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Rehoming 8 hatchlings - any tips?

jovamabob

jovamabob

New member
So i'm soon to pick up 8 baby corn's for a behavioural research project on spatial learning for my dissertation - no one is gonna be harmed at all! All the snakes are around 4 months or so and i've never housed snakes that young or in those numbers! I got my current guy when he was nearly a yearling so i'm not used to such tiny snakes and have a few questions: :)

  1. Is there anything i should watch out for in particular with younger snakes?
  2. The breeder says they are currently on pinkies but how soon should i be expecting to move up to fuzzies?
  3. They're currently housed in their hatchling tubs which i've been told they're now too big for. I bought 7-8 litre tubs for them - how long will these be big enough?
  4. What is a normal length/weight for a 4 month old?
  5. How often do hatchlings shed? My sub-adult sheds about a month during summer and every other month or two in winter at the moment - is this normal for a hatchling too? (He's a v. fussy feeder)
  6. Is this set up suitable for a hatchling: Hot side temp of 31c/88F (v. cold house), sheets of kitchen roll as a substrate, water bowl large enough to curl up in, 1 cool side cardboard box hide filled with shredded kitchen roll, 1 hot side plastic hide with a plastic base and filled with shredded kitchen roll that is dampened during shedding, feeding one pinky a week and dusted with reptavite multivitamin/mineral supplement (v. similar to nutrobal).
  7. The breeder says she handles them as often as possible, but should i expect them to be flighty? If so, how do i help them ease into regular easy handling?
  8. im having to collect them using the train as they are 50 miles away and i don't drive. They're to be moved in their original individual plastic hatchling tubs placed inside a larger covered cardboard/plastic box. I live in northwest England and temps are expected to be 8c/46F at midday with a slight chance of rain. They'll only be outside for a maxium of half an hour and on the train for 1hr 30 mins. I have some of the air activated heat packs - should i use those too?

Thanks for any help! :D
 
1. Be prepared for setbacks, not every hatchling (even well-started ones) is plain sailing. They may take a while to settle in, some may have feeding issues develop out of the blue, sometimes for no apparent reason they just stop thriving despite your best efforts.
2. Play it by ear. They grow at different rates so there's no set answer to this one!
3. As above!
4. Sorry, as above, it varies!
5. About every 4 weeks usually.
6. Hot side a little high, I'd have 85 as the max, personally, I don't dust food either.
7. Again, totally variable, most are pretty calm about life by 3 months or so though
8. I've never used heatpacks when I've transported in a similar way by train. Even travelling all the way from Birmingham to London and then to Kent (about 6 hours or more including tubes) in winter. Warm enough for you is ok for them, using a heatpack risks them getting too hot, a little bit cool and they just settle down for the journey.
 
I picked up some hatchlings from Darlington by train - 8 hour journey door to door. I used an insulated picnic holdall and no extra heat. Put the hatchling tubs into an escape-proof plastic tank, put the tank into the holdall and surrounded it with old towels. The towels stopped the tank shifting around and insulated the babes from sudden changes of temp. Did it about this time of the year - all arrived home entirely unscathed.

Trains don't get cold enough to harm a Corn as they're comfortable for humans. A short period outside whilst waiting for the train will be fine. Generally with Corns, too hot is more dangerous than too cool.

I don't routinely use supplements either, although sometimes I give them to breeding females or poorly ones as a boost. I wouldn't bother with the Reptovite.
 
Awesome :D

I got them home and settled this afternoon all safe and sound :) 6 out of the 8 are due to shed, and one seemed to look like she was getting ready (all milky in the photo) but she was very scared as i'd expect so i left her be.
tumblr_mda69jL7km1qdzuh1o8_250.jpg

I'd like to check over each of these guys to see who's going into shed so i can put in the moss/damp kitchen roll i usually use on my bigger guy to help them shed properly. They have a water bowl but whenever i've not put the moss in or bathed my other guy he's always shed really badly.

How soon can i check them or put in the damp kitchen roll/moss?
 
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