Kevin S.
Active member
The title might have been somewhat misleading since I plan on covering several things. I'm really just looking for some discussion here, but what got me thinking about this was how tempting it is for me to get more corns with spring on the way. I used to keep all kinds of herps but decided that it was for the best if I parted with all but my snakes before starting college. This was a very hard decision for me because I had grown very close to many of my lizards. After raising a tiny bearded dragon into a whopping dog tame lizard that was like a best friend to me, it was very hard to part with him. I worked at a pet store during high school, so I was able to find Rex and several other lizards good homes. The remaining animals were traded for a snake I no longer have at a reptile show. I really lost out on the deal, but the breeder assured me that his son worked with several of the species and would keep and breed them.
About a year or two ago I transitioned all of my snakes to a rack system. I wish I still had a pic of it on this computer, but I don't. When it was built, I was only thinking of the animals I had at the time, so it was only designed to contain five large rubbermaids. My snakes have a good deal of room to move (even vertically) but this limits the number of snakes that I can keep. This is probably for the best, but I'll get to that later. Last year my male okeetee stopped eating and was very active (wanting to breed) and I noticed two of my female corns were swelling up pretty big, so I decided to breed them. It was the first time any of them had been bred, but everything went perfect with all healthy eggs and a 100% hatch rate for both clutches.
I was very fortunate to know a local high school teacher who used to keep corns and other snakes to teach biology and genetics. He had to greatly reduce his collection and graciously offered me a melamine hatchling rack complete with flexwatt, dimmers, and the works. He didn't have enough rubbermaids to fill it, but it was perfect for my 20 or so baby corns. After selling, trading, and giving away most of my baby corns I worked out a deal with a friend. He bought one of my breeder female corns, a boa, and several of my baby corns to use in his breeding projects. This gave me some extra space in the rack and I acquired a pair of bairds ratsnakes last fall to fill it.
I still had one pair of nice looking baby corns left about this time, so I took them to a reptile show with me hoping to trade them for something else. I figured it would be better to have one extra snake than two and was hoping to get something a little different like a bloodred or amel stripe. Unfortunately the show didn't have many corns but I worked out a deal with one guy who had some okeetees and cal kings. The first snake I ever bought was a cal king which escaped a few months after I got it. I decided that I wouldn't mind having trying my hand at a king again, so I traded him my last pair of corns for a young female cal king. It looked to be in good shape, but when I took a closer look on the ride home, I found that it had a few mites under its chin. This really got me upset because now I had to treat this snake and risk contaminating my current collection and the corns I had taken such good care of would probably get mites from his other animals.
Well my hatchling rack was empty, so I put the kingsnake in it and treated it for mites immediately. After another treatment a week or two later, all the mites have been eradicated but I still don't keep it anywhere near my other snakes. So this brings me to the present, with six snakes. I have 1.1 bairds rats, 1.0 black rat, 0.1 cal king, and 1.1 corns. I like all of my snakes and appreciate the differences in the ones I keep, but I find myself wishing I had more corns now. The problem is, I already have one more snake than I should and I'm even getting attached to her now. Worst case scenario, I can eventually just keep her in a rubbermaid outside of the rack I have now. I know I shouldn't get any more right now because I'm currently living on my college campus. I go home every weekend to clean and feed my snakes and refill their water but I don't think it would be very responsible of me to add more snakes to my collection when I don't have more time to devote to them. My parents are good to watch them over the week when I'm gone, and I can be home in thirty minutes if anything needs my attention, so don't get the idea that I'm neglecting them in any way. I just don't think I could support a larger collection.
So now I arrive at my dilemma. One of the grad students that I know in the herp department here will be transferring schools to get his PhD soon and wants to reduce his collection. He has a western hognose that he can't find a good home for and has offered it to me a few times. As small as the westerns are, I think I could probably keep it in my hatchling rack at least until I find someone else more capable of caring for it. I wouldn't be surprised if I got attached and decided to keep it though. I know if I take it, that'll put me one step further from getting any more corns but it didn't look like I would be getting more anytime soon anyway.
No offense to anyone who keeps western hogs here, but I never found them too interesting. I've never kept hogs before, so I might just be missing out on something but I'm a little reluctant to pick up something extra that I'm not too familiar with. I know I'd be able to give it a better home than anyone else in my area (I only know 2 other people in my state who keep and breed snakes) and I'd like to help him out since he needs to move it and wants it to find a good home. Really I can't think of a reason not to take it other than the fact that I wouldn't buy one for myself if I had any extra space. He has over a dozen other snakes including glades rats, corns, water snakes, and bairds rats, so I'm not exactly sure why he's moving the hog when he can keep all of them. I have spoken to my friend who bought some of my snakes before and he said he'd take it if I decided I don't want to keep it. I just don't know if that would be right after it was given to me even knowing that he would also give it a good home. What do you guys think?
Also, I'm curious what other snakes you guys keep that are similar to corns. As I mentioned, I keep a few other North American rats and I know several other corn keepers have gotten into bairds lately. I find that my bairds are more active and less shy than corns of the same age. They're also a little easier to handle than most of the young corns I've worked with. On the flipside, my black rat is more shy but not aggressive in the least. He used to musk, but seldom rattled and never struck. I've had some corns with differing personalities but all of them eventually got over shyness (mostly due to their great appetites). In fact my anery will climb straight up out of her rack as soon as I open it to see if I've got a mouse for her.
I've got a class coming up now so I'll end it here. If anybody wants to talk shop about some other snakes or give me some input on my possible hognose adoption, don't hesitate. Sorry this was so long, I'll keep my replies shorter
About a year or two ago I transitioned all of my snakes to a rack system. I wish I still had a pic of it on this computer, but I don't. When it was built, I was only thinking of the animals I had at the time, so it was only designed to contain five large rubbermaids. My snakes have a good deal of room to move (even vertically) but this limits the number of snakes that I can keep. This is probably for the best, but I'll get to that later. Last year my male okeetee stopped eating and was very active (wanting to breed) and I noticed two of my female corns were swelling up pretty big, so I decided to breed them. It was the first time any of them had been bred, but everything went perfect with all healthy eggs and a 100% hatch rate for both clutches.
I was very fortunate to know a local high school teacher who used to keep corns and other snakes to teach biology and genetics. He had to greatly reduce his collection and graciously offered me a melamine hatchling rack complete with flexwatt, dimmers, and the works. He didn't have enough rubbermaids to fill it, but it was perfect for my 20 or so baby corns. After selling, trading, and giving away most of my baby corns I worked out a deal with a friend. He bought one of my breeder female corns, a boa, and several of my baby corns to use in his breeding projects. This gave me some extra space in the rack and I acquired a pair of bairds ratsnakes last fall to fill it.
I still had one pair of nice looking baby corns left about this time, so I took them to a reptile show with me hoping to trade them for something else. I figured it would be better to have one extra snake than two and was hoping to get something a little different like a bloodred or amel stripe. Unfortunately the show didn't have many corns but I worked out a deal with one guy who had some okeetees and cal kings. The first snake I ever bought was a cal king which escaped a few months after I got it. I decided that I wouldn't mind having trying my hand at a king again, so I traded him my last pair of corns for a young female cal king. It looked to be in good shape, but when I took a closer look on the ride home, I found that it had a few mites under its chin. This really got me upset because now I had to treat this snake and risk contaminating my current collection and the corns I had taken such good care of would probably get mites from his other animals.
Well my hatchling rack was empty, so I put the kingsnake in it and treated it for mites immediately. After another treatment a week or two later, all the mites have been eradicated but I still don't keep it anywhere near my other snakes. So this brings me to the present, with six snakes. I have 1.1 bairds rats, 1.0 black rat, 0.1 cal king, and 1.1 corns. I like all of my snakes and appreciate the differences in the ones I keep, but I find myself wishing I had more corns now. The problem is, I already have one more snake than I should and I'm even getting attached to her now. Worst case scenario, I can eventually just keep her in a rubbermaid outside of the rack I have now. I know I shouldn't get any more right now because I'm currently living on my college campus. I go home every weekend to clean and feed my snakes and refill their water but I don't think it would be very responsible of me to add more snakes to my collection when I don't have more time to devote to them. My parents are good to watch them over the week when I'm gone, and I can be home in thirty minutes if anything needs my attention, so don't get the idea that I'm neglecting them in any way. I just don't think I could support a larger collection.
So now I arrive at my dilemma. One of the grad students that I know in the herp department here will be transferring schools to get his PhD soon and wants to reduce his collection. He has a western hognose that he can't find a good home for and has offered it to me a few times. As small as the westerns are, I think I could probably keep it in my hatchling rack at least until I find someone else more capable of caring for it. I wouldn't be surprised if I got attached and decided to keep it though. I know if I take it, that'll put me one step further from getting any more corns but it didn't look like I would be getting more anytime soon anyway.
No offense to anyone who keeps western hogs here, but I never found them too interesting. I've never kept hogs before, so I might just be missing out on something but I'm a little reluctant to pick up something extra that I'm not too familiar with. I know I'd be able to give it a better home than anyone else in my area (I only know 2 other people in my state who keep and breed snakes) and I'd like to help him out since he needs to move it and wants it to find a good home. Really I can't think of a reason not to take it other than the fact that I wouldn't buy one for myself if I had any extra space. He has over a dozen other snakes including glades rats, corns, water snakes, and bairds rats, so I'm not exactly sure why he's moving the hog when he can keep all of them. I have spoken to my friend who bought some of my snakes before and he said he'd take it if I decided I don't want to keep it. I just don't know if that would be right after it was given to me even knowing that he would also give it a good home. What do you guys think?
Also, I'm curious what other snakes you guys keep that are similar to corns. As I mentioned, I keep a few other North American rats and I know several other corn keepers have gotten into bairds lately. I find that my bairds are more active and less shy than corns of the same age. They're also a little easier to handle than most of the young corns I've worked with. On the flipside, my black rat is more shy but not aggressive in the least. He used to musk, but seldom rattled and never struck. I've had some corns with differing personalities but all of them eventually got over shyness (mostly due to their great appetites). In fact my anery will climb straight up out of her rack as soon as I open it to see if I've got a mouse for her.
I've got a class coming up now so I'll end it here. If anybody wants to talk shop about some other snakes or give me some input on my possible hognose adoption, don't hesitate. Sorry this was so long, I'll keep my replies shorter
