First time snake owner. Lots of questions.

[Firefly151]

Hell to all!

I have a couple things to address and I would really love some input from real corn snake owners. This little snakey is about 23" long and I am just so thrilled to have him/her in our family.

1. So 4 days ago I purchased a corn snake. It was labled "albino corn" unsexed. I was looking at photos of different morphs and I actually think it is an Amelanistic Motley. Would anyone agree with me. (It's belly is completely white.)

2. Is my snake underweight?

3. The store I got my snake from only fed live food. I had a successful feed with a live fuzzy, but I hear that you should ONLY feed frozen. Can someone tell me why?

4. Sexing- I havent had this snake probed yet, but I've counted the ventral scales twice and I got 138 counting individual scales and I counted 70 pairs. Also I think the tail looks like a male but I would really like some input from those familiar to sexing without probes.

Any information you might have to share please do.

-Firefly

 

[sdavis2]

1. Morphs isn't my thing as I'm colorblind as can be but someone will have an answer for that ASAP.

2. Hard to tell from pic and baby corns always feel like noodles to me lol

3. I feed live so I won't touch this one.

4. I know there's differences in the tails in sexes or you can "pop" to see. I don't trust myself popping my snakes so I'm actually only certain of the sexes of 2 of my 6 snakes until they've all had their check ups lol

 

[sdavis2]

Basically the reason some say you should ONLY feed frozen is because rodents fight back and can have some damaging bites. Like I said though I feed live.

 

[albertagirl]

Hell to all!

I have a couple things to address and I would really love some input from real corn snake owners. This little snakey is about 23" long and I am just so thrilled to have him/her in our family.

1. So 4 days ago I purchased a corn snake. It was labled "albino corn" unsexed. I was looking at photos of different morphs and I actually think it is an Amelanistic Motley. Would anyone agree with me. (It's belly is completely white.)

2. Is my snake underweight?

3. The store I got my snake from only fed live food. I had a successful feed with a live fuzzy, but I hear that you should ONLY feed frozen. Can someone tell me why?

4. Sexing- I havent had this snake probed yet, but I've counted the ventral scales twice and I got 138 counting individual scales and I counted 70 pairs. Also I think the tail looks like a male but I would really like some input from those familiar to sexing without probes.

Any information you might have to share please do.

-Firefly

Congratulations!
1. Albino is the same as amel, and I'm not a morph expert but a white belly would suggest motley I would think as well.

2 I think the weight looks fine. A corn snake should be the shape of a bread loaf. Flat on the bottom and sides and rounded on top. If you see spine sticking out, then your baby is underweight, and if you see rounded sides/bottom your baby is overweight. A good idea would be to invest in a small scale to weigh your snake. That way you can keep an eye on whether weight is being gained or lost or what. It's a helpful way to keep an eye on growth and health.

3. As sdavis2 said, live mice fight back and can harm your snake. Also, personally, I feel like it's more humane for the mouse to be prekilled. That is my personal choice. If you do choose to feed live it is absolutely imperative that you supervise until the mouse is dead. If your snake doesn't eat the mouse, and the mouse gets hungry, it can chew on your snake. Rats will definitely kill the snake, and I'm sure mice can do plenty of damage too.

4. I can't help with this one. Sorry!

 

[sdavis2]

My only thing with the whole "humane" aspect is that pre killed are usually co2 killed and that's dying from axphyxia, which is the same way a snake kills. So to each his own on that. But yes NEVER leave a live mouse with your snake unsupervised. I've seen and heard of some absolute horror stories from someone doing this. If you keep feeding live as I do, just keep a close eye, when your snake strikes and wraps around, if you notice or hear the rodent biting use some tongs to grab it's teeth until it's done. Hope this helps!

 

[Tavia]

Hello and welcome! Replies are in purple.

Hell to all!

I have a couple things to address and I would really love some input from real corn snake owners. This little snakey is about 23" long and I am just so thrilled to have him/her in our family.

1. So 4 days ago I purchased a corn snake. It was labled "albino corn" unsexed. I was looking at photos of different morphs and I actually think it is an Amelanistic Motley. Would anyone agree with me. (It's belly is completely white.)

Yes, you are right, Amel Motley is the morph.

2. Is my snake underweight?

From the pictures, it appears a reasonable size for it's age.

3. The store I got my snake from only fed live food. I had a successful feed with a live fuzzy, but I hear that you should ONLY feed frozen. Can someone tell me why?
Many reasons. The biggest two is that mice that are mobile, like hopper sized up, can injure, permanently maim and sometimes even kill the snake. That's why if you have to feed live, you should monitor the whole time, but injuries can occur faster than the keeper can intervene, even so. The other is that it is usually regarded as a bit more humane for the mouse itself. Especially if you have more than one snake, buying frozen in bulk is considerably cheaper and a lot more convenient as well, than having to run to the shop to buy live and hope they have as many and the size as you need, when you need them.

4. Sexing- I havent had this snake probed yet, but I've counted the ventral scales twice and I got 138 counting individual scales and I counted 70 pairs. Also I think the tail looks like a male but I would really like some input from those familiar to sexing without probes.

I'm not good at scale counts but if you can take a clear picture of the bottom of the tail, from the vent down most of the length and a picture from the side of the same area, many members here can give a fairly educated guess as to gender but popping and probing are the best ways and even those aren't always accurate.

Any information you might have to share please do.

-Firefly

PS. What does your user name stand for?

 

[albertagirl]

My only thing with the whole "humane" aspect is that pre killed are usually co2 killed and that's dying from axphyxia, which is the same way a snake kills. So to each his own on that.

Fair point sdavis2, maybe it just seems nicer since I don't have to witness the death. I do have a question that I've always wondered about this though. My corn snakes, when they do wrap and constrict their meals, do a really poor job of it, it seems, in comparison to my king and house snake. When feeding live, do they do a better job? I would assume the death being as quick and humane as CO2 would require that the snake grab and constrict correctly? Would you agree? And do they generally do a good job of that? My curious mind wants to know, but I don't want to do the experimenting to find out. I think if I tried that I would end up with a bunch of pet mice. lol

 

[sdavis2]

Fair point sdavis2, maybe it just seems nicer since I don't have to witness the death. I do have a question that I've always wondered about this though. My corn snakes, when they do wrap and constrict their meals, do a really poor job of it, it seems, in comparison to my king and house snake. When feeding live, do they do a better job? I would assume the death being as quick and humane as CO2 would require that the snake grab and constrict correctly? Would you agree? And do they generally do a good job of that? My curious mind wants to know, but I don't want to do the experimenting to find out. I think if I tried that I would end up with a bunch of pet mice. lol

Oh for sure when they can tell it's alive they do a much better job. And currently the largest of my corns puts his mouse to sleep pretty quickly. They'll sit there and hold on forever as if they're scared someone's going to take it but trust me, once those legs stop moving the mouse is done. Now as you said they definitely don't constrict like my ball or boa or even my larger rat(which is weird because a corn is a form of rat snake) but that could be because my corns are the smallest, but they do know what they're doing. I will say I never move to live until they are past pinkys for 2 reasons. One being they sometimes don't even bother constricting because a pinky offers no defense therefore literally swallowing them alive, and secondly and mostly because in my area it can be hard at times to find live pinkys.

 

[sdavis2]

But yes usually the harder the fight the better the strike and constriction. And obviously frozen thawed don't offer a fight lol.

 

[Firefly151]

Hello and welcome! Replies are in purple.







PS. What does your user name stand for?

Firefly is actually just my way of saying carpe diem.



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[Firefly151]

let's see if these pictures help at all.

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[Tavia]

Hmm. I'm going to go with female ... For what that's worth.

 

[albertagirl]

Oh for sure when they can tell it's alive they do a much better job. And currently the largest of my corns puts his mouse to sleep pretty quickly. They'll sit there and hold on forever as if they're scared someone's going to take it but trust me, once those legs stop moving the mouse is done. Now as you said they definitely don't constrict like my ball or boa or even my larger rat(which is weird because a corn is a form of rat snake) but that could be because my corns are the smallest, but they do know what they're doing. I will say I never move to live until they are past pinkys for 2 reasons. One being they sometimes don't even bother constricting because a pinky offers no defense therefore literally swallowing them alive, and secondly and mostly because in my area it can be hard at times to find live pinkys.

Good to know, thank you!!

 

[FriendlyAmoeba]

Hello! I have an amel corn too and I used an alternate way to sex her called candling. Because they have white bellies, a strong light lets you see through them almost like a fingernail! If you hold their vent area up to a light, you can see the hemipenes, or lack thereof, pretty clearly. It worked for me, but I'm no expert so hopefully it'll work for you too!

 

[Firefly151]

Hello! I have an amel corn too and I used an alternate way to sex her called candling. Because they have white bellies, a strong light lets you see through them almost like a fingernail! If you hold their vent area up to a light, you can see the hemipenes, or lack thereof, pretty clearly. It worked for me, but I'm no expert so hopefully it'll work for you too!

Oh wow cool! I am familiar with candling finch eggs and mystery snail eggs, and I've used lights to clip my parrots nails too. I'm gonna give it a try!! Thanks!




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[Tavia]

Candling is usually fairly accurate for me but it only works on young and reduced pigment snakes. Amels are great for candling. Needs to be young enough for the skin to be see through, it thickens with age. Yours is probably on the edge but certainly worth trying. It's best if you have a known male and female to compare but can work without that. At least at it's size, if it works, it should be very easy to see the hemipenes in a male. You are looking for 1 or 2 lines of red, for the blood in the 'penes of a male. Females are either clear or have one or two small dots of red, marking the scent glands.

 

[DLena]

I saw your Firefly signature and was hoping you were a Malcolm Reynolds fan. Your snake is a very pretty amel motley. I feed f/t for a number of reasons. Having a supply in the freezer means no worries at mealtime for size and availability. I hope co2 is easier than being hunted around a tank if the snake isn't a quick striker. Good f/t is definitely cleaner because live mice leave microscopic urine trails and have a chance of defecating and/or releasing urine upon death and I don't want that in my substrate. Just like I don't want to pick out the chicken or cow for slaughter, I don't want to decide what cute little mouse is going to be a meal, and I don't want to hear any death sounds. I wouldn't be able to keep snakes if live food was the only option because I wouldn't be able to afford all the therapy I'd need after feeding day. Seriously. Welcome to the forum!

 

[albertagirl]

Oh wow cool! I am familiar with candling finch eggs and mystery snail eggs...

I feel like we need to hear more of this story. Mystery snail eggs?

Just like I don't want to pick out the chicken or cow for slaughter, I don't want to decide what cute little mouse is going to be a meal

Now added to my list of reasons I couldn't feed live. How do you choose! :awcrap:

 

[axis1]

Mystery Snail Eggs???

OK. Now I'm slightly intrigued. I thought that was a reference to something else.

But then again, I dropped more pills than a three-fingered pharmacist!!

Need I say more?? :shrugs:

(Does the Pope s**t in the woods? Er, uh. . . Uh-Oh! Got my signals crossed). :uhoh:

:duck:





(Sorry folks. Having an internal conflict between a couple of my multiple personalities. I'll be back soon, I hope! But until then, just remember to be good to yourselves and one another. Please.)



And just remember: A fart is just a turd whistling for the right of way!!!! oke:

 

[Firefly151]

I feel like we need to hear more of this story. Mystery snail eggs?

Well since you asked... I am more than happy to share!!! Here is a brief overview.

Pomacea Diffusa are the type of Mystery snails that I have. They are aquatic gastropod mollusks. They are often also called Apple Snails. They are unique snails in that they can breathe under water with gills and out of the water with a lung. They are also not hermaphrodites like many other freshwater aquatic snails, so it takes male and female to breed. They will climb up out of the water and lay their eggs above the water level (on the glass or aquarium lid). They lay clutches of eggs in groups up to 200-300 eggs. As eggs go, some are fertile and some aren't. Since I remove the egg sacs off the glass and incubate them, I have used the candling method to see if the eggs are fertile or not. It's really difficult because the eggs are so small you can only see a tiny black dot inside, if you are lucky.

I would be happy to post a pic or two if anyone is interested, but I don't know the rules about posting stuff that is about non snake pets

If anyone is interested in seeing some educational photos of my snails let me know!!