• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Commonly Overlooked By Beginners?

EsotericForest

EsotericForest

Night Shadow
Due to the fact that there are people with far more experience here than I. I was interested in asking you a question to see what the different opinions are. In your opinion, what in corn snake care is most commonly overlooked by a new snake owner? What are the most common mistakes made by new snake owners, and how can they best be avoided?
 
I think the thing I see most often is people starting out feeding their cornsnakes whole corn. Many are not aware that young snakes up until 5 or 6 months of age should only be given creamed corn. It’s no wonder you hear so many stories about baby snakes with impacted bowels.
 
Not having an escape-proof cage.

Not having heat under control.

Not feeding correctly.
 
By not having heat under control, I assume you mean them having a heat source...but not actually having any idea how hot or cold it is in the vivarium?
 
Apart from feeding whole corn as Wade has mentioned?

Well, for those who haven't researched good husbandry prior to getting their snakes, I think the most commonly overlooked thing is giving the snake a quiet settling-in period or maybe waiting 48 hours after feeding before handling. Most new owners want to pass their new baby around and show it off to everyone. These are easy to avoid.

For those who know the basics? I don't know. Maybe the need to move steadily and calmly when picking up your new (and potentially flighty or nippy) pet. Sometimes people take a cautious approach as one might with a new dog, putting a hand in and hoping the snake will be less frightened if they move slowly. In fact, the opposite is often true.

The way to avoid beginner mistakes is to read Kathy Love's book cover to cover and keep it handy. Don Soderberg's is good, also. Additionally, I recommend that all new or future corn snake keepers join this forum. I've personally learned a lot here. (Had fun too - my life is infinitely richer because of Wade and other friends I've made here.)

You've got me wondering what others will say.
 
My rookie mistake (*...has only had Ophelia two weeks now?*) was not [i[testing[/i] the rheostat on the UTH right away. Ended up getting a dimmer the day I brought Ophelia home.:shrugs:
 
I think the heat thing is the most common. Stores tell you you don't need a t-stat or dimmer but UTHs run way too hot if you don't have one. I think the second most common one is not knowing what the temperature is at the floor of the viv. Stores sell you useless stick-on thermometers.

I made both mistakes early on. Fortunately, Humphrey survived them fine & now has regulated heat & so does everyone else!
 
Good Question!

I think to many people jump into getting snakes without enough research before hand.
Both, Kathy Love and Don Soderberg have books out. They are seasoned breeders with a wealth of knowledge.
Personally, I think I have almost every ratsnake book ever printed and some I have read 10X and still, go back to when something slips my mind.
Both the above mentioned are awesome people with awesome hearts who are willing to help anyone with there snakes.
 
I agree with eveyone on the 'heating' situation but also like Caryl said, not reserching about how to properly care for the snake is the most common mistiake. Most people get snakes because they look cool, and then the snakes end up dying because they werent properly cared for. I say thats the biggest mistake. Umm...I dont know how this can be avoided. Probably have the seller tell the buyer the basic needs and drill it in their head so they dont forget?
 
Problem being in most stores like Petsmart or Petco...the employees either know next to nothing themselves, or they simply don't care. They're just there because they kind of like animals...and they need a job. My fiance works at Petsmart, and she's constantly irritated by the general stupidity of fellow employees haha.
 
EsotericForest said:
general stupidity of fellow employees haha.
Click to expand...

The kids who work the big box petstores are often not set up to succeed. They are paid low wages, sometimes given little training, and often are not assigned to mentors where they could learn.

Higher wages, time to learn, and a specific 'go-to' person would make a world of difference, perhaps, but it can be difficult to arrange.

My local Petco is immaculate, with helpful experienced people.

To answer the original question: One pitfall that has not been mentioned is where people have one snake and it is so appealling that they immediately get twenty snakes.
One thing at a time, walk before you run.
 
Bartholomew said:
Umm...I dont know how this can be avoided. Probably have the seller tell the buyer the basic needs and drill it in their head so they dont forget?
Click to expand...

When I designed my website, I wrote a caresheet, and then had a student at work, who knows nothing about snakes, read it and tell me if she had any questions on how to care for a snake. I'm going to make sure that anyone who buys a baby from me has read and understands the caresheet! Then I'd like to include a starter package with some basic things, too, such as Nutribac in case of emergency.
 
Lucille said:
To answer the original question: One pitfall that has not been mentioned is where people have one snake and it is so appealling that they immediately get twenty snakes.
One thing at a time, walk before you run.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that happened to me! OK, only 10. And everybody is doing well.
 
Lucille said:
The kids who work the big box petstores are often not set up to succeed. They are paid low wages, sometimes given little training, and often are not assigned to mentors where they could learn.

Higher wages, time to learn, and a specific 'go-to' person would make a world of difference, perhaps, but it can be difficult to arrange.

My local Petco is immaculate, with helpful experienced people.

To answer the original question: One pitfall that has not been mentioned is where people have one snake and it is so appealling that they immediately get twenty snakes.
One thing at a time, walk before you run.
Click to expand...

You would think they would hire people that have a little more of a clue than just knowing something about cats though ;)
 
(used to work at petco...grooming though)

I think another reason that many of the big box pet stores are sometimes unreliable is that the stores are designed to sell products, any product they carry, and the main focus is selling (sure, please the customer...but pleasing customers will also result in sales).

I had to read some packet about iams or something about how wonderfully fantastic it was as a dry dog food, and how to sell it to people and "how awesome corn is as a filler" etc... :rolleyes:

So people who work in the reptiles department are going to be taught to sell heat rocks and reptisand and anything else they can. So in the end what it will come down to is how much information each individual person knows about the animals they are working with, above and beyond what they are taught by petco/petsmart. I was pretty lucky in that (most) of the employees at the store I worked at were above average. And there was generally at least one person who worked there who knew an uber lot about a different animal group being sold (small mammals, birds, reptiles, fish) beyond what they were taught by the company.
 
I think that feeding the wrong things are one thing that may happen if someone does absolutely no research. Honestly, do hatchling corns look like they can eat a pinky? Not really, but they can.

Buying without doing any research, or doing very little, is also a bad idea. I did buttloads of research before I got my corn, and I got many compliments for that.

Perhaps a less important thing I think beginners overlook is the morphs. Either they don't know there are so many morphs, or they do and only want a less common morph (even though I think the normal/wild/classic/Carolina morph is one of the best).

Improperly co-habbing is another. Beginners probably shouldn't do it at all, but I've read a few counts of co-habbing corns, and if the animals are healthy, similar size, feeding, and have plenty of hides, I see no reason corns should be kept individually, honest. If they are adults, then yeah, there's the problem of unwanted breeding, but besides that, what is the REAL reason corns shouldn't be co-habbed if they are good with the terms I listed above? They are solitary by nature? What's natural about keeping animals in boxes? (Little bit of a rant here, don't bother poking me about it.)

Feeding live, and feeding in the viv is probably another thing that probably can be avoided for the better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top