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Lost my baby snake :(

A

AlyF

New member
Hi my name is Aly and im new to the site... unfortunately i have a sad question

so i recently got a baby corn from a store in town. i spent an hour or more talking to the guys at the store and they were very helpful. he was very small and about 10-12 inches long and very thin.

but after a week of getting my baby alice he was weak and wouldnt eat when i went to feed him. i tried a few more times and was instructed basically to leave him be since he may be stressed. i checked on him the other day and he seamed somewhat healthy but not as strong which i figured made sense because he should be hungry. i prepared a frozen pinky for him but found him dead a few hours later

i was told by some of the pet store guys that babies can die randomly... so i guess what i wanted to know was does this happen a lot or could it be my care that killed him?
 
First and foremost you have my condolences. Loosing a snake is not a easy thing, especially if you are new to the hobby. It doesn't sound like you contributed to the death of this snake. Going a few weeks without eating will not kill a snake, unless there is an underlining cause.

It sounds like you have talked to the reptile store and they fed you a line of bull. Sure some babies just are not meant to be, but after they sold it to you obviously with an issue, since it wasn't eating for you from the start.

You live in Canada, and I know of quite a few good breeders up there, and suggest you go with one of them for your next snake.

Out of curiosity, what were the environmental conditions in the cage?
 
But yeah, as Fenderplayer108 said, sounds like the snake had an issue to BEGIN with. It sounds to me like you got an unhealthy snake. These things happen, but yeah, you will have a better chance of getting a 100% healthy and actively feeding snake if you buy from a breeder.
 
ok.. so im so new to the snake thing i have the tiny little corn snake book next to my bed and any helpful site i can find bookmarked on my laptop.

he was in a smaller tank (like the smaller ones most pet stores keep them in) but im waiting to get my 10 gallon off my parents. i kept the temp around 78. he had a lot of things to climb on since he seemed to prefer that to the hiding log i got him. he seemed fine until about a week before he passed.

it may be moving on but my friend took me to get an onder snake who is acting a lot more active and now makes me think alice was quite weak to begin with.
 
AlyF said:
...
he was in a smaller tank (like the smaller ones most pet stores keep them in) but im waiting to get my 10 gallon off my parents. i kept the temp around 78. he had a lot of things to climb on since he seemed to prefer that to the hiding log i got him. he seemed fine until about a week before he passed.
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Ideal conditions are to have a warm side and a cool side. Ideally it should be 70-75 on the cool side and 80-85 on the warm side. Temps on the warm side are more important as these are the temps needed to facilitate the snake's digestion, too cool of temps can cause a snake to regurgiate. But your 78 degrees and the fact that he never would eat for you indicates to me that the temp was certainly not the problem as 78 is fine unless the snake is trying to digest then it really should be at least 80.

it may be moving on but my friend took me to get an onder snake who is acting a lot more active and now makes me think alice was quite weak to begin with.
Click to expand...

More than likely you are right. I had something very similar happen to me. I am new to snakes as well and when I got my first snake I didn't think anything was wrong with him but now that I have my second snake and have observed the difference between the two, with things like behavior, energy, movement, even down to how the snake feels slithering around on my hand, this snake is much STRONGER than my first snake, leads me to believe that my first snake was actually lethargic and not healthy to begin with. So yep, it certainly does happen. Some baby snakes are just not healthy from the start and just not destined to make it into adulthood. I guess that was the case with my first snake as well. Now I have another snake and I'm a total worry wart, as if I wasn't already with the first, but now even more so because of already losing one baby snake. So believe me, I know how you feel!
 
This isn't your fault. If I read what you wrote the snake never ate for you and as small as it was it may never have eaten. Did the shop give you the feeding records? Your snake might of climbed because it was too warm or too cold. How are you heating the tank? How are you measuring the temps?
 
i had a very low heat lamp and a stick on heat pad on the side... tried to set it up so there was a warm spot, a tiny warmer spot and a cooler side. i was measuring the temp with just an electronic reptile thermometre on the cool side
 
well thanx you have all been really helpful. i was worried it was my doing that killer alice:( and i was really worried about my new little girl Gaz
 
Well if you have a new snake I would sure do something about the temps if it's 78 on the cool side what is the warm side?
 
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