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Starting-out Questions

Sabrina

Sabrina

New member
Hi! As you might have guessed I am new to the site and new to corn snakes. I am planning on getting one soon, but I have a couple questions. Maybe you pros can give me some insight!

1. I live in Canada and it gets cold in my town - if I have an UTH, do I need a heat lamp? What about a fluorescent light? If I have a heat lamp do I need one of those? Or should I get the light and not the lamp? Ahhh! :shrugs:

2. If I start my hatchling in a 5 g tank, do I try to find a teeny UTH to fit that? Starting a hatchling in a small tank means I need to upgrade EVERYTHING as it grows - $$$. Should I just start it in a 20 g then?

3. If the sun is shining in the tank through the window while I am at work, how am I going to make sure my snake doesn't get too hot?

4. Anyone know of breeders who will ship to Western Canada?

Any help/tips/advice/things-you-wish-you-had-known-when-you-started-out that you would like to share are appreciated! :)

- Sabrina
 
I personally don't recommend a heat lamp, tends to dry things out to much, but it you can keep the heat up to par you might haven to use it.

Hatchlings feel more secure in a smaller incloser. But like you state you will have to move up to a 20 L in a year or so . So if you want to get the larger on how just make sure you have plenty of hide for the little guy to help reduce the stress .

I don't recommend putting the tank near a window for that reason. You have to move the tank to a better location.

There are some breeders who do but I can't remember right now . Sorry!

Tips.........Well, here's a link to read.



Husbandry and such
1. http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28341
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28342
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17224
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sh...?p=133428#post6
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28343

Diseases and health
http://www.herpvetconnection.com/
http://www.reptilia.org/News/salmonella.htm
http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio...rypto.htm#trans
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sh...ighlight=nix*
http://coloherp.org/cb-news/Vol-28/...SnakeMites.html
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sh...ight=jello+butt

Free Herp Software
http://www.serpwidgets.com/Apps/apps.html
http://www.proherp.com/
http://www.cornsnakes.nl/

Setup
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/t.../bltanksize.htm
http://www.mgreptiles.com/VIROSAN.html
http://www.anapsid.org/blacklight.html
http://arbreptiles.com/cages/flexwire.shtml
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19168
http://www.finegtps.com/cageplans.h...nd Cut List

Miscellaneous
http://www.alysion.org/euthanasia/
http://www.moreptiles.com/cornsnake-lifecycle.htm
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sh...17&page=1&pp=10
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sh...17&page=1&pp=10

Cohabitation
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17308
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31192

On-line frozen mice suppliers
http://www.themousefactory.com/
http://cajunmice.com/
http://www.rodentpro.com/index.asp
http://www.bigcheeserodents.com/htt...m/htm/mice.html
http://peticebox.com/
http://www.exotic-pets.co.uk/frozen-mice.html for the UK

Good Luck to you :cheers:
 
1. Lights arnt needed, but they do make a nice enclosure. What kind of heat you have depends on what you want and how hard it is to keep the enclosure warm, if the under tank heater isnt warming it up enough then you can add the overhead. A good thermometer is needed.

2. You dont need a tiny under tank heater, what many do is get the 20 gallon heater and only put it halfway under the tank. They also make 10 gallon heaters if you want to start it off in a 10 gallon instead. Keeping it in a 20 gallon as a baby is going to make more work for you because it has to be really filled with branches and cover to make the little baby feel safe (which is why its recommended to start smaller).

3. Find a different spot for the tank, or block the sun out.

Go through old threads on here, it will arm you with a ton of information.
 
HI and welcome, Today I priced a 5 and a 10gal and the differance was $5.00. Before you buy a 5 gal I would compare prices. I had a 5 for a while and I found it hard to regulate heat, light or UTH. good luck, susan
 
Generally I find that UTH's get too hot rather than not hot enough. Unless you keep your house at sub-arctic temperatures, the UTH should be enough. Make sure you get a digital thermometer with a probe and place the probe directly on the glass over the UTH. This is where you want to measure your temps, rather than half way up the side of the tank. I'd also recommend you get some sort of regulating device, such as a thermostat or lamp dimmer.

Lights are not necessary, but I use fluorescent lights so I can see my snakes.

I'd just start in a full size tank. It is not really necessary to start a hatchling in a small tank. After all, wild snakes are not limited to a 20" x 12" space. You will need a minimum of two hides anyway, one for the warm side and one for the cool side. It's not that much more effort to put a few more in there.

Do not put the tank directly in front of the window. There is no way, other than keeping the shade drawn all the time, to keep it from getting too hot.

There are some members here from Canada. They can probably help you better with the last question.

Good luck, and I commend you for researching before getting the snake. Too many people fail to do that, and their snake is the one who suffers for it.
 
Thanks to everyone! Maybe I will shoot for a 10g - middle of the road. I can supply a bit more cover and it will give my snake more time to grow before I have to move up. The 10/20 g UTH will be fine then. I read a post with an idea I liked that said to attach the UTH to a piece of glass from a picture frame so that it can be moved to a new tank with greater ease.
Speaking of UTHs, should I still put a layer of newspaper over the glass it is under if I have an appropriate depth of aspen shavings?

And yeah, keep me posted on breeders in Canada. :) I know of one (breedingcolours.com) so that is a start!

Thanks everyone!
 
Don't depend on newspaper to prevent the corn from coming into contact with the glass. They can and will burrow underneath eventually. A themostat or rheostat will keep the temps in a safe range. I use plug in lamp dimmers that I find at my local Wal-Mart.
 
BeckyG said:
Don't depend on newspaper to prevent the corn from coming into contact with the glass. They can and will burrow underneath eventually. A themostat or rheostat will keep the temps in a safe range. I use plug in lamp dimmers that I find at my local Wal-Mart.
Click to expand...
Good idea about the lamp dimmers! At the pet store the temp controls that you can plug a UTH into are like, $60! Bleah!
 
Welcome to the site!!!!!!!! There is a lot of information here. Be sure to read the FAQ section in the forums. They answer a lot of questions.
There are a lot of great people here. Everybody is always willing to help.
 
Penman, You must use this same exact quote on every new member. Nothing wrong with it of course, but I look forward to reading it under every new members thread. Must be 500 of the 535 posts. Haha.
 
CMatt2157 said:
Penman, You must use this same exact quote on every new member. Nothing wrong with it of course, but I look forward to reading it under every new members thread. Must be 500 of the 535 posts. Haha.
Click to expand...
I do becuse it is the best advice. I just have to work in something about the search feature now. :grin01:
 
Thanks! And I am just excited to say that today I started BUYING stuff to start setting things up! I'm really going through with this! Yay!
 
CMatt2157 said:
Penman, You must use this same exact quote on every new member.
Click to expand...
There may have been a few extra exclamation points in this one, which is certainly understandable.
Welcome to the forums, Sabrina :cheers:
 
i think that you should look on ebay for a thermostat i bought mine for about £7 i think which is like $14-$15 ebay is the way my friend
 
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