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New owner

Hello,
I have just bought a albino cornsnake. I have some questions about what temp I should keep the tank at it's a 10 gallon. I have a tank mat and light above. My snake goes right for the bottom of the tank to hide. I don't want to burn my snake should I put the mat on the side of the tank or does it have to be on the bottom. I am up for any suggestions. Thank you for your help.
 
Do you have 2 hides for it and a water bowl big enough for the snake to take a quick swim? now the warm side of the tank should be anywhere around 80* and the cool side around 75* Thats all i know as im a newbie at keeping snakes myself =) ill leave the rest to the professionals on this site! :rolleyes:My opinion would be for you to put the heating pad on the bottom of the tank and taking out the heating lamp or taking out the heating pad and keeping the heating light your choice :)
 
Put the heating pad on the bottom, and if you're concerned about the snake burrowing directly on it, you can tape a doubled piece of paper towel over it to keep them off it. I then put substrate over that. It works really well, and it's cheap to replace if they soil it. You probably won't need the heat lamp. I only use it if I need to up the tank temps for something like a suspected respiratory infection or your room temps are so low that the tank is getting below 70.
 
it seems like a lite AND a uth are a little to mutch. almost all uth(under tank heaters) will burn the snake, alot of them get over 100 degrees. you should buy a dimmer and a digital thermomator for the uth and i dont think you need the lite. a dimmer is like one of those things you hook up to a lamp to make it dimmer and brighter, you can get them at wal-mart for about 5-10$ i got mine for about 8$ you can ge a digital therm for about 3-10$. i just put the probe for the thermomator right on top of the uth and keep it 75-82F.
 
Make sure you have a GOOD thermometer. Most use the "indoor/outdoor" ones because they have a probe that allows you to get the true surface temp. (you put the probe right on the substrate over the UTH) That is what really matters since they get most of their heat through their bellies. Give your snake lots of options. in a 10 gal, have at leas two hides, one hide on the warm and one on the cool sides (all heating devices should be on the same end of the viv).
Remember not to feed inside the viv, always in a separate container. This prevents problems due to ingestion of substrate and may or may not help 'train' the snake not to strike when you go to pick it up.
Hides should be relatively small and not too tall. They like enclosed spaces because it makes them feel secure.
Let it settle in to it's new home for AT THE VERY LEAST 4 days, preferably a week or a bit more before you handle, feed, or make too much of a commotion outside the tank. Then, you can start feeding every 4-6 days and, well, you have plenty of time to figure out where to go from there ;) .
Remember that temps should drop 5-10 degrees overnight and that corns are most active during dawn and dusk, so give it some time of partial light, don't just turn the lights off to pitch-black at night. Enjoy your new favorite pet and and the real experts will arrive soon ;)

Addition: The effectiveness of a UTH will be partially determined by the substrate you use as well. Lighter substrate means more trapped air, which means a better insulator leading to less heat getting to the top. A thicker layer of substrate will also decrease the effectiveness. As was mentioned, UTH's make the glass they are mounted on HOT, so put down either paper towels (the cheap way) or $5.00 fake grass mat directly on the glass, then pour the substrate over it. Because they are cold blooded, they can't tell if any single part of their body is too hot, they only know their overall temp. This means that a snake can give itself SERIOUS and possibly fatal skin burns if it has access to any extremely hot surface. This is unlikely with a UTH, but it is all too common with a heat lamp or with a "heat rock." so if you do use a lamp, hang it well above the top. Also. make sure your top is TOTALLY secure. I have 4 metal clips on mine that have a spring-action to hold the lid on tight. These animals can escape like anything. I would reccomend searching Google.com and this site for general corn snake care tips. If you want a single source of info. buy Cathy Love's book The Corn Snake Manual. About 50% of the sites about corns on the internet blatantly plagurize it and it dosen't have anything that you won't turn up after the weeks of research I did online before I bought my snake, but it is a good place to get all the basics from without any of the hastle.

Wow, with this being my longest post ever, I'm sure it is full of errors, but it's past midnight, so I am going to bed, others can fix the problems here. It dosen't look like you are around right now anyway.
 
I'm sure it is fine. I have some paper towels and then all my substrate because I am pretty obsessed with keeping Aluvia as safe as possible. I don't think it is likely to burn itself, especially with a dimmer on the UTH. The problem is not usually with a UTH, which distributes it's heat all around, the problem is a cold tank with one strong, but inefficient heat source.


BTW, I'm new to this too. My word is not infallible. If you see CAV, listen to him as you would listen to god (about snakes, not other stuff ;) ) he is very knowledgable. As I said, I am not that smart, I have had snakes for under a year, but I have been on this site and others long before I got my first snake.
I'm too tired, sorry if this isn't making much sense, I'll come back and edit it in the morning.

...zzz...zzzzzzzzz...........zzz.........
 
Azruial said:
I can't believe no one else has been here yet!

because your info is right on :*)

I"ve taped down a few sheets of newspaper over the glass above a UTH, altho a dimmer or thermostat really is the best way to control heat...also, tape can be dangerous to snakes, especially young ones who can easily tangle in it if an edge of the sticky side turns up...

Azruil said:
Happy Easter to anyone who celebrates it.

Happy Oester, Easter, Spring, whatever everyone may or may not be celebrating...
 
Thanks for your help, You answered alot of questions I had. If you think of any others let me know. I was wondering when should you change the size of the mice, and also where I could find that book you mentioned. Thanks again for your help.
 
Mouse size should be about 1.5 times the size of your snake's widest point. You know you should be moving up in size when you don't notice a bulge after feeding your snake. So when your pinkies are not leaving a bulge, get fuzzies. If you order fuzzies too early, you can always just feed the head and body separately, but it is really amazing how big their prey can be. If you have a choice, just try to get something 1.5 or a little bigger than the size of your snake at it's widest point.
Kathy Love's book is available from most reputable pet stores (PetCo should definitely have it) or from Amazon.com if you can't find it.

And, btw, you should (under normal circumstances) put the mouse in the feeding container, then WASH YOUR HANDS, and then put the snake in. Some people hand feed by dangling the mouse. This can help with a non-feeder, but it is generally unnecesary. If you put the mouse in after the snake, some people believe that the snake will learn that anything moving above them is food, and will, therefore, bite your hand every time you try to pick it up. Some people disagree, but I see no reason to push things.
 
A dimmer switch is not necessary for a UTH. A UTH will not get hot enough to actually burn your snake, but if in doubt just do what I do -- put a nice piece of slate or flat rock on top of the area where the UTH is located. The heat will radiate through the rock and provide a nice warm spot for the snake to lay as well as add to the warmth of the tank.

There is also nothing wrong with having a UTH and a basking light. Just move the basking light to one side from where the UTH is located and you will have another basking spot with a higher temperature for the snake to go. Just adjust the wattage of the bulb you use so the basking spot sits around 90 to 93 degrees.

The rock also acts as a good rubbing spot to work off that bothersome old skin. :eek1:
 
Bandit said:
A dimmer switch is not necessary for a UTH. A UTH will not get hot enough to actually burn your snake, but if in doubt just do what I do -- put a nice piece of slate or flat rock on top of the area where the UTH is located. The heat will radiate through the rock and provide a nice warm spot for the snake to lay as well as add to the warmth of the tank.

There is also nothing wrong with having a UTH and a basking light. Just move the basking light to one side from where the UTH is located and you will have another basking spot with a higher temperature for the snake to go. Just adjust the wattage of the bulb you use so the basking spot sits around 90 to 93 degrees.

The rock also acts as a good rubbing spot to work off that bothersome old skin. :eek1:


Yes, yes it most certainly can burn your snake. My UTH for my BP's gets to over 110 degrees. That is certainly capable of burning my corns if I were to use that on my corns, which I dont.

A UTH and a basking light in a 10 gallon is a bit much. Also, please dont give out bad advice regarding temps. If you move a light to the opposite (cool) side of the 10 gallon and crank the temps up to 90-93 degrees, you're either going to A) dehyrdate the snake, B) cook the snake, or C) stress it out so much it refuses to eat and then dies.

The temp should not get above 85 degrees on the warm side. North American colubrids are pretty temperate and do not need that high of a temperature to thrive, and actually do better at lower temps 75-85.
 
I agree, many UTHs get plenty hot enough to burn a snake if they are exposed to it directly, and 75-85 would be good base temps. Temperatures are not 100% set in stone, however. If your individual snake seems to always be trying to find the hottest spot or is consistently attempting to loose heat (observe over at least a week) then you can adjust temps slightly towards your snakes preference. Just keep a temperature gradient with a max of about 85-88. Also note that in a smaller viv, the gradient can't possibly be as drastic as in a larger one, so you have to be a bit more careful about the temps because your snake will have a harder time escaping extreme temps.

I would love an update on how he is doing, too. Do you have a digital camera? Maybe you could post pics :)
 
sXe_corn_sXe said:
all i have on the bottome of my tank is three layers of thick paper towls. isnt that ok?
It all depends how hot the glass is. I keep mine about an inch or so above the UTH so it doesn't get as warm as it would if I just stuck the UTH to the bottom of it. If you do that or have a dimmer on it, you can make sure it doesn't get hot enough to burn your snake. In which case, paper towels would be fine most likely.
 
I would guess that the reason why you never hear of a snake getting burned by a UTH is because the heat is dissipated into the substrate all around, so it would be uncomfortable for the snake to be that close to it. They would be surrounded by the heat. Burns happen with heat rocks when the heat is localized, so the snake's body is cold so it wraps around the sole heat source. This would not happen with a UTH.
 
if the UTH is stuck to the glass bottom of an aquarium, and there is a way for a snake to burrow under the substrate and lay on the hot glass, you will run the risk of it getting burned, as the glass gets HOT...Snakes also dont have the presense of mind to move instead of being cooked til death
 
Would one be able to tell wether the glass is too hot by touching it with your bare skin on the bottom of the tank? I mean, is snake skin more sensitive to heat then our own?
 
Yep, if you can stand it indefinitely then it should be fine for your snake to be directly on top of it. Generally, UTH's don't cause snake burns, especially if you have substrate that is more substantial than paper towels. Although the glass is very hot, a UTH will never be as dangerous as, say, a heat rock, because it is not a singular, localized hot spot, because the snake's body will warm up without actually toutching it.
I don't believe that a snake's skin is more sensative to heat than yours is. Their body temp. should be lower, but that has to do with enzymes and that stuff, but a snake knows what it's body temp. is, it just can't tell the temperature of what it is toutching as well as you can.
This may be hard to understand, especially since I can't explain things very well in text :shrugs: but the bottom-line answer to your question would be that you can test whether a surface is too hot for your snake by toutching it.
 
I have a webcam I will try to get a picture from it they don't always come out clear. How long does it take for corns to get use to you every time I handle him/her not sure what sex UV acts like he does not like to be touched. I let him get use to his home for four Days. And have been handling for two days. Today will be UV's first feed from me hope he feeds. Should I heat the tank that I feed him in and how long should I leave him in the tank after UV eats.
 
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