We bought our new baby today -

[tamaramay]

I've been considering a baby cornsnake for a while as a pet for my 5 year old son and myself and we finally bought one today.

Actually, I had ordered one from an online business, but after a couple of weeks and many excuses, cancelled my order and went shopping locally. I didn't want a stressed animal that had been shipped numerous times, which it appeared I would end up with from this particular business.

I held several little snakes at the store and while they were all very cute, chose a little "snow" corn, as it twirled pleasantly in my hand and didn't try to leap to the floor or otherwise start any trouble!

I do have a question - they said that the snake fed yesterday (it is a little baby, the width of a pencil and maybe a foot long). They said to give it a pinky mouse in 10 days, however I have read they should feed once-twice/week. I read somewhere that I should bascially leave my new baby alone for 3 days before doing anything with it. So should I offer it a frozen pinky in about a week? I did order a book on Corn Snake care, which I haven't received yet.

We haven't named him yet.

Tammy

[mbdorfer]

Welcome to the forums, Tammy. Personally, I would leave him be for 3 days and nights, then take him out for a little gentle handling and feed him :cheers:

[hoopy]

Same advice,
I too made out the snakes home , left it a day , introduced the wee girl to her new surroundings and left her 2-3 days and then fed her.
Wolfed down the the wee pinkie mouse and was well pleased .

Hoopy

0.1 Anery (Sunny Scotland)

[Lennycorn]

Welcome to the forum.
You can feed the little guy every five to seven day and move up to ten day when he a yearling.
When you say frozen pinky you mean frozen/thaw pinky (f/t), right. And the way I thaw a frozen food item is place it in a zip-lock bag and put that in a cup of warm water until it warm and soft. Then serve.
If you have some time I would scroll down to the forum jump section and check out the FAQ development section, some good information there and also scroll all the way down to the bottom and check out the archive too.


Good luck oops, Have you named it yet??

[tamaramay]

No name yet.

When will he come out? When I put him in the tank, within minutes he had buried himself under the aspen bedding and could be seen through the glass on the bottom in the corner. Stayed there all day.

I put a low wattage moonglow lamp in overnight, hoping to catch him moving about. I did peek in from time to time when I was awake. He can no longer be seen through the glass where he was yesterday - could be anywhere (2 hides, etc).

When will he come out? Will I just have to wait the 3 days and then dig him out?

[CornCrazy]

When will he come out? Will I just have to wait the 3 days and then dig him out?Probably so...
As it gets older, you may see it out more often. It is quite common for them to hide most of the time, however.

[Lennycorn]

Basically yes. Sound like what mine does. Corn are cute but they are nocturnal too. They will tend to hide all day. Just give him three or more day to settle in then try to feed at night in a dim room, in a small container (deli cup) with a secure vented lid. These guys are sometime shy eater at first and don't like to be the center of attention when eating. They like to eat in the quite dim corner of a French restaurant. Ha! Sorry, but don't push/rush the first feeding. The snake is a little stress right now. So after the settle in time. Handle for five or so minutes a day than after three or so more day try to feed. Check out the information I mention above and you'll be fine.

Keep us posted on how the snake is doing.