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I Need Help w/ Temp Control

T

tblairunr

New member
Hi all,

I purchased my cornsnake on August 30 from PETCO. My cornsnake, Chaos, is a juvenile and lives in a 20 gallon tank. Everything in the tank is good except, I am having problems with temp control. I live in Reno, Nevada and PETCO said I do not need a heat pad because of the hot summers we get. However, how do I keep the "cool" side of the tank cooler than the "warm" side of the tank? Thanks for your help.

-TBlairUNR
 
Congrats on your corn!

Before I or anyone else can help you, I need to know what is the temperature inside the enclosure? Assuming the snake is kept inside a home, I can't imagine the house is too hot for the snake or it'd be miserable for you to inhabit. Is your house air-conditioned? If so, a heat source may well be needed. Get a good digital indoor/outdoor thermometer and check back with us. If the whole cage is between 77 and 84, the animal really doesn't need a gradient. I provide it for snakes in my larger cages so they can go where the temps best suit them, but the range mentioned is comfortable for them year-round.

Not to (further) bash Petco, but check with other people who keep snakes before accepting the advice of a pet store employee in case such advice is well-intended but inaccurate. Try here, we argue with each other over much smaller details than temps! :D
 
Thank you so much for replying. The Temp is around 82 during the day, reaching up to 84, and 78 at night. Does this help at all? Also, we use an air condition in the house, however, for some odd reason, my room stays around 78-80 anyways. I also keep the window cracked open for fresh air.

Thanks again for taking time to respond. I don't want Chaos to be uncomfortable.
 
Sounds OK to me

I think you are in the clear with those temps. I use an interior closet for quarantines. It stays 80.5 all day and night. I don't have a heat source and there is no a/c vent depositing cold air into the room. During the day I close the closet door and leave the light on for photoperiod purposes. Ensure that you have a water bowl big enough for soaking. The snake will use it if the temp is too high invariably creating a natural temperature gradient.

Your biggest battle will most likely be with humidity maintenance. In that arid environment you may be force to increase humidity. You will certainly know once the first shed occurs.

Thinking ahead, how warm will the house be during the winter months? Although the temps in the house are perfect now, will they remain at the same levels during Nov - March?? Just a thought.
 
Tblairunr, I don’t want to alarm you but I spoke with the guy that handles reptiles at out local Petco and he told me Petcos nationwide are having hatchling corn snakes from their sale die from Cryptosporidium they only have one or two suppiers of the entire nation and everything that has been dieing has been coming from that one supplier.

He told me they have not had any die in their store or anyone bringing a dead animal back but that Petco’s policy is give them a refund or give them another (infected?) animal.

I would at the very least get you snake tested for Crypto.
 
Again, thanks to everyone replying to my post.

To CAV:

Chaos shed a perfect skin 2 days ago, YAY! The week prior, I misted the tank once a day. So far, it will be the week of "blue eyes," until I figure out his routine/schedule.
Now for the winter months, we like to keep our house cold (65-70F). We do have a basking light for him, however, we are concerned that our house is to cold, and have been thinking about a heating pad. Reno, Nv winters can get really cold, dropping below zero. There are also predictions that we are going to have a rough snowy winter. I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

To Khaman:

Thanks for letting me know the important info. Chaos is a juvenile. Do you think he would still have the disease, if he made it to 3ft long? I will ask our PETCO about this issue.

Thanks all
 
Heat Issue:

If the house is that cold, I'd highly recommend a controllable heat source. You can rig up a rheostat to a piece of flexwatt fairly inexpensively. The problem with a standard UTH is that they can only raise the temp a max of ~5-10 degrees above ambient room temperature. If you want state of the art a Helix unit will run you ~$135, but is well worth every cent!

Virus Issue:

If your snake is 36", eating and keeping the food down, then Crypto isn't involved. This nasty little virus is currently incurable in reptiles. I had a recent crypto scare and received a crash course education. If your interested, I posted additional info here: Crypto
 
Tblairunr, it would not matter what size he is Crypto is lethal at any age. The story I was told was that the recent influx of hatchlings that Petco received for their advertised sale was tainted with Crypto so if your snake was housed with any of these hatchlings, handled by anyone that had handled the hatchlings ect then he could have contracted it.

As Cav said if he is eating and not regurging then you may be safe I do not know the life cycle or how long Crypto can survive without a host but if he starts getting sick get him tested quick and make sure if you have any other corns that they say isolated from your new one.
 
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