• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

New to the forums and to snakes

jrobinson

jrobinson

J&M Herp Shack
im a soon to be cornsnake owner....plan on getting a 10 gallon for now, as it will be a hatchling from our local monthly show here in indiana. Right now i keep 1.1.0 bearded dragons 1.1.0 leopard geckos and 0.0.1 mali uromastyx, so i am by NO means new to reptiles but this would be my first snake...so i just need all the basics, i dont normally like to read alot of care sheets, cuz it turns into opinions, and if i get advise from you all it will be from experience...so im a newby, and i wanna get everything right before i get my snake, so please help. Substrates, temps, photo periods, feeding, maintenance, and like i mentioned please dont just post a bunch of care sheets cuz i have prob already read them, i would live read experience and advice, thanx in advance..
 
Congrats on the First snake, and Welcome to the forum.

jrobinson said:
im a soon to be cornsnake owner....plan on getting a 10 gallon for now, as it will be a hatchling from our local monthly show here in indiana. Right now i keep 1.1.0 bearded dragons 1.1.0 leopard geckos and 0.0.1 mali uromastyx, so i am by NO means new to reptiles but this would be my first snake...so i just need all the basics, i dont normally like to read alot of care sheets, cuz it turns into opinions, and if i get advise from you all it will be from experience...so im a newby, and i wanna get everything right before i get my snake, so please help. Substrates, temps, photo periods, feeding, maintenance, and like i mentioned please dont just post a bunch of care sheets cuz i have prob already read them, i would live read experience and advice, thanx in advance..
Click to expand...

The best and fastest way for you to get your info would be to do a search on your questions. but I will answer most of them for you here.

Substrate: Aspen, repti bark, Pretty much anything else except pine or cedar.
Temps: Cold side about 75 to 80 and warm side 80 to 85. All in degrees F
Photo period: Day and night cycle is fine. usually 8 to 9 hours light and the rest dark.
Feeding: hatchlings and yearlings should be fed about ever 5 to 7 days on approiate sized mice (pinks, fuzzies, and hoppers). Adults (2 years and older) every 10 to 14 days (adult sized mice and rat pups)
Maintenance: Spot clean every day. Change water dish ever couple of days. Use non-chlorinated water (let tap water sit for 24 hours to de-chlorinate). Clean entire VIV every 2 to 3 months with a 10% bleach solution, and then rinse with mild soap and water. Boil or bake tree limbs and rocks every couple of weeks to inhibit bacteria and mold growth. Have plenty of hides on both warm and cool side of VIV.

I think that covers the biggest areas. If you have specific questions not answered here, post them and we will answer. Good luck.
 
what should i use for heat, a basking lamp or just a uth? i have read mixed opinions about this. thanx...
 
that is completely up to you. a UTH works great for belly heat, but becareful that it doesn't get too hot. A Basking lamp will help to heat up the ambient air temp. however, this can dry out the viv. I would suggest using a Ceramic heat bulb (Doesn't put out light) and a thermally controlled UTH. Make sure that you have good Digital Thermometers for ambient air temp, and a probe stuck on the bottom of the tank for belly temp.
 
Wow Paul, is that level of cleaning REALLY neccessary??

jrobinson: It depends on how warm the room your snake is housed in is. 70-75 on the cool side is fine (so long as it doesn't drop below that) and 10 degrees warmer on the warm.

My place is cold, so I use both, but at night I use a 40 watt red bulb... basically just to maintain the air temps. I might have to check them again though... this week he hasn't left the warm side, and that's unusual for him (he's usually always on the cool).
 
spirit said:
Wow Paul, is that level of cleaning REALLY neccessary??
Click to expand...

What level? the part of completely cleaning with bleach solution every 2 to 3 months? or the boiling of the logs and hides and such? I say couple of weeks loosly...I usually do it every 4 weeks or so.
 
pcar said:
What level? the part of completely cleaning with bleach solution every 2 to 3 months? or the boiling of the logs and hides and such? I say couple of weeks loosly...I usually do it every 4 weeks or so.
Click to expand...

Boiling/baking the wood/rocks every couple weeks.
 
I guess that it depends on a lot of things. Here in TX, it gets very humid in the summer...Thus the VIV's stay very humid. The more humidity in the air, the higher the likelyhood of mold and mildew growing. So, I have to be very careful with the wood/rocks in my viv.
 
is a uvb light benificial at all? and if i use a heat emitter, is it okay to have no light at all in there, just be dark or what?
 
jrobinson said:
is a uvb light benificial at all? and if i use a heat emitter, is it okay to have no light at all in there, just be dark or what?
Click to expand...

UVA and UVB are not necessarily needed. I did have one on one of my tanks and didn't notice any ill effects. right now I have a light on only one of my snakes. and that is because she is in a tank where the only heat source is the light. the rest of my snakes are in containers with UTH's only and are doing just fine. Most tanks that you buy or are going to use are transparent. This means that if the room that they are in has ambient light, then they will have a photo period set to the ambient light in the room. this is one of the methods that I employ and again, haven't seen any problems with it yet.
 
pcar has it spot on for my rutine is very similar. As to heating lighting i would recomend a primary heat source from a UTH & use a bulb to aid the ambiant temp and not dry up the tank of the humitity, something like a ceramic heat bulb would be beificail if on part of the time (i have mine on from 9am to 11 pm) and the UTH on 24/7 thermastacily controled.
 
I use heat lamp on one end and a mat under the other. My snake is always happy, which makes me happy.
Does any one have a opinion on heat rocks? I have always advised against them due to danger of the snake getting burned, am i wrong?
 
Don't use heat rocks as they get to hot for a snake and can cause serious burns. A snake will curl round them and instantly get a slight burn that will leave a scar, so my advice would be don't even think about one for use with snakes.
 
okay, so i plan to keep him in a 10 gallon, atleast until he is about 18", does this sound okay? i am more concerned with how the tank is setup and heated more than anything. i would like to have it bright in the tank so i could see him, but is it true that corns like to be in the dark? should i not use a normal white basking bulb, and just go with the uth, should i use both, should i use night lamps (blue, red), or what, i just wanna make sure i get this right. :shrugs:
 
Corns are nocternal animals. If you are going to use a white basking lamp, then only leave it on during the day. However, if you use a RED lamp, then you can leave it on night and day without problems. I would put the UTH on one side of the viv, and place the lamp slightly offset from the UTH on the same side. however, with a 10 gallon, you will need to be careful as both of these can cause the tank to over heat pretty quickly, so make sure that you have good thermometers.
 
so on a ten gallon...what if i get a undersized uth for like a 5 gallon (so it will be a little cooler) and then use low wattage basking lamp of night lamp? as long as the temps dont get over about 90 will it work this way....this is kinda like i have my leos setup.
 
that would work, but you don't really want your temps to get much above 85 to 87 degrees.
 
okay....thanks pcar....you all have been lots of help. now for the feeders...so even a hatchling can take down a pinkie, seems a little big to me...do they eat anything besides mice/rats? any commercial foods good for them? and as far as the humidity goes, could i put the water bowl in the middle or towards the warm side to aid it keeping the humidity up, with replacing the water bowl daily, this should be okay right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top