Advice Needed

[Regyn]

:)
My son has an Albino Oketee that is I quess probably about 10 months old. It has turned cooler here and Red (snake) seems to be hibernating. He doesn't come out from under his waterbowl anymore like he used to. He used to sun himself under the warming lamp on a grapevine log in the cage. He hasn't done that in weeks.

My questions are:

1. Does this seem normal?

2. Should we continue to feed him once a week, which will disturb the hibernation?

3. If we leave him alone and let him hibernate, how long should that be and should we expect him to be a little edgy? I wouldn't want to not handle him for months and then have him be difficult to hold and handle.

He has the best disposition and is a beautiful snake.

I have read the "Corn Snake Manual" that I have seen recommended and everyone here really seems to know their stuff.

Thanks!!!!!!
Regyn

[snakemanone]

HI REGYN.
I'm not too up on hibernation but 10 months is too young i think,what is the temp in the terarium ?if its below 70 i would turn the heat up a touch to about 80-85 and lower it at night to about 75-78, and try to feed 1 or 2 pinks twice in 10 days leaving 6-7 days between feeds, hope this helps mate.........................


.............................STEVE









:cool:

[Simon]

Hi Regyn,

Welcome to the forum.
I am Simon.
I'll try to answer your questions as much as possible.

1. Does this seem normal?
Yes it does seem normal. Did you just got your corn snake not too long ago? Maybe he is just used to the environment and feels comfortable in there. Nothing much to worry as long as you are sure that the temperature is around 80-85 during day time and around 70-75 during night times.

2. Should we continue to feed him once a week, which will disturb the hibernation?
This I would really need to know how long your snake is. But since you said that your snake is around 10 months old, I would not recommand burmantation or hibernation. (Burmantation is what we call it for snakes and others that are not really going to sleep....just slow moving and everything slows down) The reason why I wouldn't recommand burmantation for your snake is because it might be a bit small to go through it. Maybe in the wild some of them can go through a long cold winter but a lot of them can't. So instead of letting them go to burmantation, keep the temperature at the normal temperature. Keep feeding. Under burmantation, you don't feed, dont have heat just water.

3. If we leave him alone and let him hibernate, how long should that be and should we expect him to be a little edgy? I wouldn't want to not handle him for months and then have him be difficult to hold and handle.
For a normal burmantation, it's no feeding at least a week before the actutual brumantation. Then slowly temperature in the tank/enclosure drops to around 40-60. This process really depends on how each person views it. Some let them burmantate for 1 month some 4 months...I usally do it for 3 months.

Hope this helped you.

If you have any more questions just post again and we'll help you out as much as possible. Or you can just email me and I'll help you out as much as possible.

Here is my email address:
candycanecorn@hotmail.com

Good Luck and Happy Herping!

[Regyn]

All,
This is great help. The cage is a little cool it is at about 76 right now. It's 4:30 in the afternoon here, so we are gonna warm the cage up some. It was 83 under the light just a month ago.

I have attached a pic

It doesn't do him justice..... he is about to shed, so he is very very dull.

He is 2 ft long.



Thanks All!!!!!!
I will be spending alot of time here



Regyn

[CornCrazy]

...how do "wild" babies survive the winter to become adult snakes?

[pinatamonkey]

Originally posted by CornCrazy
...how do "wild" babies survive the winter to become adult snakes?

I read somewhere that 90% of snakes don't live to be year old in the wild...I don't think this has much to do with brumation, though...rather predators and things like that. Oh well.

I don't think brumation is that risky if done right...the two main problems I can think of would be getting too cold and freezing the snake, or the temperature not getting cold enough, so the snake's metabolism does not slow down and it loses weight. It's just unnecessary for young snakes, and I think that smaller snakes would be more susceptible to problems if something goes wrong.

[Snakeste]

My amel corn is also doing the same , and all i do is handle him every day and he will soon snap out of it.~~~~~~:~