Distressed baby..Any hope?

I've been around for the past few weeks or so, lurking and posting my newb questions about snakes, so some of you may have seen my somewhat jumbled stories spanning across a few threads about my little baby snow, Frostbite, and my ex-now-friend's snake Calcifer that was shipped with Frostie in the same box.

Now, my ex's brother is a herp, and he was providing care information to my ex on his new baby snake. Needless to say, a lot of the care information given was not the same as the information given all across the web, and on this forum. I brought this up to him when it came to some very important details about the care of his snake that were not matching up with what I'd been reading.. He told me that he'd rather take the advice of his brother's over some random people on the internet that he didn't know.

Needless to say, he's made what *I* consider to be very drastic mistakes on behalf of little baby Calcifer. Calcifer is living in a 20 gallon long vivarium, 2 hides (one on hot one on cold) with a water dish in the corner and paper towels for substrate. However... The tank is sitting on cold tile, and the UTH is tacked to the bottom of the glass with no thermometer or rheostat.. Not even a temperature guage to know what the temps even ARE. I couldn't convince him to change his mind. He argued with me over these details, telling me that I was being fussy for being so anal with my temperatures and that the thermometer I bought was a needless waste of money.

Calcifer isn't eating, and I know why. Yesterday I went to my ex's house with Frostbites's thermometer and registered the temperatures on his hot and cold side. His hot side was 102 degrees and his cold side at around 70. This is what his snake's been living in since it arrived to his home on the 17th.. And I'm worried. I'm going to try and convince him to invest in the devices he needs to control the temperature in Calcifer's environment, but until then, the tank has been elevated and insulated underneath, so the heat temp is reading around 85 degrees now. Even still, I am worried.

Will Calcifer recover from the stress he's endured from these temperatures? I'm going to see to it personally that Calcifer's viv has the things it needs to make life normal... But will he recover in time? How long will it take for him to feel good enough to eat?

In my experience I have found cornsnakes to be very resilient. You are a very good ex to be trying to help him, even though he is being very stubborn.

Having said that, I would wait 5-7 days before trying to feed Calcifer again. Then feed him as you normally would. If that doesnt work, there are other steps that can be taken then.

Keep us updated on both your ex and Calcifer and his living conditions.

Rich in KY said:

In my experience I have found cornsnakes to be very resilient. You are a very good ex to be trying to help him, even though he is being very stubborn.

Having said that, I would wait 5-7 days before trying to feed Calcifer again. Then feed him as you normally would. If that doesnt work, there are other steps that can be taken then.

Keep us updated on both your ex and Calcifer and his living conditions.

Click to expand...

Haha, well... I'm a great lover of living things, and it just eats me up inside to see creatures that are dependant on us for their comfort to suffer because of ignorance and/or neglect. I refuse to let it happen if I have the ability to do something about it!

My ex was told the same thing about the hardiness of corns, and it's one of the things his brother's told him that makes him think that the snake doesn't need such specific temperatures in his viv. He thinks that it's the snake's fault that it's not thermoregulating and moving back and forth in the viv. He's also, for some reason, angry at the snake because it's refusing food..

I hope your ex comes around before he does damage to the lil snake that cannot be overcome.

Yes corns are very hardy, but a temp variance of 30* in its enclosure would stress any animal. And stress is whats causing Calcifer not to eat.

You know if it's down to 85 then it's probably going to be okay. Maybe not ideal but okay. I've used all sorts of methods to set temperatures and found that spacing the UTH can be just as effective as a rheostat, just a little more work. But, I have two tanks using exo terra rain forest heat mats with no controls on them and they stay very constant at 83 degrees. If you really concerned you could always buy the snakes care giver a good thermometer and a copy of Kathy's book, that would be more reliable than random Joe on the interweb.

He will. Trust me he will recover, Just give him time. As for how long it will take for him to be Eating again, I think within a week, I can't say for sure, However if he doesen't eat by a week, You might have use a pinkie pump, or someother method of Fourcefeeding.

Quail said:

He will. Trust me he will recover, Just give him time. As for how long it will take for him to be Eating again, I think within a week, I can't say for sure, However if he doesen't eat by a week, You might have use a pinkie pump, or someother method of Fourcefeeding.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of other options to try before resorting to force feeding with a pinkie pump or any other drastic measures. Force feeding should always be the last resort.

Well, I don't If the Replie above dissed me or whatever, but yea, I said you MIGHT! Key words might. However yes, forcefeeding should only be used as a last rezort. :flames:

I was not "dissing" anyone. Just wanted to make sure the OP knew that there are other options to try before forcefeeding since none were mentioned in your post.