Hello, fellow corn lovers! Minnesota here! :)
Hi everyone,
I'm a 38 year old mom of 5 kids (only one still living at home - she's 12), and mom (and grandma?) to 4 cornsnakes.
From a very young age I had pets. When I was 12 I started breeding Cockatiels with my mom, and Love Birds on my own. I also had Quaker Parakeets (not a Budgie!) and a Sun Conure as an adult. Over the years, I had cats & dogs, and volunteered as a foster family & advocate for discarded & lost Pekingese for a local breed specific rescue organization. After my husband died in 2012 and I lost my house, I was lucky enough to have extended family & friends take in all of my pets when I was forced into a non pet allowing rental.
Recently (August 2014?) I adopted my very first reptile ever, a lovely little corn snake named Sir Ratcha. He had been rescued & rehabbed by a friend of a friend, and I took him in. He's very small for his alleged age (4 - 5 years old) and has a small head, and is about 3.5' long. He's put on weight since coming into my home, but I'm not sure about any noticeable length growth. Regardless, he is beautiful and very sweet and calm. He's a red albino or Amelanistic? I moved him from a 10 to a 20 gallon tank, upped his light fixture wattage, and eventually increased his mouse size. He is very healthy it seems - good solid sheds, eats every week, poops once or twice a week, etc.
In March I fell in love with what I thought was an adult Snow corn snake. I was later told he was a sub-adult and 2 - 2.5 years old and had always lived in this reptile shop. The owner was new and took it over from another guy, and was more involved with breeding boas, so I don't have any records or 100% knowledge of his story. Anyways, he seemed sick (sporadic clicking), so I sat on it and waited hoping to find a healthy corn at an upcoming reptile expo. Well, wouldn't you know it, there he was again. So, I bought him. I brought him home, upped his heat, gave him clean warm bedding and lamp and heat mat, a huge bowl of fresh water, and he was better within a week. No more clicking, and we work on socializing and handling him every day with the exception of 2 days after feedings.
A few days ago my stepdaughter (who is 18) and my 12 year old daughter bought year old corns. One Anery & one Normal. They are currently housed together, but we will be getting separate vivs REAL soon. The reptile shop ower said he thought it would be okay to keep them together for now, but not for much longer because at a year and a half, the male could start breeding the female and she'd become egg bound and die.
The little ones are very good eaters, but they are too squirmy for my tastes. I am looking for subadults or adults. I went to a ReptiCON last week, and was told by 2 breeders that nobody really breeds corns anymore because it costs more to feed them than they can sell them for? I hope this is not true, but sure enough, all local pet stores are out of them, both expos/cons I went to only had a couple (out of thousands of reptiles), and I've had trouble finding a local breeder.
Well, enough babbling from me! I hope to learn lots, share pics and get in touch with other local corn lovers & breeders! Maybe someday, if I can find an adult female, I will do my research and give breeding a shot! Otherwise I will wait until my daughter's yearling grows up years down the road to give it a shot.
~Lisa
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