• 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.

First snake growth question...

Arson

Arson

NEEDS MORE COWBELL!
When I first got my new snow through Airborne from Kathy Love and opened the box I was shocked at how small she was. I wasn't disappointed since I knew so little about actually owning a corn I really didn't know what to expect. Once I learned that her size was definitely normal for her age all doubt was pushed from my mind.

So on to my question...it would seem that her first year's growth was mostly in length and not too much in girth. She's like a pencil. One would have to assume then that she'll probably do some major growing either from year 1 to year 2 or year 2 to year 3 finally reaching adulthood. Should I expect a good bit of growth in the next year? Thanks in advance.

Here's a picture of her now.

FirstHandle3.jpg
 
You should see alot of growth during the next year. Most of my corns at least double their length and girth from age 1 yr to age 2 yrs. They'll grow even more from 2 to 3 yrs, but the change isn't as dramatic.
 
I bought a yearling Okeetee from Kathy about two months ago. When he arrived, he was 16 inches, and as thin as yours. Four days after he arrived, he shed and started growing. In a month he was 18". Today he is about 22". Th's a growth of six inches in two months. Impossible? It's true!

Kathy must keep them on the Atkins diet.<G> Me, I've been powerfeeding him. Three days after he eats he soils his cage. Once he does, he gets another F/T fuzzie. That's a fuzzie every three to four days.

He's is very active prior to feeding. So much so that I'm affraid he may hurt himself as he falls trying to lodge himself at the edge of the top of his tank. (he's too big for that now)

It's strange, but before and after he eats he likes to practice for "The Great Corn Snake Race". You should see him scoot around his cage knocking over stuff and moving stuff around. The Repti-Bark in the corners of his cage are dug out and provide him with a high banking like the Daytona International Speedway! What a blast!

Eric
 
lol, what a great story. My snow hasn't shown signs of shedding yet, but since I know you can sometimes miss that I'm looking at putting in a moist hide anyway.

Now that you mention it though she hasn't pooped, that I can tell, and I fed her 4 days ago.
 
Arson said:
lol, what a great story.

My snow hasn't shown signs of shedding yet, .............

she hasn't pooped.
Click to expand...


Not such a great story, PITA caused the cancelation of the race. They were opposed to all the Rodent-Pro ads. They would only approve of Snake Sausage ads.

I know it's hard, but follow Kathy's advice sheet. Leave the poor bugger alone for a week or two. My Okeetee really settled down. When Mr. Bill first arrived he was a real hisser and tail rattler. He would strike at me, with his mouth wide open every chance he got. today he is very calm, doesn't strike and enjoys being handled, bathed and fed. He loves to eat. A big change!

Give him time to adjust. Riding jumpseat on one of Airborne Express' freighters can really stress you out.

Eric
 
Ummm...I have to say it...

Powerfeeding is not healthy for your snake! It's OK to feed pinkys every 3-4 days, but once the snake gets onto fuzzies it should not be fed as often. When my babies get to fuzzies, they get fed once a week. Powerfeeding can cause health problems related to obesity as the snake gets older. Even if you don't see the effects right away, you snake is packing on the fat cells.

Arson, one thing to consider is that the big breeders don't feed their babies as often as smaller breeders, thus the babies are typically smaller. I feed the babies I produce every three to four days when they are on pinkys. Most of the big breeders feed every 7-10 days (at least that's what I've heard). They have thousands of babies to feed. It would almost be impossible to feed them every three to four days.
 
Kathy told me to keep her on pinks for about 4 weeks to make sure she's eating well and then move to fuzzies. That's what I've been doing. I was going to wait a full week to feed her again....well, actually I was only going to wait 4 days but somebody told me that they only feed their yearlings once a week so I was a bit put off. Bah.
 
Arson,

Not once, ever have I been able to tell when my Snow is going to shed by looking at him. It's the color, methinks.

Sometimes, if you happen to handle at the right time, you can feel it coming. The skin feels kinda dry to me right before the shed.

Also, do you have Mika on Aspen bedding? Ever since I've switched to aspen, it's been very difficult to find the poops... seems they like to poop in their little tunnels... which is exactly why I'll NEVER house on paper towels or newspaper again (except for hatchlings that is), every time my snakes pooped it was under the towel... what a friggin mess that is.

JCD
 
Sometimes you can notice the subtle signs of shedding in a snow. Dulling of the yellow around the neck can be a sign, and so can the eyes turning more pink than red and glossing up.

J_Daniels, I had the same problem as you with the paper towels-a very sickly and smelly mess.:puke01: So now all I use is aspen mulch.
 
Jason, yeah I keep her on Aspen. She has tons of tunnels too and I honeslty haven't sifted through the bedding searching for poo. I didn't want to volunteer myself for that. :D

I can't tell by any dulling of yellow around the neck because either she won't have any, or she's too young to be showing it (she'll be 1 year in just a few days). However, I did notice something strange about her eyes the other day. She has flawless looking pink eyes, so this really caught my attention. Just in the front of her eyes on both eyes...on the VERY edge of her eye closest to her nose there was a slight darkening that appeared a very deep blue color, almost black. The line was very thin, but very unmistakable. Now, I don't know if this means anything, but I showed my roomie and he noticed too. Today, her eyes don't show that. Could this be a subtle sign? Not sure.

Here's a picture of her viv. I'm planning on adding at least a background and probably some silk plants.

Jason, once again I can't thank you enough for showing me that thermometer/hygrometer in Wal-Mart. You saved me lots of money. Sandra thanks you too..I know she found one in her Wally World also.

FirstViv5.jpg
 
The PetSmart in N Charleston has a pretty good selection of backgrounds. The cool thing is that they're not all designed for the "underwater" look. That's where I bought all of mine, heck, I even got a desert background for my Uromastix' Viv.

Jason
 
Much to my disappointment and to your excitement, I'm sure, that Petsmart will be moving to Summerville soon. :(
 
They're closing the N. Charleston one to move next door to superpets? That makes no sense.

Actually, I don't go there much, as they're not snake friendly at all. Just when I need Viv stuff, as they usually have a pretty good selection. Only animal I ever bought there was an Anole... but shhhh, don't tell them what I needed it for :devil01:
 
lol, you're right. They don't carry anything snake related. SuperPets across from Sam's does though. They carry Ball Pythons and a few other snakes. They used to carry corns, but no longer. I know that the Superpets in West Ashley does though.
 
Wanna hear something funny? My next door neighbor is the manager of the Rivers Ave. Superpets. HE HIMSELF told me never to buy a corn from them, as something like 75% of them come back in dead.

Oh yeah, also funny though is how I bought the Cornsnake Manual from Petsmart...
 
I'd venture to say that's because so few people know how to take are of reptiles. They don't really understand how important temperature really is.
 
CornCrazy said:
Ummm...I have to say it...

Powerfeeding is not healthy for your snake! It's OK to feed pinkys every 3-4 days, but once the snake gets onto fuzzies it should not be fed as often.
Click to expand...


My choice to powerfeed came from infomation found here in this forum. It is my understanding that the risk of obisity doesn't rear it's face until the snake reaches about 30 inches.

Eric
 
I don't know who you got that info from. I've been a member on this site for a couple of years now, and I have seen VERY FEW people who agreed with power-feeding. Will you please look up the threads in which you got your info and post links in this thread?

Even young animals can pack on fat cells. It actually starts when they are young. Sometimes it doesn't actually become obvious until they are older, but by then the damage has already been done. Look at this this way, if you had a child would you let that child eat as much as he/she wants? If you answered yes, then you are going to have a VERY obese child.

Just because your snake WILL eat every three days, doesn't mean it needs to.
 
CornCrazy said:
I don't know who you got that info from. I've been a member on this site for a couple of years now, and I have seen VERY FEW people who agreed with power-feeding. Will you please look up the threads in which you got your info and post links in this thread?
Click to expand...

Well, I started to but I really don't have time to do it today. Why don't you?

In the time I did spend, all I found were mixed opinions. One poster (carol), who you asked, implied that until they are on hoppers it's ok

In any event it's time for my little friend to start eating once a week.

Eric
 
I have looked up power feeding before, and I've only found a handful of people who agree with it. I just thought you would be better able to find specific threads since you have some idea as to the ones you were referring to.

I have asked about powerfeeding before, because I had been told that powerfeeding was OK. I now have a cal king that is overweight because he ate a lot when he was little. He only gets fed every 2 weeks now, in an attempt to control his weight.

Anyway, the situation with my snake simply enforces my belief that powerfeeding isn't a healthy practice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top