[Newbie] Questions

[testdasi]

I just got my first baby corn snake yesterday. Just as background, I'm an experienced Tarantulas keeper but never kept any reptiles so am very excited about this new corn. Just a couple of newbie questions (just had the corn for a day!):

• I have aspen shaving as substrate, about 1inch or so with a heating mat on 1/2 of the tank. There are hides on both sides of the tank. Temp on warm side surface (right above the substrate) is on the low 80 degrees or so but my corn somehow prefers the cold side (70-ish only, might have dropped below 70 in the middle of the night). Is that normal and ok? He seems to really like the hide on the cold side but I'm afraid 70 may be too cold for him.
• My water bowl is right in the middle, in between the warm and cold side, is that ok?
• I put up a night vision camera last night right before going to bed (mid night ish). 5 minutes later, he was caught coming out of his fav spot (cold side) and went around the enclosure for 5 hours - probably corresponding to sun rise. Mostly spent time on the warm side and then went back to the fav spot. Is that normal for a corn on first day? From my reading, corn snakes tend to spend first day exploring but is 5 hours a bit excessive? Just want to make sure I did nothing wrong.
• When is a good time to do cage cleaning, water changing and stuff? I think corn snakes are nocturnal so I guess after 6pm would be best but he took a piss in the waterbowl last night!!! Can't decide if it's more important to let him sleep or to clean the waterbowl.
• I heard aspen shaving can cause impaction. How do you feed then? I'll wait a week before feeding because I heard he will need a week to settle down.

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[bitsy]

Good questions! Here are my ideas:

I have aspen shaving as substrate, about 1inch or so with a heating mat on 1/2 of the tank. There are hides on both sides of the tank. Temp on warm side surface (right above the substrate) is on the low 80 degrees or so but my corn somehow prefers the cold side (70-ish only, might have dropped below 70 in the middle of the night). Is that normal and ok? He seems to really like the hide on the cold side but I'm afraid 70 may be too cold for him.

The warm side floor needs to be consistently in the mid-80s so that he has a warm enough spot to choose if he needs to (especially important when digesting). However, I find that most of mine spend their time on the cool side and only go over to the warm side eventually. There are Corns who prefer the warm side as well. It just depends on the individual snake and yours sounds like he fits with the Cool Siders! All normal.

My water bowl is right in the middle, in between the warm and cold side, is that ok?

I keep my water bowls on the cool side to reduce evaporation and prevent the humidity getting too high.

I put up a night vision camera last night right before going to bed (mid night ish). 5 minutes later, he was caught coming out of his fav spot (cold side) and went around the enclosure for 5 hours - probably corresponding to sun rise. Mostly spent time on the warm side and then went back to the fav spot. Is that normal for a corn on first day? From my reading, corn snakes tend to spend first day exploring but is 5 hours a bit excessive? Just want to make sure I did nothing wrong.

In the wild, Corns are most active at times of low or no daylight - dawn, dusk and overnight. Yours sounds like he's absolutely doing the normal Corn Snake thing. I'd love to see that footage. Some of mine spend all day sleeping and it'd be the only way I'd ever see them out and about!

When is a good time to do cage cleaning, water changing and stuff? I think corn snakes are nocturnal so I guess after 6pm would be best but he took a piss in the waterbowl last night!!! Can't decide if it's more important to let him sleep or to clean the waterbowl.

I usually change the water when it's convenient for me or as soon as they've pooped in it. I worry more about a bacteria build up than disturbing them for a few minutes.

Generally I do a "poop patrol" morning and evening and remove it as I see it. Again, it only disturbs them for a few minutes. I feed outside their main tanks in the evening, so while they're out I take the opportunity to either do a more thorough spot-clean (they're masters of Stealth Poop - behind hides where I can't see it easily!) or the more thorough complete clean-out that happens around every 4-6 weeks.

I heard aspen shaving can cause impaction. How do you feed then? I'll wait a week before feeding because I heard he will need a week to settle down.

I have smaller plastic tanks that I use for feeding, so I don't have to worry about impaction. There are techniques for feeding inside their living tank and minimising the risk of impaction, so hopefully someone will be along soon to explain those. Leaving him to settle for a week before feeding is a great idea.

Welcome to the hobby!

 

[Kronos]

[*]When is a good time to do cage cleaning, water changing and stuff? I think corn snakes are nocturnal so I guess after 6pm would be best but he took a piss in the waterbowl last night!!! Can't decide if it's more important to let him sleep or to clean the waterbowl.
[*]I heard aspen shaving can cause impaction. How do you feed then? I'll wait a week before feeding because I heard he will need a week to settle down.
[/LIST]
Thanks a lot for your help.

Just to add to Bitsy's comments, I do spot cleaning about 2 - 4 days after feeding. That's generally when they have their first poop. Then another one comes a couple of days after that. I don't usually try to do it at night, just whenever it fits my schedule. Whenever I go in to scoop out poop, I change the water. And I use bottled drinking water, BTW. Many of the experts recommend that, especially for the hatchlings and neonates.

Then, when I feed them, I wash out the water bowls with soap and refill with fresh.

There are a lot of advantages to feeding in separate feeding tubs. In addition to removing the possibility of ingesting substrate, it gives you a chance to get in and easily do some cleaning in their cages. There have been some threads here about snakes that have ingested some of their substrate, so it does happen. Very young snakes may sometimes be too nervous to eat in a separate tub at first, but with patience, you can usually get them acclimated to doing it. I got my first hatchling a couple of months ago and was lucky that it ate the first time I transferred it to a tub. If you can't get your snake to do this, you can put a pinky on a paper plate or something to minimize the amount of substrate sticking to it.

Great questions, and welcome to the forum!

 

[Allalaskan]

I keep my water dish right in the middle of my viv, how ever we have low humidity up here and during this time of the year humidity is very low. For example its 21% inside my house right now and thats most likely because some one took a shower earlier and the humidity from that is in the air in the house.

Also My snake seems to like to poop in his water dish or in his feeder bin. Most of the time about day 2 or 3 after his feeding he ends up leaving a "surprise" in his water dish.

As far as the activity mine never really came out for about a week when I was up, but he left plenty of little trails in the coconut husk substrate I was using at the time. Now usually around 7 or 8pm he will start to come out and about (except the day after feeding usually but not always). I have a fake christmas tree branch from our old fake christmas tree that I have stretched across the bottom with the little branches all spidered out so I can see in there really well but he feels very comfortable and safe and will travel back and forth from hide to hide winding between the little branches.

I say give him a few weeks and you should start seeing him out and about alot more, especially in the evenings and in the early mornings.

And like every one else said I wouldnt feed him in the vivarium, I would use a bin of some sort. I have a 37 inch long classic and I feed him in a a 30-40 (rough estimate) gallon tote. Now when I pull that bin out and pull him out of the viv and put him in there he instantly goes on the hunt, im pretty sure he knows hes about to get a mouse.

 

[testdasi]

Thank you guys. Some updates:
I invested in a thermostat and a digital thermometer to regulate the temperature. Temp is now measured 82 - 89 Fahrenheit (28 - 32 Celsius, I believe) on the warm side (probe on surface level, digital) and consistently 7x on the cool side (the common cheapo analog thermometer). I buried the thermostat probe under a bit of substrate (not touching the bottom) and set it at 85.

Waterbowl is still in the middle. Humidity is same as my room humidity so I don't think there is much evaporation and condensation going on.

On his 3rd day, my corn is now chilling on top of his hide (cold side). :wavey: I startled him a bit wondering where he is but he doesn't seem to want to move out of there so I think he may be getting more used to my presence. Hopefully by the end of the week, I'll be able to pick him up to transfer him to the feeding tank.