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Newbie Q's - setting up house

Leonore

Leonore

snake momma
Hi Everyone,

This is my first real post! As I mentioned in my intro, I've been lurking for a couple days, so forgive me if these are some repeat questions. I made my best attempt at searches.

My local pet store guys seem pretty knowledgeable about snakes, but I still like to get product information from someone other than the seller!

My first set of questions have to do with housing and proper heating...

Many are recommending that we start a baby corn in a Medium Kritter Kage. (Yes?) What is the best heating source for that and will that same heating source be big enough to use when we move to a 10 or 20 gal.?
How long can I expect to use that Med. Kritter Kage before the corn outgrows it?

I was thinking of placing the Kritter Kage or viv on an old dresser that is about counter-height in our office/den. It is maple with some sort of varnish (? - I dunno, it's kinda shiny, so I assume so)... is that ok with an under tank heat source or should I provide some sort of buffer? If so, how? towel? another material? space/air (tank on blocks)? Or find another location?

I think that's it for now. Thanks!
 
I would recommend just starting off with the 10 gallon tank to begin with. That's just one less thing to buy in the long run, and the UTH you use for the 10gal should be big enough when you move to a 20, but you might want to bump it up a little more. Which type of Kritter Kage are you talking about? There's several different ones, and I'd like to make sure I'm making the right recommendations.
As far as the dresser goes, you're definitely going to want to put some sort of buffer between the tank and the dresser, unless you don't mind it getting scratched all to heck. I don't see any issues as far as the UTH and the dresser go.
 
I would just go with a 10 or 20 to begin with. I have several glass tanks with UTHs on wooden furniture, with no buffer other than the little rubber feet that come with the UTH. ExoTerra has much nicer "feet" than ZooMed.
 
You can buy a UTH that will generously fit on a 10 or 20gl and just place the kritter kage on as much UTH as you need (just don't remove the tape yet).

Usually I use my better judgement to determine whether or not a corn should be upgraded or not. Most of the time it'll be obvious when a corn needs to be moved, but there is no harm putting your baby corn right into a 10g or 20g tank right away if you wanted to... You would just need to add a little more hides for the snake.

If you plan on placing the snake ontop of your dresser, you could use a towel as a spacer, I believe.

Good luck! :D
 
Hi Leonore
There are no real hard and fast rules here. One rule of thumb I have heard is that the snake’s length should be about the width of the cage plus the length of the cage. That was hard to say did it make sense? W + L = snake length. That is just a real general guideline.

Your snake is probably around 10 or 12 inches long now. It will take it a year or so to get to 2’ long. By age 3 it will probably be around 3’ long. Again real general. People will jump in here and correct me with centimeters but it’s still just general.

Get a small under tank heater now with the idea that you will need a bigger one somewhere down the road. They should not get hot enough to burn your wooden top but may discolor the finish. It would probably be wise to put some kind of a buffer between the heater and the wood.

Good luck with your snake. Have fun with it. Don’t over worry it.
 
WOW three people responded in the time it took me to type that. I've gotta get on the ball.
 
The nice thing about starting with a ten gallon is there are several snakes (or lizards) that would happily live in a ten gallon for life, after your baby outgrows it.
 
Male tri-color hoggy is what I have in mine. He's about 250 grams, full grown. I _had_ a male rosy boa for the other one, but then he had a sex change, and will now get much larger.
 
The nice thing about starting with a ten gallon is there are several snakes (or lizards) that would happily live in a ten gallon for life, after your baby outgrows it.
Click to expand...

Also, you can use it as a feeding tank for the rest of the Corn's life.
 
Thanks everyone for the quick replies. I think I'll skip that Kritter Kage... while I don't mind spending an extra 15 bucks to do the best thing for my corn, I think that advice was coming from breeders who have extra equipment to shift around.

I probably will be over-thinking a lot of things in the coming weeks. Thanks for your patience!
 
This was a frivolous comment that I have chosen to delete.
 
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thanks for the heads up, Wade. I'll certainly keep that in mind as I tackle more serious issues.

I haven't actually taken any advice yet - I still don't have the corn.
I'm trying to gather as much info as possible... I think the books give a great set of basics but leave out a few details; perhaps because they don't matter *too* much (ie: keeping the baby in a smaller tank vs going right to a bigger viv with more hides).
But it is nice to hear opinions and see what people are doing out there. I don't know any other snake owners personally, so this seems like a good place to connect to people.

My concern with the furniture is burning... having never owned a tank that needed a heater under it, I don't know if one side is hotter than the other. It seems that 85 degrees or so is too hot to constantly leave directly on a word surface. It's nice to know that someone else has tackled this minor logistical issue before.

Thanks again, everyone!
 
Under good conditions, wood will burn at 450 degrees. That would be for paper with lots of oxygen. The top of the dresser is going to require maybe 1000*. You’re going to be ok at 85.

I would just like to be the first to say that I love your Avatar and that I find you to be a very attractive woman. So…Tell us about yourself. Are you married? Do you like short fat bald guys from Utah?
 
LOL, you're right. I'm in the North, so after a long winter, 85 degrees sounds so hot to me! :bang:

Thanks for the compliment. see my intro. Married w/3 kiddos. Hopefully, I'll have an even better photo of a cornsnake soon!

Utah is lovely! Lucky you!
 
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