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Hi!

I

IrishLuck519

New member
I recently became the owner of a corn snake since my friend was unable to take care of it (not sure yet of the sex), and her cats were constantly staring it down. It had been in a 10 gallon glass tank, but I bought a 20 gallon one so it would have a little more room to move. I brought him home Monday, April 30th. On Tuesday, I put it in the new tank, and by the evening, it started shedding. The entire shed was over in about five minutes flat. It also had a bowel movement right after the shed was complete. Was this probably due to stress? Also, my roommate said that we needed to have damp moss in the terrarium after the shed since their skin is more sensitive. Do you guys do this, or is it unnecessary? We got some just to be on the safe side, but the snake has pretty much just been curled up under a half-log for the past few days on the cool side of the tank. Thanks!

^..^ Cat
 
First welcome to the forum and congrats on getting your new baby.

There are many questions that need to be answered before you can get good advice.
How old is the snake
What are you using for a heat source.
How well did the snake shed(was it a full shed, or was there some left on the snake).

As far as the damp moss, that would only be needed during the shed cycle so as to help the snake have a full shed. Otherwise a damp environment won't be needed, In fact if you have to high humidity in the viv that could cause different problems of it's own(an RI for one). Make sure you have the warm side at about 85 with UTH and thermostat.

If you have any other questions. Feel free to ask as there are MANY members on here with a wealth of knowledge that will be more then happy to help you!

Finally, just have fun and enjoy you new baby!
 
I'm not quite sure how old s/he is, and I can't measure the snake quite yet because yesterday was feeding day; i KNOW s/he is at least 6 months old since my friend purchased the snake in December, and I think s/he is a bit older than that. As for heating, I am using the Repti threm UTH for 10-20 gallon tanks. I put a triple layer of white paper towels on the glass over the spot where the heater is and taped down the edges. The shed was complete, I examined the shed skin afterwards to make sure that both spectacles came off with the skin, as did the tail tip. I bought the book "Corn and Rat Snakes" by Philip Purser at PetsMart, and it has helped a lot, it just didn't address how long sheds usually take. Also, quick question; the previous owner fed live prey all the time. I don't want to risk a bite to the snake since that might require a pricey trip to the vet. Can snakes that were raised on live food make the switch to frozen/thawed food? I think I read on here hatchlings will make the switch from live pinkies to f/t, but if anyone had switched an older snake to f/t after it is used to live, please let me know how it went. Thank you guys so much for your help!
Cat
 
I switched my problem feeder from live to f/t by first of all giving her fresh-killed (literally still twitching) then on to really warm f/t. It took a while, and she does get fussy still sometimes, but she's 99%f/t 1%f/k now
 
Hi!

I see you live in Florida! There are a whole bunch of us here- many down near Tampa, a couple by Gainesville, one at Amelia Island, one on the east coast...We try to get together at the shows (which there are a lot of!) and have had a field trip to the Reptile World Serpentarium by Orlando, and plan to do that again. Watch in the General Chit Chat section- that's where we usually start arranging everything.

Tape is usually discourages inside snake enclosures because they inevitably get caught in it, and it is difficult to remove.

Pooping after shedding is common- I think because they've been inactive for a week or more, so once they start moving around again during/after the shed- it gets their bowels moving.

Snake Mom is right- the damp moss is for during the shed, not after.

Kathy Love's and Don Soderberg's cornsnake books are really good, and it's worth having both.

The ZooMed 500R thermostat is a good basic thermostat- I have three running right now. You can buy it at Petsmart and Petco for full retail price, or cut that in half by buying it on the Internet.

Nanci
 
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