My first snake

Well, it finally happened. I have been wanting a snake since I was a kid. Now I'm 32 years old and my wish has come true. I have been doing a fair bit of reading so that I know what I'm getting myself into. Yesterday I picked up this little guy/gal at Petsmart. He had been there 2 weeks and ate twice for them (they showed me their feeding records). They have been feeding him F/T pinkies.

I have seen several color morphs, but I really like the normal pattern. This guy just shed, so he looks nice and bright. No retained eye caps, no retained shedding at all.

The store employee that helped me didn't know how old he is. Apparently they don't get hatching dates when they get new arrivals. Does anyone have a good estimate for me?

Right now I am keeping him in a 10gal tank. I was told that that would work for at least a year. I placed a heat pad on the bottom, then taped the probe of an electrical thermometer to the inside glass and covered it with Aspen. I freaked out when the thermometer read 109F, especially given that this pad was advertised as being for a 1-5gal tank (the employee told me it was fine since corn snakes are temperate snakes). I moved the probe above the bedding and heat pad, inside the hide and it now reads 91F. Is this okay? He does have another hide on the cool side of the enclosure.

Enjoy:

Welcome! And what a cute little baby you have! =D Does he/she have a name?
I'm sure others will post as well, but let me jump to the chase right away =) About this:

aklferris said:

I freaked out when the thermometer read 109F, especially given that this pad was advertised as being for a 1-5gal tank (the employee told me it was fine since corn snakes are temperate snakes). I moved the probe above the bedding and heat pad, inside the hide and it now reads 91F. Is this okay? He does have another hide on the cool side of the enclosure.

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No >.< Not so good! You should leave the probe directly above the heat mat so you can get the temperatures the heatmat puts out. If your snake burrows into the bedding - which he'll do - he/she will get burned at 109°F. You should get a thermostat for your heat mat, which regulates the temperature the heatmat puts out. I bought this one for example off Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NZZG3S

I hope you'll have loads of fun with your baby, I'm jealous

I tend to agree, a little bit too cold is better than a little bit too hot. Heat can kill very quickly.
Your new baby is beautiful! I love those funky saddles in the middle!!
Good luck with him/her!!

Thanks so far! This week has been very hot outside (upper 90s - maybe low 100s), and I live on the top floor of my apt complex, so my A/C has been having difficulty keeping up. I would say the temp in the area surrounding the terrarium is 78-80F. I kept the heat pad unplugged last night, but my snake was cool to the touch last night (the aquarium/terrarium sits on a glass table, so there really isn't any insulation from the table). I will order the thermostat, but I've noticed it's hard running the cord from the digital thermometer out of the screen lid without exposing an area for the little guy/gal to escape. The lid is a strong metal screen with metal edges. Any pointers on this aspect?

Thanks again,
Jason

Jason,
congrats on the new arrival and best wishes!

No good estimates on the age of the snake?

I'm by no means an expert, but it almost looks like you've gotten yourself one from this year... I would estimate that he was born early June but, again, I am by NO means an expert.

I'm just judging by the size he/she is in comparison to your hand.

A good alternative to buying a thermostat would be to go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy a light dimmer. You can easily adjust the heat output of your mat that way without spending much money at all. This is what I've been using and it works great!

It's hard to tell how old a snake is just based on their size. It totally depends on how often they've been fed and what the weight of their food items were. My snake was hatched June '09 and when I got her in Jan '10 she was TINY and only weighed 9 grams, but still healthy and a great eater. Hard to tell, I think.