Preparing myself for a corn

[Gnauty]

Hey there,

Thought I'd say hi and possibly drop a few questions here in the new member forum. I've been lurking for about a day now. Joined up thanks to Bapkate, who linked me to this site because of a recent post I made to a herp community on LiveJournal.

I do not yet have a corn snake. I'm a paranoid pet owner who seems to attract special needs animals, so I do research ad nauseam. I was reviewing some of the issues in the Health Issues/Feeding Problems forum to learn how to avoid and handle these sorts of things before they happen (god forbid).

Right now I just have a cat (Acajou) with crazy digestive problems that I've overcome. Or at least have learned to prevent/avoid.
My most recent herp was my brother's neglected beardie who had a neurologic disorder (which I hear can be common in pet shop purchases). He ended up in my care and I loved the little bugger until his premature death.

Click to see Thorne (I miss him every day)
​

Not sure if this is the proper place to ask, but I do have a few questions.
I adore the bright colors of the Amels. I think striped amels are starting to win a place in my heart, but any of the red/white morphs (including bloodreds) seem to be my current favs.
I hear the candy cane tend to gain an orangey okeetee-ish color as they age instead of the clean red/white they show as babies. I've been pursuing many a morph site, but most are lacking pictures of the adults.

Oh, and any snake that finds its way to me will be Pet Only, so I'm still contemplating taking in an unwanted adult. Like one proven to be Het for the Stargazer gene.
Right now I'm just reviewing all of my possible options. I have plenty of time to make my final decisions.

 

[bitsy]

Welcome!

Candy Canes are selectively bred Amels and should have bright orange or red saddles on a clean white background.

The problem with Amels is that the yellow pigment tends to develop gradually over the first months/years of life. A hatchling that starts out with a pure white background colour can gradually develop more of a yellow/orange shade to it over time. I'd say if you have your heart set on a Candy Cane, then buying an adult will give you the best chance of owning a snake that will keep the colours that you see. Otherwise, if you can check out the parents they should give an indicator of the "final" colour scheme of their offspring, although there are no absolute guarantees.

Welcome to the most addictive hobby on the planet!

 

[bapkate]

Hello again!

You're definitely in the right place if you're researching how to care for a corn snake!

I'm sorry to hear about your beardie , it's never easy to lose a pet, especially one you worked so hard to care for. Glad to hear you kitty's doing well though!

A agree looking at the parents is the most reliable way to predict what a baby candy corn is going to look like as an adult. I'm sure there's at least one breeder here who's worked on a good looking line of them.

Good luck!

 

[liam_09]

I have recently brought a Creamsicle corn snake and it is just a wonderful snake. He is beutiful and has got red eyes and yellow and red skin. They are highly recomended from me. Most snakes wont get ill unless their habbitat isn't set up properly or the owner is doing something wrong. The main thing you want to focus on is to try to keep their stress levels as low as possible. You can do this by minimal amount of handling and keeping their tempreture right. If your snake doesn't eat at first don't force it, it might be shedding so just leave it a couple of days and come back to it because it you force feed them they can become stressed.

good luck

 

[Stars]

If you like reds/whites, I would check out:

Sunglows (selectively bred very bright amels)
Fires (amel x bloodred, one of the brightest morphs)
Blizzards/avalanche/whiteout (pure white snakes most of the time, bright white)
Opal (lavender, which is a purple gene - crossed with amel. the resulting opal is a mostly white snake with purple/pink undertones)

 

[jlindp]

If you're looking for some adult pictures of Candy Canes, here are a few:

I'm sure you will find the perfect new addition to your family. Good luck! And welcome to the forum!

 

[Gnauty]

Thanks everyone! There is so much information here. Answers for every question I could ever ask seem to be everywhere!

Thanks for the pictures Jlindp! Those are some gorgeous Candy Canes!

I seem to have screwed up my image link earlier:
Thorne

 

[Asbit]

Welcome...sorry to hear about Thorne he was a looker! This is the best place you could have come to for friendship, help and knowledge on corn snakes(sometimes other snakes as well, many here own more than one type of snake).

Just so you know; creamsicles and jungle corns are hybrid corn snakes, they have been crossed with other snakes. Creamsicle is a corn snake x rat snake and a jungle corn is a corn snake x king snake. Both are nice snakes. Just thought I would mention it as some people are particular and only want a pure corn and others are fine with hybrids.

 

[Tavia]

Welcome! These sites have pictures of quite a few adults. www.cornsnakes.net www.vmsherp.com http://iansvivarium.com/cornmorphs.php
Hopefully those all work!

 

[Lennycorn]

From what I understand, corns are pretty easy to care for compare to other snakes.

If you can...try to check out a reptile show nearby and or look here for breeders and their sites for different morphs and such. Keep this in the back of you mind... one day you might want to breed your snake. What are you going to match it up with???.

Have fun!!!!!

 

[robeyeshua]

welcome aboard - candy canes - baby!!!!

attached a few pictures of our new candy cane - cc - named after the mlb pitcher who just led the yanks to a world series title - came from south mountain - can not go wrong there