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Getting a corn snake... Some questions

S

Sierrie

New member
I've been reading heavily on the subject for a couple weeks (and I've read off-and-on about various snakes/reptiles for years, heh) and I'll probably be placing an order this week. I have two questions, though.

One: Is there any temperament/behavior differences between males and females? I'm leaning towards getting a male, as nothing I've read indicates that either are more or less difficult to care for.

Two: I live in an apartment where the downstairs office signs for the packages. Not me. So when ordering mice and of course the snake itself, my tentative plan is to be home the entire day it's supposed to arrive, and check for a package notice in my mailbox every forty-five minutes to an hour. I think it's a good plan but I'd like to hear from someone else in a similar situation.

And any other advice you guys might have. :)
 
Sierrie said:
I've been reading heavily on the subject for a couple weeks (and I've read off-and-on about various snakes/reptiles for years, heh) and I'll probably be placing an order this week. I have two questions, though.

One: Is there any temperament/behavior differences between males and females? I'm leaning towards getting a male, as nothing I've read indicates that either are more or less difficult to care for.
Click to expand...

There is no real difference between males and females. I have two females at the moment. One is easily handled. The other loves to latched onto my hand every time I take her from her viv.

The one male I have is great to handle. He has never acted like he was gonna strike me.

You care for both the exact same way.

Sierrie said:
Two: I live in an apartment where the downstairs office signs for the packages. Not me. So when ordering mice and of course the snake itself, my tentative plan is to be home the entire day it's supposed to arrive, and check for a package notice in my mailbox every forty-five minutes to an hour. I think it's a good plan but I'd like to hear from someone else in a similar situation.
Click to expand...

Both the mice and the snakes will be delivered by either UPS or Fedex. Will your apartments not allow them in to deliver? Can your apartment office be trusted to make sure the package is delivered to you as soon as they arrive?
 
Yeah, they'll be allowed to deliver. It's just that the managers in the downstairs office will sign for it, then stick a notice on my mailbox that I have a package in the office. So that's what I'd be checking for every hour. The managers themselves can be trusted with the packages; they won't toss them around or anything. :)
 
Sierrie said:
Yeah, they'll be allowed to deliver. It's just that the managers in the downstairs office will sign for it, then stick a notice on my mailbox that I have a package in the office. So that's what I'd be checking for every hour. The managers themselves can be trusted with the packages; they won't toss them around or anything. :)
Click to expand...

As long as you can trust them, then it seems like it would be alright to check every 45 mins to an hour for them. You will probably be excited and will check more often. :)
 
Sounds like a good plan, but would love to see pics asap :) Even pics of your viv right now would look good :p And if it were me, I would check every 30 minutes just to be safer. Never really wanna keep an animal in a box longer than necessary. I once had some cichlids delivered to my house, granted I wasn't in an apartment but I was checking the driveway every 15-30 minutes waiting in anticipation. I am thinking that snakes would get stressed being shipped just like any animal would. Good luck with your snake! Remember... PICTURES!!
 
If you're expecting the packages on the day of delivery can you let the managers know the day before, or the morning of, and have them call you when the package(s) arrive? Since most deliveries are generally made in a window of 9:00 am to 10:30 am, any problem waiting at the front office for them? Just some suggestions.

D80
 
Also it's been my experience that companies who provide feeders won't ship to you unless you order a certain amount of the larger mice. So if you're getting a baby snake who'll be on pinkies for awhile, keep that in mind? I've just got the one snake and no one I called would send me just pinkies and fuzzies... :( They insisted I order rats that Jazz won't be eating for at least a year...
 
If you order from Mouse Factory, you can order whatever you want. Mouse Factory mice will be so well packed with dry ice that you wouldn't have to wait at home for them, they would be fine when you got home from work.

Males, when they reach adulthood, can go on a springtime feeding strike, varying from a couple weeks to several months. This is nerve-wracking the first year, but becomes more routine the following years. It still bothers me a little.

Females can produce infertile eggs, which may or may not cause complications when laid, or may be reabsorbed without being laid, and this process may also cause the female to go on a feeding strike.
 
When you are expecting the mice, tell the people in the office that you are getting a frozen shipment and ask if they can let you know ASAP when it comes in. If you having the snake is permitted by the apartment complex (that is, you aren't hiding it from them) then go ahead and tell them it's frozen mice. This worked very well for my old roommate. The girls in the office wanted the box gone quick, so they called her as soon as it arrived.

Alternately, you can do what many people do when being shipped an animal, and have fedex hold the box at their shipping center for your town, so you can go pick it up there.

Seconding that Mouse Factory mice are packed well enough to be fine for the day. My labmate and I split and order of mice from them and it got delayed by thunderstorms in Memphis and arrived a day late. The dry ice was gone but everything was still frozen solid (and I'm in Florida so it was plenty hot in the truck). They also let you order relatively small numbers of mice. I got 50 fuzzies and 50 hoppers and could have gotten as few as 25 of one type. Pinkies I think the minimum is 50 though, so you may want to wait until you move to fuzzies.
 
Huh... Wonder if Mouse Factory ships to Canada... my trouble was with Canadian dealers in and around British Columbia. *goes to check*
 
Thanks guys! I'm a bit nervous because I've never had an animal shipped to me before, heh. Here's my vivarium right now:

100_0623.jpg


As you can see it's not quite finished. I'll probably get one more hide and something for the snake to climb on, and that should do it. :D
 
Looks good!

You're going to want to possibly look into getting a thermostat to maintain the temperature, whether you stick with the lamp or go with an undertank heater.

Really incredibly cheap and easy to clean/replace hide is toilet paper or paper towel rolls. And you might want to consider getting some of those vine things you can stick to the side of the viv.

As for something for the snake to climb on, I kinda like those ExoTerra viney things.
 
Hi Sierre -
Congrats on your decision to get a snake! Since your profile says you're in East Lansing, I thought you'd like to know that next weekend (Aug 23rd) there is a Reptile Expo in Lansing. Here's a link to info:

http://www.geocities.com/rincksreptiles/Expo.html

If you haven't already ordered your snake, you may luck out and find one there, or at least be able to get a few feeders.

As far as ordering feeders online, have you checked to see if there are any reptile stores in your area that you could buy from instead? I've heard from a lot of people that if you only have one snake, it usually isn't cost effective to buy in bulk when they're babies b/c they go from one feeder size to the next so quickly.

Of course, a logical solution to that problem would be to get more snakes :)
 
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