just a thought...

it would be nice to have a mini-forum or a place where we can "get to know our fellow corn snake enthusiasts" a place where we can post and reply about personal stuff. Like where we live and just random stuff like that. I am curious about all of these different people, how many herps they have, where they are, if they are in school or what job they have ect.. and a place just to say hello to everyone too. I know I could just email everyone, but I don't like to kiss on the first date if you kinda know what I mean. I don't want to be invasive or anything. I get alot of advice from everyone here, I'd like to put a personality (maybe even pics) to the user name.

what'd ya'll think?
Missy

think that's a great idea. i'd also like to know more. i presently have about 45 animals in my house. of those, 30 are snakes. i've kept snakes for about 2 years and just recently decided to try breeding and would like to ?meet? and talk to people about snakes their other interests.
by the way, thanks rich for this great site. anyone wanting to drop me a line please feel free- i don't mind "kissing on the first date" ;^) --- jim

I'm (UGH!) 42, married 7 yrs, have a daughter, Jennifer, who's 4 and a half, and a son, Charles, who's 2. We have a German Shepherd, Lady, and an American Shorthair cat, Mushroom. I started keeping and breeding Veiled Chameleons and Corn Snakes 7 years ago (it was my husband's idea, but he quickly got bored while I got hooked). The Red-tailed Boas came 5 years ago. Unfortunately, I had to get rid of the chameleons after Jennifer was born, I simply didn't have the time anymore that they required. I currently have about 60 corns (had more, but I recently lost a few of last years hatchlings) and 8 boas. I tried breeding the boas for the first time this winter. Don't know how successful yet. I already have 4 clutches of corn eggs, have 6 more due to lay in the next few days, and have bred 2 already for their second clutch. I'm expecting my first caramel and butter hatchlings this spring, and, hopefully, a new morph combination. I'm trying to combine motley with zigzag. So far, all I have are (now) 2 female zigzags het motley (the male is one I just lost). The older female is being bred back to motley, if she breeds this year (she's a tad on the small side, so may not breed). I've had zigzags appear in the F1 generation when only 1 parent has the gene(s), so may see something other than a typical motley. I plan on calling the combination "mosaic" corns, if the pattern comes out as I think it might.
It's getting late, the time change is showing it's effect.
Good-night.

Holy COw! You are a busy person, two kids and all those animals! I have been toying with the idea of some day getting into corn breeding and all that because I'll be a teacher with the summers off, but I am a bit wary of all the time it will take. My fiance bought all these fish tanks to get into the fish hobby hopeing that I would get into it too, but I tired of it easily like your hubbydid of the snakes. Too much water and I can't cuddle a fish. Sadly though my fav. angel fish died the other day, he was huge the size of a small saucer plate. Can't flush that guy I had the idea to taxidermy him, but could you imagine having a taxidermed angel fish on the wall I just got into the corn snake hobby, I don't even have my 2 corns yet they're coming this summer and I'm already obssesed. I've had the tank set up for a week and everything is bought washed and organized and reorganized. I have a cat Mia, she's9mnths old and a sweet devil. I realy wanted to have corns as a pet because I would like to include them in my future kindergarden class (I grad. from college 2004 may) so that I can foster good snake-children relations, I was afraid of them till I was at least 12. I'm terribly sick of school this is my fourth year already and sick of small little one bedroom apartments. Getting married june 14th next year, I'm 21 live a block from at least 7 bars, love central Wisconsin,am an avid gardener (when the ground isn't frozen, there's still snow on the ground ) drive a pink pick-up, a Virgo, and my fav. food is ironically corn.

there now ya'll know all about me.
Missy

I am 23 and located in Belleville, Ontario. I got my first 'store bought' snakes, while living in Louisiana, when I was sixteen. My mom tells me I brought my first garter snake in the house at the age of four. After high school I spent one more year in Louisiana before moving back to Belleville. Unfortunately I couldn't bring my snakes (ball, blood pythons, 12 foot albino burm, and Indian python) back when I moved. I was 'snakeless' for a year before aquiring a snow corn snake. Once I read that a 'snow' was a double homozygous creation I was HOOKED. Next came some amels, a few normals, and so on. I bred CORNS for the first time in 1999. (I bred my blood pythons when I was seventeen.) My largest 'corn crop' was two clutches in 2000. I am expecting four this year; possibly more with double clutching. 'Breeder?' No. Hobbyist? Yes!!
I am employed as a scaler/mixer at a Pilsbury plant. (No doughboy jokes please.) Pretty much my job is weighing up and adding ingredients to make a 1200 lb batch of cookie dough. Have ya ever seen a 65 lb bag of chocolate chunks??LOL. I am going back to college in the fall for advertising/marketing.
When not working, or cleaning snake poop, I enjoy playing my drums (anything from Fleetwood Mac to Chili Peppers), drawing herps, and spending time with my ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS & WONDERFUL girlfriend Serena. (Hopefully my fiance in a couple of weeks. "The question" is soon to be asked of her. Fingers crossed.)
I don't have any offspring, but, I do play 'surrogate father' to my 20 year old brother who lives with me.
Sorry for the mugshot above. I have been told I don't know how to 'behave' for a picture. I would have to agree. heehee. That is not 'J-LO' in the pic, but rather my much, much, much better half. Thanks for reading my 'book.' Happy Herping!
joe clark

I'm a graduate student, getting my Masters in Environmental Science. I fell in love with corn snakes when I was about 6, as I used to help out with some DNR outreach programs. They had all kinds of critters to work with, and the corns were my favorite. I owned my first one when I was in college (parents didn't want them in the house), back when I wanted to study genetics. All the possibilities just got me even more hooked. Now I have 14 corns, spanning most of the color mutation genes, and one lonely Guyanan rainbow boa. I've also got 2 cats, and my roommate has a very large very energetic dog. Hopefully I'll finish my degree this year and get a real job so I can have more money to spend on my hobbies.

I'm 24, I work as a Technical Writer for a software firm in PA.

Like Joe, I also started bringing scaled or slimy critters into the house at an early age (much to the distress of my poor mother). I always wanted snakes, but my folks insisted that they could not be kept in the house, so I never had them. I satisfied myself with fish, instead. And, of course, the odd bit of contraband -- garters and turtles.

A couple of months after I graduated college, I realized that I was finally in a position to keep snakes. I immediately set about getting a beautiful python that I'd seen at a pet store, and then suffered sticker shock to the tune of $400...almost a week's take-home pay.

The corn looked really attractive at that point. I bought a normal male corn, Cyrus, at that point. I began to investigate corns, and almost immediately scrapped any ideas of large constricters...I was in love with the variety of colubrids, and the "personality" of Cyrus. I soon had many more. Does anyone else here see personality in their snakes? People look at me like I'm crazy when I talk about it.

I'd like to breed, but only Cyrus is mature enough. He's in the same tank with four other females, though...things could get a bit nutty in there. I don't really want to breed them yet (I still live in an apt), but I may not be the one making the decisions....

It's so nice to find a forum of folks with similar interests!

Hi all... I'm Kate (kenalotia is a rearrangement of letters from my first, midle, and last names). I'm 22 and work for Cornell University. Incidentally, I also graduated recently from Cornell. I'd like to go back to school and get a Master's of Education, but I wanted to wait a few years. Got a little bit sick of being a student.

I have 2 corns: Frank, an '00 anery, and Mona, an '01 normal. We also have a green iguana in the house. Fortunately for me, my boyfriend also likes snakes. He even lets Frank crawl around inside his shirt or pants. (I won't let him go up my pants.)

Frank and Mona definitely have different personalities. Frank is calmer - this may be because he's older. When i first got him, though, he would rattle his tail at me when I tried to pick him up. Mona never did this, even as a hatchling. Frank more active in the daytime and likes swimming. I've never seen Mona willingly go into the water, and even prefers to drink her water in droplets off the glass or fake plant. They're both curious and like exploring. Frank and I "flick" at each other. One time I flicked my tongue back at him, and he came over and looked straight at me from inside his tank, and flicked again. Went back and forth for awhile before I got bored of it. I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but I was having fun... So the point was that I guess I'd say my corns have "personalities."

Kate