Thanks ratsnakehaven! I'm going to move her to a 10g tomorrow. Just have to rearrange the furniture to keep it away from the window drafts first. Need to clear this tank anyway. Fell in love with a motley anery and a creamsicle(which I read today is actually a cornsnake crossed with a ratsnake) so they're going in there. They're currently housed together and were slithering all over each other and around the cage together at the store like bestest buddies. I know that may not translate here though so I will have a backup viv ready in case they develop issues, hence waiting on bringing them home. Going to work out the kinks with the set up first. They're paid for and just waiting now.
Hey, congratulations on the new snakes. I'm glad I mentioned the thing about the drafts. I lost one of my first corns when I was pretty young (20's) due to a draft when I set up the tank in the Living Room near the front door. It was a drafty, old house anyway, even w/o the door opening everyday. That was also a tank that didn't have very many props or hides and the snake was out, exposed, all the time; remembering that these are burrowers in the wild, spending most of their time underground in tight places, with no drafts.
Interesting that you are getting a morph and a creamsicle. These are babies? The creamsicle is one of my favorites. This is a form I've been working on for a few years. I'm trying to make a creamsicle from "locality" snakes that has all the best characteristics for my location and facilities. [For my creamsicle, I've started with a Miami/Keys cross/het. for amelanism X a thornscrub rat from southcentral TX. The rootbeers are very nice and I'll be mating them this coming spring. But that's another story.]
Are you going to put your two snakes together in the 20L? I have to tell you that a lot folks on here don't believe in cohabbing, so won't like that idea. I've done it with babies as long as the tank is pretty large and they can avoid each other, but otherwise they don't like sharing much. I probably would recommend separating them by the time they reach their first year, or before, like after winter is over. BTW, they may be slithering all over each other because the store kept them together in close quarters, not exactly what they like. Good luck with them.
One more thing I'd like to relate to you, and others, is that we sometimes make a mistake in our housing and heating, etc, because the breeder or shop we get our snakes from does their setups differently. My preference is to keep the temps kinda on the low side, so that my snakes will be a little more hardy, and I believe in brumating or partial brumation, except with babies. We can't always do this when the babies come from someone who has been keeping them at high temps on a constant basis, because that's what they're used to and they probably won't adapt to new conditions very quickly. I'd try to find out how the snakes were being kept and adjust to that. Also, remember that this is a cold time of year and we can't switch them from a very warm tank to a cool or cold one. This isn't the best time of year to be starting a new snake. I prefer starting with baby snakes in early Fall, so that they can gradually adjust to my setups and conditions.
How about showing us pics of your new snakes when you get them? Here's one of my rootbeer babies from a few years ago....
It was four months old at the time. I love these guys for reasons I'll get into someday. Hopefully I'll be able to get albinos eventually. I'm hoping one or more of the babies are het, but I'm not sure, because both the original parents were het. I just picked up an albino from the same line, Miami/Keys cross, that I'm now raising up, and will use in the future to further the creamsicle project.
:santa:
