Corn snake questions

Hi! I'm new to the forum and corn snake husbandry (or any reptilian husbandry for that matter) I have one cornsnake that I just purchased from my LPS and had a few questions about it.


1. I have no clue what morph the snake is and I am not good at finding morphs. I thought maybe hypomelanistic but she also looks like the same color as a lot of normal but with more white (she is a baby so idk if the white goes away as she ages or not).


2. I dont know if she is actually a she, I have limited knowledge of sexing snakes (like snake discovery, clints reptiles, and a few other yt channel's videos on sexing snakes)


3. I noticed the day I got her she had a slightly grayish spotted scale on her nose but since she was new I didnt want to handle her too much, now that it's been about a week and I am starting to handle her a little bit every day to get her used to it and I noticed a few speckled spots on her belly near her tail too and didnt know if it might be scale rot.


I have kept fish for a few years so idk how different the snake world is with needing parameters but she has a light that is on a timer, a mix of Aspen shavings and reptile soil for her substrate. One big hide in the middle of the enclosure and two little ones on each end of the enclosure. She has a ceramic heat bulb and I'm torn on lighting so for now it's an led light. I have read that snakes dont need the uv lights like most lizards but if that's wrong I'm completely fine getting a light.
The humidity is about 45-50%- I feel like that's low but I read that for corn snakes it's normal again if that's wrong I can fix that. The hot side of her tank is about 80 F and the cool side is about 75 F.

I will attach pictures of her here as soon as I can find out how to. I'm also taking name suggestions but I am leaning towards Strawberry as a name lol.

Pictures would definitely help with morph identification and potentially guessing the sex for you as well. Try to take some clear pictures of the underside of the tail. However, unless you're planning on breeding, knowing the sex doesn't really matter.

Corn snakes are pretty hardy and can tolerate a wide range of temperatures and humidity. To be honest, I have never checked the humidity with my snakes (and I live in AZ) and they generally have had good sheds. As far as temperature, your hot spot should be a bit warmer, like closer to 87. I personally prefer under tank heaters for a variety of reasons. Heat bulbs do tend to dry out the environment more, so you may need to provide a damp hide when you see her start to go blue.

For images, you can either use an image hosting site, like imgur, and then enter the image url into the little box that pops up when you click the picture of a mountain and sun, or you can attach images directly, although they will probably need to be resized. You can check to see how things look before posting by clicking the preview post button.

https://imgur.com/a/Zfc7x34

I hope this works? Idk it should be five pics. 2 of the head, one of the underbelly/tail/cloaca area, one of the underbelly where I'm worried of the pink dots, and one of the full body snake showing off the whole morph.

Like I said I think shes either normal or hypomelanistic but I'm not good at morphs

It works for me. She's very pretty. I think she does look like hypo, but I always have a hard time identifying that morph, so someone else may think something else. The greenish eyes are very interesting. As for the head scale, I would wait to see what it looks like after her next shed. It almost looks like a burn? I'm not seeing the pink spots you were talking about.

Yes, she's definitely some sort of hypo.

Yeah I wasnt sure if it was a burn, scratch, infection, or just a little default on her head. I feel like I may be worrying too much about the belly spots because they really are faint and closer to the middle of her belly, in the pictures they look grayish but in person they are a pink color.

Is it possible anyone can tell the sex/possible sex. Its honestly not like essential, but I personally would prefer to know and dont know how to sex it lol.

Bump!

I think the sex on this one could go either way, honestly. It can be harder to guess when they're little. I think my guess would be leaning slightly towards male. If you have a reptile specialty store, local corn snake breeder, or exotics vet near you, you could have it sexed professionally if you really really want to know for sure. However, unless you're planning on breeding, the sex doesn't really matter.

I say male too. When they are small like this you can pop them. See if you can find a breeder or vet that can do that for you.....

Actually it looks a lot like what I used to call the "Crimson Corns" which were a form of hypomelanistic Miami phase.

As for sex, I would say that there is a 50/50 chance it is a male.... :sidestep:

Well, maybe 90/10.

I certainly no expert but that tail LOOKS male, my females tail tapers off VERY sharply, looks very different to that, but of course from what I know of corns that isn't guaranteed only real way to know is probe or pop.

Rich Z said:

Actually it looks a lot like what I used to call the "Crimson Corns" which were a form of hypomelanistic Miami phase.

As for sex, I would say that there is a 50/50 chance it is a male.... :sidestep:

Well, maybe 90/10.

Click to expand...

Soooper genius!

Okay so an update, hes been named Strawberry/Yogurt (used interchangeably or together bc I couldn't choose one lol)
But I have a slight concern with the 'burned'scale on his head.
The scale can be seen on the top of his head right between his eyes in the pictures. He seems to be getting closer to shed, and (I've since stopped handling) the other day before I realized so I was holding him and noticed that he was itching his head on my fingers and even allowing me to rub his head w/o squirming or anything. Which is weird bc he is still squeamish when handling so I'd think hed be SUPER headshot. Anyway, anywhere he scratched his head he left a faint grayish black streak from where the scale is. This hasn't happened before when I've handled him and the scale looks the same, it's just leaving Mark's now.
Hes eating well and every 5 days he gets a pinky, which he never denies. So I wouldn't think it could be infected but idk....
I'm just curious if anyone has an idea what it could be or has had a similar experience.

On another note, since hes getting close to shed, his next feeding day is tomorrow, should I skip it or still try to feed him?

Okay so an update, hes been named Strawberry/Yogurt (used interchangeably or together bc I couldn't choose one lol)
But I have a slight concern with the 'burned'scale on his head.
The scale can be seen on the top of his head right between his eyes in the pictures. He seems to be getting closer to shed, and (I've since stopped handling) the other day before I realized so I was holding him and noticed that he was itching his head on my fingers and even allowing me to rub his head w/o squirming or anything. Which is weird bc he is still squeamish when handling so I'd think hed be SUPER headshot. Anyway, anywhere he scratched his head he left a faint grayish black streak from where the scale is. This hasn't happened before when I've handled him and the scale looks the same, it's just leaving Mark's now.
Hes eating well and every 5 days he gets a pinky, which he never denies. So I wouldn't think it could be infected but idk....
I'm just curious if anyone has an idea what it could be or has had a similar experience.

On another note, since hes getting close to shed, his next feeding day is tomorrow, should I skip it or still try to feed him?

I would skip his feeding until after he's done shedding. And I'll be curious to see what his head scale looks like after his shed.