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Total Newbie feeding/heating question

D

Duke and Daniel

New member
We are very new to owning a corn snake. We bought an adult albino from a family that no longer wanted it. It is about 40" long. They fed him the day we got him - about 10 days ago. They told us to wait 10 days to feed him. We are getting ready to feed and have several questions. Please forgive the nature of these newbie questions! We just want to make sure we are doing it right!

1.) they gave us a small feeding bin. Do we put the snake in first and then drop in the mice? or do we put the mice in first and then the snake?

2.) they gave us about 30 small furry frozen mice. I would guess they are the 8 to 9 day old mice. She said that she fed him five of them. Does that sound about right?

3.) they maintained the temperature with lights only. From what I am reading, an under tank heater sounds like a better option. I find that his tank gets too hot (90 degrees) during the day and the cold side never goes below 72.

We would appreciate any advice!
 
You have come to the right place!

I'm fairly new, but the Uth is the best option. However, a thermostat is also needed to keep the pad from getting too hot.

I'm not sure on the food. 5 seems like a lot to me, but I'm not feeding fuzzier yet. My girls are still on pinks.

Check out the Munson feeding guide. It's based on weight of the snake.

If snake is that long, I would assume you would at least be up to hoppers.
 
Those are probably too small for the snake - rule of thumb is the width of the food item is 1-1.5x the width of the snake at its widest point. Sounds like they had too many of the smaller ones already on hand and were trying to use them up. Probably no harm in using up the supply on hand, but I'd definitely move up to a bigger size once you run out of the fuzzies.
 
Duke and Daniel said:
We are very new to owning a corn snake. We bought an adult albino from a family that no longer wanted it. It is about 40" long. They fed him the day we got him - about 10 days ago. They told us to wait 10 days to feed him. We are getting ready to feed and have several questions. Please forgive the nature of these newbie questions! We just want to make sure we are doing it right!
Click to expand...
Yay for questions!
1.) they gave us a small feeding bin. Do we put the snake in first and then drop in the mice? or do we put the mice in first and then the snake?
Click to expand...
Either way will probably work with him since he's older. If you have the snake in first, and then put the food in, be sure to use tongs or tweezers or something. Not knowing his feeding habits could result in an accident bite if he has a good strike response.
2.) they gave us about 30 small furry frozen mice. I would guess they are the 8 to 9 day old mice. She said that she fed him five of them. Does that sound about right?
Click to expand...
As someone else said, fuzzies are probably too small for him. I'd suggest getting a good look at his body, about 1/3-1/2 down and eyeballing his girthiest section. Then heading to your local pet store and picking up something appropriate sized. Usually you'll want to feed the snake something that is 1 to 1.5 times the diameter of the thickest part of the snake (other than the head). There's really no reason to be feeding a snake 5 of anything.
3.) they maintained the temperature with lights only. From what I am reading, an under tank heater sounds like a better option. I find that his tank gets too hot (90 degrees) during the day and the cold side never goes below 72.
Click to expand...
The popular consensus would be that an under tank heater is the better heating option. Either option is valid, the important part is proper temperatures. You'll want the ground temperature (the top of the substrate) to be about 82-85F on the warm side, and whatever on the cool side. If you use an under tank heater then you'll want to make sure the actual flooring of the enclosure (the glass, pvc, wood, etc.) doesn't get too hot, and that's usually the area most keepers will regulate temp from. A thermostat is gonna be required to regulate the warm side temps, otherwise it will more than likely get too warm or dangerously hot. A cheap lamp dimmer and thermometer can be used temporarily but not recommended as a permanent solution because dimmer switches are notorious for going out, especially under a constant load.

Thanks for taking the time to ask your questions, better answered and sure than potentially making any false assumptions.
 
Thank you all for your responses! We fed Duke tonight and it was a success! Such an awesome animal! We are definitely going to get the next size up for his next feeding. I can't tell you how much I appreciate being able to come to this forum and ask newbie questions!
I know I will have more questions as I am going to work on his heating and humidity now. I just don't think the current set up is the best for him.

Again, THANKS!
 
I deliver in Gaithersburg for work all the time lol welcome to CS...All good advice from Nythain :)
 
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