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very nervous to take the plunge...

F

funkehouse

New member
There is so much conflicting info out there, one minute i read you absolutely MUST do this, and the next minute another person tells me you are an idiot if you do that ! I can see this is no different than the Salt Water fish hobby which i come from.

with that said, i have decided to get a snake, and i think a corn snake is the right snake for me. I have a 20 gallon long tank, an under tank heater, a water bowl, aspen, sanitizer, 2 hides, and some fake plants. Is there anything else that i just MUST have to keep a baby corn snake? is the 20 long tank too big for a baby? and must i buy a thermostat to start with? Thanks in advance for your help, im sure i will be back with more questions in the future.
 
Yes, get a thermostat. You can get a Hydrofarm thermostat on Amazon very reasonably.

We started with a 20 long for our baby. We just added a hide in the middle, plastic plants, and a couple wood climbs. Fill up the extra space so that it isn't too bare. Make sure to buy smaller hides for the baby. They like tight spaces. You can use boxes or toilet paper rolls at first. We inherited a couple hides that he won't grow into for a year. Lol

You need a thermometer and hydrometer. Zilla makes a combo set. We use it on the cool side. Then we have a thermometer with a sensor on the warm side. The sensor sits right above the heat mat, with the thermostat sensor. It seems like a lot at first, but it is pretty simple to sort out. After that, they are far more rewarding than our fish ever are.
 
thanks for the quick reply , where do you put the sensor for the thermostat? does it go inside the cage? and if so how did you route it so the lid is still easy to take on and off?
 
Some people put the thermostat sensor between the heat mat and the glass, on the bottom. Some put it inside the vivarium, on top of the glass above the mat. We have it inside right next to the thermometer sensor. I bury the cords under aspen and run them up behind a plastic plant. Our tank has a sliding screen top. It has knockouts to route the cords through. If you have a clip down top, it will just lay over them.
 
okay makes sense now. thanks for the info, a few more items and i will be able to finally purchase a little one !
 
in addition to Todds must haves...my other must have is a hammock. My two LOVE their hammocks and they spend probably 90% of their time up there!! Makes them easy to find. I hang mine on the warm side and put a flower or leaves on top for them to hide under! Best invention ever :)
 
You need a thermostat and a probed thermometer. You put both inside the viv, in the center of the UTH. You can secure the probes with hot glue or aquarium silicone. Not the tips- the wires just before the tips.

Make sure that there isn't an escape route where you run the wires in. Get it up and running for about a week before you get the snake. You want the temp to be about 85F right in the middle of the UTH.
 
Welcome, here is a sheet I made up with lots of good information on it. Nanci's care sheet is perfect, and read all of the stickies on the top of each topic, you will learn a lot.

I see you live in Phoenix too, there are a lot of us here, including some fabulous breeders. I would buy from a breeder over a big box store pet shop, you will have the records of the snake and know that if you have a problem they can help you. The pet shops know a little about everything but almost nothing about any animal in particular. They treat the snakes like they all come from the same place, but what is good for a green tree boa is not so good for corns.

Also, if you buy locally, it helps keep these breeders going financially. I definitely recommend you also read the BOI (Board of Inquiry) at the bottom of the page, it has people's reviews of transactions with sellers. If find a corn you really want but it needs to be shipped from across the country, check out the BOI. You will be amazed by what people do to make a buck, and this site helps us know if they are reputable or not. And it is entertaining.

Here are a few links to the breeders alphabetically. I have purchased from each one and they are all fan-freaking-tastic. I hope I didn't leave anyone out, and if I did, please post here so I can add you to my breeder list.

Christen of Christen's Corns

Damon of Arizona Reptile (He has a few sites)

Kathy Love of Cornutopia

Olivia of Curly Corns (no website yet) but you can see what she has available. Her name on the forum is "Hypnoctopus", you can find her snakes down in the "Corns For Sale" link towards the bottom, here is the direct link.

Tsuhei, I don't think they have a website but you can look up the name in the "search" feature at the top of the page.

I am sorry people called you an "idiot" at another site, this site has great moderators and don't allow any type of abuse towards other members. This is a really great site, and every member is here to learn or help others. Please don't assume that we are the same as the fish site or any other site, yes, there are some trolls out there, but before you form an opinion in your first post before you read this site and you compare us to the other site, please read through the forum and hopefully you will change your mind about us.

We have debates, but they are level-headed debates, and you can learn a lot from them if you keep an open mind, and no one calls you an idiot because you are new. We get newbies here every day who will ask a million questions, and we will gladly answer. We were all in your shoes once, and are here to pass the knowledge.

The only stupid question is the one not asked.
 
I am new too, (first snake, just got her a little over a week ago) and it is funny, because I noticed the same thing as you, as I also enjoy aquariums and fish keeping. My boyfriend and I started keeping freshwater fish and both joined a forum right away. We were told so many conflicting things, and as we tried to keep up with all the advice, we ended up doing too much with our tank, and had a massive die off that left us devastated. We ended up doing hardly anything that was recommended, and for a year now, all of our fish have thrived.
I will say, that as far as I can tell after my short time of being on this site, it is nothing like the aquarium forums. Although there are some differences of opinion, no one here seems to think there is only one correct way, or that if you do something different you're an idiot. I have already made a few mistakes, and no one on here was mean to me about it in the least, and instead, actually tried to make me feel better about it. I have found this forum extremely helpful, and everyone here is so nice. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Congratulation on starting your journey as a snake owner!
 
Yep, there are lots of different "right" ways to do things with corns and we, as a community here, do tend to have sometimes loud majority opinions but a lot of it is really not set in cement as to what one "must" do. And a lot of the other forums or media sites out there have a loud majority who disagree or emphasize different things ... So can definitely be very confusing!

Here is a list of must haves just about everyone can agree with.
An appropriately sized enclosure.
(also some debate as to what is an "appropriate" size.) At bare minimum, it needs to be one long side and one of the short sides of the enclosure's length together must be equal to that of half the length of the snake's body but at least a bit bigger is better for good thermoregulation and as long as there are enough hides, foliage and things for the snake to hide in, any size bigger is probably just fine for the snake but might be limited by your own space, ability to provide a good heat gradient and the ease of being able to find a small snake in the size of enclosure chosen.
Second, the enclosure absolutely must be very secure! Snakes are wonderful escape artists and will eventually find any weak point in their enclosure that they can use to escape it.
Third, must have decent ventilation and be mostly constructed of a smooth material, mostly screen or all screen made cages would tend to induce the snake to rub against it, trying to get out, so much that they would likely damage themselves.
Fourth, an easy way to get heat of some kind to part of the enclosure.
If that's all covered, whatever you chose to use should work just fine, though we all have our favorite types of enclosures here and are likely to recommend them.

Next, substrate. Lots of decent options out there, all with their own pros and cons and a few you should not use. Good substrates are: Aspen, Sani-Chips, CareFresh, Repti Bark, paper towels, AstroTurf and newspaper. They all work and all have their good and bad points. There might be 2 or 3 other okay substrate options I didn't list as well.

What not to use: Sand, gravel, Pine and Cedar, those last two have oils in them that are toxic to snakes in a high enough density, which is often supplied by the common types of enclosures used with snakes.

Next, a heat source. Nearly any type of heat source you chose will need some kind of control on it, either a rheostat or a thermostat. You can use overhead heat but most on here, myself included, are going to recommend an undertank heat source, like some kind of under tank heat mat, there are a number of brands and I've not noticed a huge difference in quality between them.
If you use overhead heat, either a ceramic heat emitter or a night type heat bulb are best, so they can be on all the time if needed without messing up the snake's rhythms. You should be cautious with any kind of bright lights on the enclosure and especially with UV lights, as those can sometimes cause eye problems and blindness in corns, particularly the morphs that are lacking in pigments, even if they have hides they could retreat from the light in. Since they don't need it, I'd advise you stay away from UV/UVB lights entirely.

Don't use a hot rock! Those often get way too hot and can cause burns on the animal. They tend to distribute heat in very uneven ways and are cold in spots and too hot in others.

Hides, must have at least 2, one on the hot side of the tank and one on the cool side of the tank but more are better. The snake should be able to squeeze into them, they like a tight fitting hide! It should also be one that you can get the snake back out of if you need to for any reason. The snake should not be able to get stuck in it either, which is rare but has happened a time or two. Other than that, there is an endless supply of acceptable every day things that can be used for hides.

Next, you need a water bowl and a way to measure the temps in the snake's enclosure, I'd recommend that you spring for a temp gun, a decent one isn't very expensive and they are so useful! Even for other things around the house.

That's pretty much it! There are some hotly debatable topics such as feeding live vs frozen thawed and cohabbing, or keeping more than one snake to an enclosure. If you have questions about either of those things, your best bet to remain in good favor on here or any of the other care sites, is to use the search function and read all the existing threads and then decide for yourself, as those are very hot topics and the ones most likely to start a flame war.
 
haley.byrne.5 said:
It's weird cause I don't have any of that. Just a heat mat. Also a lamp


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Ditch the lamp, they are not good for corns. They have the danger on catching on fire, lowering the humidity in the viv, and, for some snakes, can harm their eyes causing blindness.

Use the UTH with a thermostat and a separate probe thermometer, this will help make sure the temps are correct.
 
But my temps have been fine, I only ever use the light if I'm looking for him. He's 7 years old. Totally fine, his viv is long enough and he goes to where he needs :) as I've just fed him he's in his warm side (;


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wow thanks for all the info ! you guys rock ! glad to hear there are a lot of PHX snake keepers on here, that makes me happy. i had a harder time finding SW reef aquarium people in the PHX area. I should apologize, in my initial post i didnt mean that anyone called ME an idiot personally, but when reading other forums i saw other people ask questions or give opinions and they were mocked for it, it didnt happen to me thank goodness. But there will always be the occasional troll who loves to profess how much better they are, it comes with the territory i suppose. All of the suggestions have been great !

I will check out the breeders also, but does anyone have an opinion of Custom Creatures on 19th ave in Phoenix? he was REALLY cool to me and the only shop that seemed to really care about giving me good info and not just selling me product. I would love to support him and buy a snake from him if possible, but if nots recommended then i wont. i would NEVER buy from a big box like Petco or anything, only smaller Reptile focused stores, OR a breeder. he had some cute baby corns for around $50 that i was considering, just wondered if you have any experience with that shop?
 
funkehouse said:
wow thanks for all the info ! you guys rock ! glad to hear there are a lot of PHX snake keepers on here, that makes me happy. i had a harder time finding SW reef aquarium people in the PHX area. I should apologize, in my initial post i didnt mean that anyone called ME an idiot personally, but when reading other forums i saw other people ask questions or give opinions and they were mocked for it, it didnt happen to me thank goodness. But there will always be the occasional troll who loves to profess how much better they are, it comes with the territory i suppose. All of the suggestions have been great !

I will check out the breeders also, but does anyone have an opinion of Custom Creatures on 19th ave in Phoenix? he was REALLY cool to me and the only shop that seemed to really care about giving me good info and not just selling me product. I would love to support him and buy a snake from him if possible, but if nots recommended then i wont. i would NEVER buy from a big box like Petco or anything, only smaller Reptile focused stores, OR a breeder. he had some cute baby corns for around $50 that i was considering, just wondered if you have any experience with that shop?
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I think on behalf of most of us here, your apology is gladly accepted. Thank you for reading more into us to make your decision.

I have never been to Custom Creatures, so I can't say for sure, but if you like the owner and trust him, go for it. It was nice to hear that you wouldn't buy from the big stores, keep the economy alive in Phoenix!

As we said before, please don't hesitate to ask questions, and some may be answered just by using the "search" button. There are so many posts about people having their snake escape, it has happened to many of us, so that would be a good search function question. There are many great tips and tricks on how to find them, if they had just done a search they would have found out the best ways to find them!

-Michelle
 
Custom Creatures is on the vendor list for the Phoenix Repticon this coming weekend. I'll have to check them out as they are actually not too far from home for me (relatively speaking. Everything reptile seems to be located in the SE valley :()
 
funkehouse said:
I'm so excited to go check out the reptile show this weekend! Can't wait to see what kind of deals I can find!
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Well, stop by Kathy and Bill Love's table, Cornucopia, I will be helping them (this is my very first show, I am so excited not to just shop but participate in the event!) so come over and introduce yourself!

-Michelle
 
smigon said:
Well, stop by Kathy and Bill Love's table, Cornucopia, I will be helping them (this is my very first show, I am so excited not to just shop but participate in the event!) so come over and introduce yourself!

-Michelle
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I will do that ! i should be there on saturday, not sure exactly what time, but i cant wait, first reptile show ever ! I LOVE going to SW Reef shows and events, im just as excited for this, you get to see all the vendors and cool stuff and usually find some deals !
 
Shows are usually a really good place for those with only 1-5 or so snakes to stock up on frozen feeder mice for way better prices than most pet stores offer, particularly the big box stores, your mom n pop store might have better prices. So you might want to bring a cooler with just in case.
 
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