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My intro and worried about my New corn snake

K

Kwelsome

New member
My name is Kevin welsome and about 3 weeks ago I got my son who is 11 y/o a Corn Snake for his birthday We also have a Bearded Dragon .

I am worried because Fred(my corn snake) who is about 18 inch and seems healthy. Since we have had him I feed him a live pinky once a week.

I have him in a 5 gallon square tank with one of those under tank or on the side heaters that keeps it a steady 75-80(80 right next to the heater and 75 on the other side of the tank) degrees with bark substrate that the pet store told me was fine and they use for all thier snakes. I feed him in a seperate plastic tank so he doesn't get any bark when feeding. I have has a water dish that has a hiding spot with two holes on each side that he uses I also have another hiding spot that is small clay pots glues together with a hole he can get in and out he like the spot by the water dish and really doesn't enter this one .

OK my problem is he doesn't seem to drink OR as I have been reading soak in the water dish at all. Laxt weeks feeding I dunked the pinky in water before feeding and he eats good BUT HAS NOT POOPED since I got him. I changed the water dish today to one with out a hiding spot and maybe more easy for hime to enter or drink from . Should I be worried he seems fine I have tried putting him in the water showing him where it is but he just doesn;t seem to explore much maybe he does at night when I am sleeping but the water dish is pretty much clean If he was going in ans out I am sure there would be more pieces of bark left behind.

I plan On getting a 10 gallon soon should i get it sooner, The tank I have I got from a friend who used to own a pet store and keeps his own Milk snakes and he also has an eastern king snake(all pretty much babies around the same size as fred.

Shouls I be worried and what can I try to get him to drink? Why would he not have taken at least One poop in 3 weeks after eating 3 pinkies?????

Help I like to raise my pets and keep them healthy. I raised my bearded dragon from the time she was born and she is a heathly and normal. I found that sometime the pet stores don't always know what they are talking about for instance they told me not to feed my beardy Pinkies? wich is absolutley wrong I give her a fuzzy or pinkie once a week. People run into problems if thats all you feed them or if you feed them one that are to big. reality is giving one pinkie a weeks keeps me from having to sprinkle calcium or supplements on her food although I will shake and bake crickets with supplements before feeding .

well sorry for the ramble should I be worried my corn snake has not taken a dumb in 3 weeks

Thank you
www.welsomehomeloans.com
 
OK my problem is he doesn't seem to drink OR as I have been reading soak in the water dish at all. Laxt weeks feeding I dunked the pinky in water before feeding and he eats good BUT HAS NOT POOPED since I got him. I changed the water dish today to one with out a hiding spot and maybe more easy for hime to enter or drink from . Should I be worried he seems fine I have tried putting him in the water showing him where it is but he just doesn;t seem to explore much maybe he does at night when I am sleeping but the water dish is pretty much clean If he was going in ans out I am sure there would be more pieces of bark left behind.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums :)

First of all snakes dont really need to drink much, and unless you're watching him all the time you usually wont see him drink at all. as for soaking in the water dish, as long as your humidity is alright he shouldnt need to soak himself. i have a corn and a ball python and ive never seen either of them fully in their water dishes. im not really sure why he hasnt pooped yet.. what kind of bedding do you have? If its a darker bedding some times its a little harder to find.. Hope this helps :)
 
I rarely see mine drinking. If my lot are anything to go by, the best time to catch them, at it is just after they've eaten.

As long as they have constant access to clean water, they're fine. Don't worry - yours will be sneaking a sip while you're asleep. I'm sure they do it deliberately to wind us up...!
 
I wouldn't worry about the poop, either. With a hatchling snake, you may see a tiny black smear, or nothing!

You might consider getting a 20L instead of a 10- he can stay in that a nice long time.
 
I really wouldn't worry. :)

I used to worry that mine wasn't drinking, but she was.

Try holding your snake just above the water dish. Mine will happily drink from the water dish when in my hands, however this may be quite rare so I can't guarantee it will work for you.

Also, I used to use bark and could never find the poop! It just turned to a dark dust on that stuff. This is just one of the reasons I switched to lightly-coloured Aspen.

Enjoy the company of your new friend! :dancer:
 
Welcome to the forum. There's a lot of good stuff here, and lots of people who are happy to help newcomers. I got my 1st corn Feb. 1 and have learned a lot on this forum and from a couple of good books. You might want to buy Kathy Love's book, as well as Don Soderberg's for starters. I think they should be on every owner's shelf.

Don't worry about your snake drinking or not soaking. None of mine ever soak. I guess it's like people and swimming; some like it, some don't.

One of them drinks pretty much every time I put her back in her viv after handling, but I've never seen two of them drink at all. If your snake wasn't drinking, you'd notice physical effects of dehydration. Its skin would appear wrinkled, its movements would be weak, and it wouldn't be interesting in feeding.

As far as the waste issue, again, don't worry. If you've been feeding each week, the snake is producing waste. It's just hard to see. If your snake likes to burrow or tunnel in the bedding, you may have an even harder time finding the waste. Since it's feeding well, you can rest assured that the digestive tract is working all the way through.

Good luck, enjoy your pet, and welcome again.
 
I can only echo what the other members have said.

None of mine ever soak in their water dishes and they drink mainly at night. I've been lucky to catch all of mine drinking, but then I have insomnia and I'm up at funny times of the night, which is when I've caught them drinking :)

When I first started keeping corns, I too used dark wood chip substrate and found it very hard to find their poop, but I did notice when cleaning, that there was dark smears along the edges of the tank at substrate level and I would sometimes find little white patches on some of the wood chips, which turned out to be the urates that they pass with their waste.

I'm sure when you go to clean the tank, you'll see these signs. Don't worry, as he gets bigger and you feed bigger prey items, the poop also gets bigger and you won't have any trouble finding it ;)

I personally would give him back the water dish that acts as a hide, as corns should have a minimum of 2 hides, at least one in the cooler end and at least one in the warmer end, unless you've given him something else to act as a hide in the cooler end already. All of mine seem to spend the majority of their time in their cooler hides, only really using the warm hides after feeding and during shed times :)

Hope that eases your worries and puts your mind at rest, it sound like your doing a pretty good job so far. Oh and welcome to the forum :)
 
Thank You for all the replies and putting my mind at ease, I had my daughters confirmation today so I never got a chance to clean BUT I will put the old water dish back He has another hide but it's hard to get him out of so we can hang out He is so COOL :cool:
 
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