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umm...new to this?

E

erikamc

New member
See my intro. Just got a female? corn snake 12 years old, malnourished.

this snake drank for literally 5 minutes when I got her home (the actual definition of literally, before they changed it to mean figuratively).

I was told she eats two fuzzies once a week "until she gains weight, then it can be one, once a week" sounds bad to me?
They were keeping her on Aspen, looking for alternatives?

she is in a 20 gallon, I know thats minimum size, what size would y'all suggest?
 
I'm assuming that this is a small corn since you describe her as malnourished, but it sounds like fuzzies might not be the appropriate size of food for her. The best way to figure out what she should be eating is to weigh her(in grams). You can find scales that measure up to 500-1000 grams most places for $20 or so..

Here is a link for showing a proper food sizes for your new corn. Once you have selected the proper size food, once a week will be fine but keep an eye on her weight as fully grown corns 'can' go 10-14 days between feedings.

Aspen is a perfectly fine substrate for corns. If you are just looking for something different, there are plenty of substitutes. Colored aspen, coconut fiber, newspaper... There are a lot of kinds that people use and if you use the search function, you can find threads started just discussing the different types of 'safe' substrate.

20 gal is minimum, yet acceptable, for a fully grown corn but I personally like the 40gal critter cage for an adult. Some snakes prefer smaller cages so pay attention to her behavior is she seems odd after moving her.

Just browse this forum and you can find answers to most common questions.
We love to see pictures on here too ;)
 
Thanks! Sorry I didn't mention her size, she is probably 3-4 feet long, using the tank (24") as a guide. I didn't want to mess with her too much last night, she was reported to be kind of grumpy because it was supposed to be feeding day and I didn't want to feed her as all the moving around was probably stressful. I'll weigh her later today when I get home from work, I have a kitchen scale and plenty of lidded containers:) I like the idea of a 40 gallon tank for her.
 
I love 40 for snakes nice and wide as long. Glad you have him now doesn't sound like he had the best life so far. I agree with Harstad post pics!!


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if your snake is 3 to 4 feet long and 12 years old, it is an adult. It needs to be fed as an adult.

Definitely weigh the snake if you can, but if she is over 100 grams (and I'm betting she is) you will need to feed her mice that weigh about 20 grams (or more) depending on her weight. Feeding her 2 fuzzies a week as you were told to do would not be a bad idea as 2 fuzzies would equal 1 larger mouse, so really you could go either way.

We'd love to see pics of her. Corn Snakes are generally Long Slender (Skinny Looking) snakes anyway, so a picture would tell a lot as to whether or not she was under fed.

As a point of reference only - My snake is just slightly less than 3 feet right now (about 33 inches) and he weighs about 160 grams, and to some people he looks skinny, but that's just how corn snakes look. I feed him 1 mouse at 18 to 21 grams per week right now.

Good luck with your new friend
 
Thanks guys! Awesome info, and the frames of reference definitely helped! went and got her feeders, I'm thinking the girl must have meant rat fuzzies because mouse fuzzies are tiny (I don't know what I expected, I know how small pinkies are...). I went with 2 live mouse fuzzies and two frozen pinkies (they didn't have frozen fuzzies). she ate all of them!

I think i'm going to order some frozen feeders to see if she'll just readily switch to those. I hate giving any business to the two local stores that have live feeders (they are hell holes) so if I can get her off of them, that'd be awesome!

She weighed 468grams. I took some pictures, they're loading to my computer now so I'll post them in a bit.

I know it sounds good, but every other adult corn snake I've ever seen has been beefier than she is. her spine is visible. maybe its because shes so old?

I put her into a different tank for feeding time and cleaned her tank. I discovered my allergy to cedar and pine chips extends to aspen also, so, going to have to change that up. would care fresh be an acceptable substitution?

She had a tiny little water bowl, so I gave her a giant ceramic crock that she could put her whole body into if she wants.

I need to upgrade her heat lamp but lowes didn't have the ones I like. I'm also going to have to monitor the temperatures in her tank make sure they are warm enough, my guess is no.

Her hide was this upside down wicker basket, and I thought, "well this is stupid, hows that supposed to be a hide" so I gave her a temporary cardboard box. After I put her back into the tank and saw her try to burrow UNDER the box, I realized the basket wasn't so dumb. but she went into the box so it stays for now. The basket (and all her other decorations) need to be bleached anyway.


picture to post shortly, thanks again!
 
468 grams!!!!

No way she could be malnourished and skinny. She sounds perfectly fine for a 4 foot long snake. According to the feeding chart she should be eating a 30 gram mouse (or rat) every 10 to 14 days unless she is breeding, and if you breed her you'll feed her weekly.

Over feeding can be just as bad as under feeding, and corn snakes will keep eating as long as you keep tossing them in, and that's not good.

You'd be better off to stick with the feeding schedule.

You'd be better off shopping pet stores for heating supplies over lowes. Most of us prefer heat pads with thermostats. One side of the tank mid 80's, the other side mid 70's with at least 1 place to hide on each side.
 
I'll have to post the pics later, apparently, my files are too big, and I can't figure out how to resize them. I tried to look for pictures of an adult corn snake in the member pics so I could compare but its all babies, or at least thats all I came across before I gave up.

For heat lamps I use the ceramic based brooder lamps, much better peace of mind with those. I'm planning on ordering an UTH from amazon, I wouldn't install it on this tank though, I feel she needs more thermoregulation space
 
if you use a windows computer, you can open the photos using the Windows Paint Program. Up on the tool bar is the option to Resize. Click to resize, then choose pixels, and make sure too keep it no bigger than 1000 pixels
 
I have a different program, I did find the option to resize, used to put them to the appropriate size but it still told me they were too big. Not sure if it reverted back or something? my BF is going fix it for me when he gets home in the morning. He's far better at this stuff and has loads more patience.
 
An adult snake could still be skinny at that weight. For instance, I have an adult snake I just took in awhile back that weighs about the same and is "skinny". She's not on the verge of dying or anything, but she is underweight and skinny.

I'm not sure what anyone is calling fuzzies at this point. In my mind, a fuzzy is a step up from pinky, and 2 fuzzies definitely don't add up to a larger mouse unless your larger mouse idea is something like a hopper/weanling. With my snake, I started off with adult sized mice, which is what a snake her size should be eating.

Do you know the previous feeding schedule for the snake? That would be a better determinant for how and when to feed it now rather than trying to just guess. If s/he was fed weekly, I'd start out feeding it a weaned mouse once a week for about a month. If s/he manages to do okay with that and doesn't regurge, then you can go ahead and bump it up to an adult mouse...smaller ones at first and slowly work your way up towards the larger end of the spectrum (if you've got access to varying sizes of adults).

As for the Carefresh, yes it can be used for snakes.
 

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her schedule is once a week. I bought some frozen hoppers and 1 frozen adult mouse today, I'll try the hoppers next week and see how she does. since what she ate this week was probably the equivalent to two hoppers, that's what I'll try. That's a beautiful snake, my girl definitely isn't as "beefy".
 
This is my skinniest corn...obviously not my smallest around overall, but the skinniest for her age. My others are much more thick and solid. She's just kind of flimsy seeming.
 
Welcome and congrats on finding a snake in need! I'm sure you're doing fine. In ref. to photos, I use Resizr which works great. There's a bar at the top of the screen you can slide left or right to get the pic the size you want it. Then just save it to your desk top or where ever. And as for the heat, corn snakes need the belly heat for digesting meals. Not so important they have a heat lamp overhead. Good luck with your 'new' snake and we'll be looking for your pics!
BTW .... Another friend from Delaware! I live in Sussex County!
 
Hiii!!! *waving from north of the canal* I'll get right on that UTH then! And I'll check out Resizr, Thanks!
 
If you have allergies to the aspen bedding, you might want to try CareFresh bedding. It's marketed toward rodents (bunnies, guinea pigs...) but it works well for corn snakes, also. The regular color varies from mid beige to darker tan, but you can get it in white as well. It should be fine for an adult corn. It's burrow-able, very easy to spot clean, super-absorbent. I get the 60 liter size (it comes compressed) for around $18 at Petco.
Petco is also running a sale on 40 gallon Critter Cages. 50% OFF!!! That's about $60 for a tank that comfortably holds an adult corn. I like them a lot, but make sure, in the store, that the lid snaps into the back clips snugly, and I opted to get the solid mesh top; I didn't want the little "feeding door" in the top because I don't use it.

Good luck with your new corn. Looking forward to pictures.
 
yeah, I love carefresh, use it for lots of stuff. I did pick up a new bag of Aspen, the stuff she came with seems chunkier, so maybe its just low quality? The new bag I have looks...fluffier, if that makes sense. I stumbled across the special, picked her up a 40 gallon! super excited to set it up for her!
 
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