Need help with corn snake

Originally Posted by Dragonling

Most large breeders maintenance feed the babies they intend to sell, hence my 20g baby.

In defense of a referenced breeder and his "small" 2016s... mine are running "small" too. Both he and I had rather late seasons. I didn't get my first hatchlings until late August and early Sept. I then also happened to be out of town, visiting my best friend and his wife after they'd moved back to the states from completing their post-docs in South Africa. Outside genetics, a late season can be a huge factor. It is for me for 2016 and was for SMR. Might want to know some facts before throwing people under the bus.

If it means anything I didn't see or think that they where throwing any one under the bus just stating the size and why

Late seasons WILL do that, for sure. I meant no disrespect to Don or anyone else, only that breeders who are selling hundreds to thousands of babies per year aren't exactly going to be feeding them twice a week. A smaller breeder might be slightly more likely to have larger 2016 leftovers.

How do y'all feed baby corns do y'all imediatly start feeding frozen/thawed or start with live then change over ?

I started with day old ft pinky mice.

do corn snakes useually refuse food ?

Originally Posted by Dragonling

I can take some photos of my largest and smallest 2016s tomorrow morning with a ruler.

As promised (though a bit later than I said, oops!):





The cherry amel male there is at least a month younger, possibly two months knowing how late SMR's season was last year. I have another from the same clutch as the classic who is only a tiny bit bigger than the cherry because he refused food for quite some time. The cayenne fire I bought in 2015 was about the same size as the cherry around his age and is well over 300g now, so I've no doubt that even though the new guy seems small comparatively, he's going to grow JUST fine.

Anyway, this is about the size range you're gonna find from leftover 2016s right now. Most are going to be quite well established eaters already, but some will still be fairly small so you still have lots of time to watch them grow up.

Originally Posted by Willmccown

do corn snakes useually refuse food ?

It's somewhat rare, at least compared to other species. A couple of my girls are being oddly fussy lately, and I did have one problem feeder hatchling for a while. It's not horribly common, but it does happen sometimes.

Wow beautiful snakes thank you very much for the pictures I hope it wasent to put of the way for you

I am starting on the set up Dlena explained to me and let y'all know how that gose thank yall for being so helpful

Be very careful with your heating and monitoring. A lot of people make the mistake of trying to heat the inside of the cage to about 85 degrees and they use one of those stick on thermometers on the side of the cage. The problem is, in order to get that thermometer to read 85 degrees, that's going to leave the bottom of the tank at a Blistering temperature, and where does the snake actually crawl and live? Yep, on the bottom. When you monitor your cage temps, make sure the temp is measured inside the snake's Hiding Box where he will spend most of his time. Inside that box is where you want it to be 85 degrees. The other side of the tank should just be room temperature (70 to 80) and that way the snake has a choice of whether to warm up or cool down. You'll need a thermostat to adjust your heat pad and a good digital thermometer with a probe. Most of us affix the probe to the actual heat pad under the tank. You might actually have to set the pad higher to get the reading you want. For example, I have to set my pad at 91 degrees. By the time the Heat travels through the bottom glass, the carpeting, and the porcelain hide box, the actual temp inside the hide is around 85. It might dip to 82 on a really cold day or rise to 87 on a warm day, but minor fluctuations like that are ok. Corn snakes come from the Southeastern USA where the summer temps frequently go over 100. But you would not want you snake to have to endure that. He is going to be most comfortable between 75 and 85.

Originally Posted by Willmccown

Alright i have gotten the temp up to about 83-84 on the hot side and added 3 more hides/plants after looking around I think I am going to purchase a lava morph from VMS herp do any of y'all have opinions on that site

Got my blizzard corn from there. My only complaint is that they sold my corn without ever feeding it (was only like 2 weeks old when I got it) So it was supppppper hard to get him to start eating. (check hatch date) I didn't do this and it caused constant stress. Either than that great company with huge variety.