sometimes they do their "rattlesnake impression" by vibrating their tails. Rube, my sunkissed, did that today because he was right in the middle of a shed.
The shedding process is pretty interesting. I find that I need to really have to increase the humidity when they are into the shed period to make their shed easier and have it all come off in one piece. I seem to miss seeing Ami go blue. It must be either because he is so light-colored that it isn't that noticeable when his colors fade and/or it just happens on a day when I am not handling him for a couple of days after a feeding. Something I've discovered recently is that it seems their skin has a particular texture just a day or two before the actually slough. It feels sort of "loose". A friend of mine gave me a good tip if your snake seems to be having a little trouble shedding. Just put a drop of vegetable oil on your hands and let the snake slide through your fingers. It does seem to help the process.
My snakes were being fed live hoppers when they were at the shop I got them from. I had no trouble getting them to switch over to thawed frozen. This last week they were overdue for a feeding and the shop didn't have any frozen available. So I decided to give them live prey. I was kind of interested to see how they would subdue their live prey. Man, they literally strike and wrap around their prey faster than the eye can follow!
The pet shop is proving to be a less than reliable source of frozen food, so I have ordered a hundred hoppers on-line. I'm sure my guys will be able to take larger prey before I use up the hoppers, but nothing I've read suggests that feeding multiple "small meals" is a problem as opposed to feeding one food item that is as big as the snake can handle. Any other opinions on this? I may feed some of the frozen rodents to my cats for a treat.
I'm really enjoying my pets and swapping information about corn snakes with people on this forum. My thanks to the administrators here.
Mike
