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Need general advice - I tell you what I'm doing and you tell me what I'm doing wrong

C

Cornelia

New member
I am going to start off with the back story:

I went to a reptile convention last weekend, and I ended up getting a hatchling cornsnake as a complete impulse buy. When I went I had no intentions of getting a snake, I had done no research about corn snakes, and I knew the bare minimum about keeping snakes in general. There was a table full of corn snake hatchlings with some amels that I thought were completely adorable and when I saw all of the amels selling out I panicked and bought the last one. The seller said that it was a female amel x gold dust (I know what amel means, but some explanation of the gold dust would be nice). She was on sale as an "out of the egg special" for $15 meaning she had not already eaten. I named her Cornelia the first day because I had been reading a book about ancient rome and the name seemed to suit her. I am not confident in the gender identification given so the name can be changed to Cornelius if needed. I carried her around in her little container at the expo for a few hours and then left for home.

On the way home I stopped at a pet store and bought a live pinky for her. The pinky was super new, it still had a gooey umbilical cord and some afterbirth on it. When I got home I put Cornelia in a critter keeper with some shredded newspaper to hide under and let her relax for an hour or two. Then I took the pinky out of the bag I had it in (the gooey parts had dried to the bag, it was really gross) and put it in the critter keeper in front of her face. She immediately put her face up to it and started smelling it and then eating it. She ate it very enthusiastically while my boyfriend and I watched. I was relieved after that, because while I was letting her settle I read about how hatchlings could be problem feeders, so I figured since she ate so fast even with us watching I would have no problem with that. She kept it down, and did not regurge or appear to have any problems digesting it. I put the critter keeper on top of a television that stays on all the time in out house. I arranged it so that one end of the container was on top of the tv and stayed at about 90 degrees, and the other end was on styrofoam and was about room temperature.

I tried to feed her again wednesday night, 4 days after first feed, in the critter keeper and she wouldn't take it. This pinky was not as newborn as the first one and might have been a good bit bigger, I couldn't really tell. I took it out and froze it, the next day I transferred her to one of those plastic shoeboxes so she could stretch all of the way out and roam around some if she wanted, with some tiny holes drilled in it and put several hides in there and put it on top of tv with the same temp arrangement as before. The next night, friday night, I thawed the pinky and heated it up with some warm water and brained it and put it in front of her hide and covered her container and left her alone all night, she did not eat. Yesterday I bought another pinky, the smallest one I could get, and put it in her container overnight. It was still uneaten this morning. It has been 8 days now since she ate, I am planning on waiting a while (5 days?) before I try again, and leaving her alone in the meantime. Advice on this plan would be appreciated. How long should she be able to go without eating before I get really worried if she has only had one meal?

I did buy a heating mat yesterday, but I don't have a thermostat so I'm wary of using it yet.

I also have a couple other questions:

How do I tell if my amel is about to shed? I'm assuming her eyes won't turn blue like the normals.

Would it be ok for me to move her into a new tank soon (10 or 20 gallons) if I find one soon, or have I been switching her around too much already?

How important is lighting? The room she is staying in has the lights off most of the time, could that cause problems?

I'm sure I'll think of more questions, if so I will just add them to the thread.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me out!
 
How do I tell if my amel is about to shed? I'm assuming her eyes won't turn blue like the normals.

Would it be ok for me to move her into a new tank soon (10 or 20 gallons) if I find one soon, or have I been switching her around too much already?

How important is lighting? The room she is staying in has the lights off most of the time, could that cause problems?

Amels still get a hazy look to them when they are in shed. I have one.

I think its best to leave him / her where it is for now. To much moving around can stress a baby out.

Just having my blinds open during the day seems enough for my snakes. I think as long as they get a normal day / night cycle like they would in the wild is good for them.

I wouldn't worry about him not eating. I had a hatchling last year hold out for a month before it finally ate its first pinkie.They don't usually eat before a shed cycle. I'm wondering if yours even shed before you bought it?

Just some thoughts. :)
 
Yeah I have no idea if she had shed or not, the container I bought her in said she was hatched 7/14 and I got her 7/30 so I think she should have.
 
The amels eyes get pinkish and hazy when they are about to shed and their colors fade a lot. If your snake is bright and beautiful one day and drab and plain the next, it is in ecdysis (shed). My amel also gets very flighty and doesn't like to be disturbed when he is in shed. They have a real hard time seeing and get very nervous of the huge monster that just picked them up if they can't identify it. :)

As for moving to a new tank, if you can get one soon I would go ahead and move it into its new home. Your going to be waiting about 5 to 7 days before trying to feed again (which btw is a good plan:)) anyway and that would give it enough time to get settled in to its new digs.

The blinds being open should be good enough for a day/night cycle. That is how my corn has gotten light for the last year almost and he isn't a problem anything (shed, feed, etc. :)).

Janome is right. Your new baby may be starting a shed cycle in which case it will probably refuse food until after it sheds. Once you find a shed try feeding again and see how it goes. :)

Another problem I saw in your post is the temps. Ninety is right at the top of the limits. Its not bad but you don't want to go any higher than that. Your snake would probably be more agreeable with 80 to 85 degrees on the hot side and room temp (70 to 75) on the cold side. I wouldn't go much below 70 either. This will probably help your snakes attitude (even though you haven't mentioned any problem with this) and feeding response. :D
 
Ok thanks grankin01! I'll work on getting the right temps established asap. My girl has no attitude problems, she is a little nervous but she has never tried to strike at me or even looked like she wanted to. She is a little nervous, but I've only held her a few times and I doubt she was ever handled before I got her besides when she was transferred from one container to another.
 
I wouldn't exactly call myself an expert with corn snakes but i know enough of them to know the proper care. It makes no difference what size tank you have your hatchling in as long as it's 5 gallons or more. Make sure that it has at least two hides (One on the hot side and one on the cool side).

With hatchlings, you usually feed them every 5-6 days however they can go up to 3 weeks without needing to feed. If your corn doesn't want to eat then don't worry, just try again the next day. Keeping a schedule of the corn's feeding times will make things far more easier.

With corns, when they first start to shed, you see that their colors starts to fade a little and the corn's eyes start to layer out with milky color over it. By then, the snake will be unlikely interested in feeding. It usually goes about 4 days for a successful shed to be completed.

Other then the shed, it's usually best to give your corn snake a few days to adjust to it's new home before actually handling it or trying to feed it, but since you already did, you can just give the corn a few days of alone time.

If you intend to get a new cage, i'd go ahead and put the corn in that instead of keeping it in the cage it is now. Another thing, a corn is comfortable with temperatures between 80-88C. When using a heating mat, i'd definitely get a digital thermostat to control it as well as a digital thermometer to keep an eye on temperatures.

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28341

That page is nearly all you need to know about raising your corn snake. I wouldn't worry so much about what gender your snake is until it gets older. You can get it probed by an experienced exotic vet who can tell you.
 
Cornelia said:
I did buy a heating mat yesterday, but I don't have a thermostat so I'm wary of using it yet.

I also have a couple other questions:

How do I tell if my amel is about to shed? I'm assuming her eyes won't turn blue like the normals.

Would it be ok for me to move her into a new tank soon (10 or 20 gallons) if I find one soon, or have I been switching her around too much already?

How important is lighting? The room she is staying in has the lights off most of the time, could that cause problems?

I'm sure I'll think of more questions, if so I will just add them to the thread.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me out!
Click to expand...

When you install the heat mat, make sure it's under the cage and on either the left or right side, never in the middle. Also make sure that the tank isn't sitting flat on the mat. Slide a few bottle caps under it maybe? Just so it's raised by an inch so the mat will not overheat. Also make sure that there is a themostat controlling the heating mat as without one, it can get up to temperatures around 115F. Never use a mat without one.

With sheds, it's pretty easy to figure out that a corn is starting one as their eyes will be glazed over with a milky color and their scale colors will fade a bit.

If you have a new cage, go ahead and put the corn in it. It won't cause any harm or anything. Just make sure that it has at least two places to hide. You can even have a few more hides depending on how big the new cage is in. After moving it into the new cage, give it at least a week before trying to feed or picking it up.

With lighting, it doesn't make a real difference. As long as it isn't directly on the snake, natural lighting would be fine.
 
Offering her food every day is probably scaring her. You should offer her food every 5-7 days. If she doesn't eat wait until the next feeding day.
When my amel hatchlings are about to shed they get really white in color, almost looking like snows.
 
UPDATE:

I left her completely alone since my first post except for changing her water and checking occasionally to make sure she is still in her cage because I'm paranoid about her getting out. Today I bought a pinky and put her in a paper bag with it , rolled the top closed and put it back in her tank. Went back to check an hour later, and the pinky was gone and she had a big lump in her middle. Thanks for everyone who gave me advice! I also got a heating mat for her and am keeping the temps right in there. Still no signs of shedding so I guess I'll be looking out for that for the next few weeks.
 
woo hoo! I'm glad that she ate :)
I understand being paranoid, especially if using an aquarium. I lost one like that once o.o
 
Just make sure to feed frozen/thawed or freshly killed for her safety and the sake of the feeder animal. :) Everything else has been covered, I think.
 
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