A few Q's from a rookie

[CornDazzle]

I hope not to sound hopelessly bound to rooki-ism but, Q: What is viv? I have an aquarium with lights above it and a heating pad below. It is filled with chips, water, logs, plants, therm. and of course a snake. Q: Is there a site to explain all the diff. terms used for snake colors (hypo,anery) etc.?
Q: How does one remove the calcified scale from an aquarium to make it a home for a snake?
Q: How often is too often for a snake to eat and should I vary the food (mice for a week, toss in something else for variance)? Obviously, a snake will regurgitate if too full, or not eat at all prior to shedding, then, watch out!
Q: Where or whom may I purchase specific colors? (Lav.) and how do I label my snake a color/pattern when it has changed since I bought it?!
Q: How do I regulate my breeding mice for the snakes so that I do not end up with adults (un-eaten). One month, I wonder if I'll need to run to the store for feeders, the next I'm asking that store if they need any mice!
Ok, I'll stop here though I have a plethora of Q's.

 

[Tegucentric]

Q: What is viv?

A: vi·var·i·um - A place, especially an indoor enclosure, for keeping and raising living animals and plants under natural conditions for observation or research.

Q: Is there a site to explain all the diff. terms used for snake colors (hypo,anery) etc.?

A: http://www.cornguide.com

Q: How does one remove the calcified scale from an aquarium to make it a home for a snake?

Vinegar works, but you will want to wash and rinse extremely well after and make sure there are no signs of the vinegar scent.

Q: How often is too often for a snake to eat and should I vary the food

A: How often depends on the snakes size. Rodents only, no other variety.

Q: Where or whom may I purchase specific colors?

A: There are many places..

http://www.serpenco.com/shop/customer/home.php?cat=269
http://www.cornutopia.com
as well as right here in the "For Sale" forum.

Q: How do I regulate my breeding mice for the snakes so that I do not end up with adults (un-eaten).

A: Kill and freeze the rodents at the size you need them at. You want to get your snake on frozen/thawed as soon as possible.

I hope those help,

Rick

 

[CAV]

Q: How does one remove the calcified scale from an aquarium to make it a home for a snake?

If I remember correctly, a solution of diluted vinegar removes calcification deposits. Don't have any more details that that I'm afraid. :shrugs:

Q: How often is too often for a snake to eat and should I vary the food (mice for a week, toss in something else for variance)?

The answer depends on the age of the snake. Animals that are under one year of age should be offered a meal every 5-8 days. For adults this will increased to every 7-14 days depending on sex, genetics, size, blah, blah, blah.......

It is best to just stick to mice and maintain your schedule.

Q: Where or whom may I purchase specific colors? (Lav.) and how do I label my snake a color/pattern when it has changed since I bought it?!

Any breeder on this site has great stock. I really depends on what your looking for and what is left from the summer hatchling season.

As for the second part: Coloration will change slightly as the animal ages but its genetic makeup remains unchanged. If you bought a snow hatchling, it will be a snow until it is no more. The bigger question may be whether the animal's true color and pattern are actually what you were told they were.

Q: How do I regulate my breeding mice for the snakes so that I do not end up with adults (un-eaten). One month, I wonder if I'll need to run to the store for feeders, the next I'm asking that store if they need any mice!

That's the easiest question to answer. Simply separate female mouse from male mouse and.....

Voila! No more baby meeses! :noevil:

 

[CornDazzle]

Mice, Fish, and Crickets,...Oh My!

I began all 3 corns on frozen store-bought pinkies. All of them had issues with this. Pinky absolutely refused to eat. I bought live pinkies and nearly had my fingers removed (figuratively speaking, the corns were only pencil size). I have since tried frozen, they either do not eat or regurgitate within 3 days.
Q: Why cannot I continue feeding live.
Q: Will corns enjoy a small guppy/goldfish plopped into the waterdish? I heard they will. Creamsicle constricts most of (her) mice in the water, any reason why?
Q: Why not feed crickets? Other than being crunchy, lol, the petstore geek told me to try crickets if snakes won't eat---Why? I didn't work. It scared my snakes. I became sleep deprived from the chirping. I was ready to eat the crickets myself!

 

[TrpnBils]

I began all 3 corns on frozen store-bought pinkies. All of them had issues with this. Pinky absolutely refused to eat. I bought live pinkies and nearly had my fingers removed (figuratively speaking, the corns were only pencil size). I have since tried frozen, they either do not eat or regurgitate within 3 days.
Q: Why cannot I continue feeding live.
Q: Will corns enjoy a small guppy/goldfish plopped into the waterdish? I heard they will. Creamsicle constricts most of (her) mice in the water, any reason why?
Q: Why not feed crickets? Other than being crunchy, lol, the petstore geek told me to try crickets if snakes won't eat---Why? I didn't work. It scared my snakes. I became sleep deprived from the chirping. I was ready to eat the crickets myself!

Feeding live is setting your snake up to get parasites that would otherwise be killed by freezing. And once you're feeding larger mice, there's also a good chance your snake can get seriously injured (I never thought it was something that happened a lot until I started reading more about it. It's nasty)

I don't know if they would even know what to do with a fish, but since it's not a rodent, don't feed it. That's what these guys are set up to eat (okay, they eat small lizards in Florida too, but I wouldn't go there either).

Same with crickets. They have little nutritional value. Your petstore geek doesn't know what he's talking about.

------------------

Also, do you only have 3 corns? If so, I wouldn't worry about breeding mice as I would think it'd end up being more expensive than buying frozen (especially if you buy in bulk)

 

[mbdorfer]

Corns don't eat fish or crickets, don't bother. There is absolutely NO reason why you can't feed live. I've been doing it since the 80's. With hoppers and larger mice, I knock them unconscious first so they can't injure the snake :cheers:

 

[CornDazzle]

Feeding live will give parasites?

I thought parasites were species specific... How will bugs on a mouse become a snakes problem? A person told me that a mouse infested with mites, eaten by a snake, will create mites that burrow out of a snake from stomach to skin ????!! How the ** is that possible...or do I need to stay well away from petstore geeks.
I do not think I can thump a mousey in the head, nor, do I think that I want to try.
How could it be less expensive to buy frozin pinkies than to breed mice. I have 3 breeding females (and a 3 pets that I kept alive because they are tan, pretty). Each mousey has @ 15 pinkies @ 10 days apart. Sometimes I wonder if I will need to run to a store to buy pinies to suffice. Other than food, litter, and water..(stuff that all of my rat pet critters use already) I find it monetarily comfortable. BTW...how much are frozen bulk pinkies?

 

[Gintha]

A person told me that a mouse infested with mites, eaten by a snake, will create mites that burrow out of a snake from stomach to skin ????!!

Think about that rationally. What happens to tissue once its in the stomache? Its engulfed by a very strong acid, and its also in an oxygenless environment. An acid coated, oxygen deprived insect can, in NO way, burrow out of the stomache and attach itself to the skin. Who ever told you that needs their brain examined.

As for live feeding, sure, lots of folks do it... its up to the owner really. But yes, tossing an adult or sub adult mouse in a viv with a snake is probably NOT a good idea. I fed my kistachie live, non-whacked, mice and it wasn't a pretty sight, she was always covered with cuts and scars from the mice attacking her. On the other hand, many folks have fed in this manner with no troubles at all, again, it depeneds on the owner. And yes, I am aware that snakes in the wild don't have their food knocked out before they eat it, but they also don't live any where near as long as captive snakes.