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First time snake owner!

Hthr91

New member
Hi I became a first time snake owner two days ago when we purchased a beautiful Corn snake. For now I have been so nervous making sure she is healthy. She hasn't shown any aggression at all, she is quite young and I was so scared we were doing something wrong. We had our first feed last night and at first she wasn't feeding. We left her for the night after I brained the pinky and she had a nice pinky size lump in her belly! I was so relieved. I am a full time working mom I have a 4& 7 year old and my fiancé is also just totally in love! I'm excited to come here for advice and make new corn snake loving friends! We are in VA. I do still have a few concerns but I won't post them here!
 
Welcome. :wavey:

The first feeding is a huge milestone. The fact that you stayed calm, brained it and left it overnight shows that you've made a great start.

Concerns are welcome either here by way of introduction or in the sub forum you think best. Of course, when you feel up to it, we love pictures so we can ooh and aah over your new snake!
 
Here she is! The last one is after her feed you can see the pinky!
 

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As for concerns, for now I have her in a ten gallon tank with a heat pad under one side. It's about 73* in my house. Do you think she has enough heat? She likes to burrow in the aspen bedding.

Also if you look closely in that photo she has a dry patch on her scales is that normal? Is she about to shed? She has a hide and a water bowl, this Friday I will be getting her more hides and maybe another heat source if necessary.
 
hopefully you also have a thermostat hooked up to the heat pad. Those heat pads can hit 115 degrees or more, and without proper regulation it could burn the snake.

We can't tell by the picture you provided, but to make her happy and healthy, she will also need 2 hiding places. One on the cool end and one on the warm wend right over the heat pad.

Snakes that can't hide and are left out in the open will feel timid, irritable and vulnerable, and this could lead to not eating and general poor health.
 
We all feel that way when we can't handle our snakey ones.

Your snake is so pretty! Love your pic.

Yes she has enough heat, but you should be measuring it with a thermometer or a temp gun in the warm hide. How are you controlling the temp of the heat pad on the warm side?

Aspen bedding is great. They all love it! Even my adult tunnels in it.

That's possibly some stuck shed. I wouldn't worry about it much for now where it is located.
 
I don't have a thermometer :/ I will go out and get one I didn't know that the UTH weren't controlled. She burrows a lot but doesn't go in her hide often and that concerns me, should it? So my list of things I'm picking up this week is an additional hide (I made the first one and it doesn't seem to mind it so I'm going to get one store brought one to go with it) and a thermometer for the heat source. After eating she just laid against the glass which concerned me.
 
Don't confuse Thermometer with Thermostat.

Thermostats regulate the heat. Thermometers measure the heat. Just as you have both a thermometer and thermostat on your heater at home, your heat pad for your snake should have both as well.

Without a thermostat, you risk burning the snake.

If the temperature is too hot or too cold in the cage, it will effect the health and the attitude of the snake.

The warm side should be between 82 and 88 degrees directly on the glass bottom of the cage. The cool side is generally ok with room temperature as long as it doesn't drop below 70. (Most of us opt for around 85 on the warm end and about 73 on the cool end).

Without a thermostat, your temp will be whatever the heater puts out. Some of them get very hot. I have 3 heat pads, and all 3 of them hit 115 degrees. That's too hot to use without a thermostat.
 
Thanks for the great advice can I get that at a big box pet store like Petco, Petsmart? Are they high priced? Also I have an opportunity to get a larger tank and a heat lamp for a very cheap price. Would a heat lamp be useful?
 
Most of us frown on the use of heat lamps. If you have the heat pad under the cage properly regulated, that should be all you need. A heat lamp can actually get hotter than a heat pad. Too much heat will dry out the air and then you'll have Low Humidity problems.

Some of the larger pet stores sell thermostats, but I'll tell you right now, I could not find them in my area. They show them on their websites (PetCo and PetsMart) but don't actually have them in store.

I ended up buying mine online.
 
A lot of us use a thermostat that's actually made for seedlings, it's cheaper than a brand made specifically for reptiles. Try this one. So you'll want a thermostat to control the heat AND a thermometer to keep track of the temperature so that you know what the temperature actually is where your snake is.

Your baby might be choosing the zone that is the correct temperature for digestion, and if that isn't where the hide is, then he won't be in the hide. Once you have multiple places to hide and correct temperatures he'll probably stay hidden most of the time.

As for the heat lamp, most of us don't use them. They aren't required if you have a heat pad. If you do ever decide to use a heat lamp for any reason, you'll want to make sure that is also regulated by a thermostat. But a heat pad is all that's needed.
 
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