Appropriate Heating and Feeding

Hello all,

I have owned a baby corn snake for about a month now. I have fed it twice within this month but over the last couple of weeks it has stopped eating.
I own one of those adhesive heating pads and it is attached to one side of the 20 gal. tank but there is no dial to regulate the temperature.

Is it possible that my snake is not eating because the temperature is off? I tried to measure the temp with a digital thermometer and the readings throughout the tank were in the 90's. This may have been inaccurate though.

I guess my questions are: Can a baby corn snake survive without such a heating pad?

Should I purchase a different kind of heating pad? If so, what kind?

What are appropriate feeding tactics and how long can a baby corn snake go without eating until this habit becomes worrisome?

I await your suggestions.

Cheers,
Richard

You need an under tank heat pad... A thermostat and a proper thermometer that will accurately measure the temps at the substrate level...
Without proper temp control your little snake can stop eating.. or worse still stop digesting...
I would sort out these temps ASAP.

I agree that the temps are the most likely reason that your babe has stopped eating.

As well as the heat pad being too hot at 90, being in New Mexico, you may find problems keeping the tank cool enough without domestic aircon (you need the floor at the warm end in the mid-80s and the floor at the cool end in the mid-70s). On the other hand if you have aircon, this might cause low humidity and give problems with shedding, so try putting a humid hide in when s/he goes into the shed cycle. Sounds like a bit of juggling is needed with the setup.

Mike's suggestion of a UTH+thermostat would be my recommendation as well.

I agree, invest in a thermostat so you can set the warm side to about 88 degrees.

Ok thank you all. I shall fix this pronto. You have all been a great help.

RAWright said:

Ok thank you all. I shall fix this pronto. You have all been a great help.

Click to expand...

No Probs.... We love being smart arses... sorry, I meant helping......:grin01:
Glad we could be of help......
Now we need an intro thread :nyah:

Would anyone recommend this thermostat?

NEW DIGITAL CHIP - BAH-1000DC Reptile Thermostat With DC Chip Technology

RAWright said:

Would anyone recommend this thermostat?

NEW DIGITAL CHIP - BAH-1000DC Reptile Thermostat With DC Chip Technology

Click to expand...

I use that. Keeps hot temps 85-88.. I was wondering what other people thought of that thermostat too.. I got my corn snake a few weeks ago.

I have a BAH-1000 that is 5 years old and going strong. There was a member here years back who used to jump all over anyone who didn't spend a fortune on the expensive ones. I had a rather heated debate with the guy.

It "coincidentally " turned out he was a dealer. I decided to go with the BAH and never looked back. So far so good....

Since we can't edit:

I just looked back at that thread and realized I actually bought the BAH in 2004, so it's now 7 years old and still working fine....