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Wondering if I could be doing anything better...

Rigby & Marcy

Rigby & Marcy

New member
Hi, I've had two corn snakes for just over two weeks and things seem to be going well but I thought I'd describe what we're doing and see if any of it is out to lunch.

Both snakes are 1.5 years old and just shy of 30 inches. They are friendly and like to be handled. Rigby is a coral snow and Marceline is an anery. I feed them one pinky rat each, every 6 days, in the sink. They eat well, almost immediately. This was recommended by the previous owner. I see everyone talking about mice, but a pinky rat seems to be the right size so...?

The previous owner had several reptiles and I think he gave me sort of random equipment that is not necessarily suitable. They came with two vivs each 20x10x12, two over tank heaters that look like lights but are heat only, a 50 gallon viv, and an under tank heat pad. I'm not putting them together so I have pushed the two small vivs together and placed the large UTH pad overlapping between them. Then a heat lamp above over the middle. I have a thermometer on the floor beside the warm hide in one and it always registers 80-83 range. I realize this is not super accurate but both snakes use their warm and cool hides and seem content.

Rigby shed last week and it was successful except he had a couple of scales on his back I had to sponge off. He has not pooped that I know of since I got them. His body is not distended but he has a bit of a bulge before his vent. I have been reading that this isn't an issue but I'm a bit worried anyway. Marceline eats and poops nicely. She got the couch and my daughter tonight.

I'm also wondering if they need bigger vivs and I should buy all new equipment. I read somewhere that the snake's length should approximately equal the front and one side of the viv, which would be right on in our case, but the vivs seem so small I can barely fit all the stuff they need inside. Can anyone recommend the ideal setup for snakes this size?

Thanks for reading and sorry for the novel...

Jilly
 
Hello. So, those sound like 20 gallon tanks, which should be fine for a while yet. You're not housing them together, so that's good. I don't trust your method of temperature control, however. Ideally, you'd have a probe (from a thermometer) directly on the glass over the UTH; that way you know the hottest temperature that your snakes can touch. UTH's need to be regulated with a thermostat, so that the UTH can't get too hot for the snake. I use an indoor/outdoor thermometer from Walmart and a hydrofarm thermostat, which run about $30 on Amazon. If you want specific instruction on setting any of that up, just say so. http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTP...UTF8&qid=1371688994&sr=8-1&keywords=hydrofarm

As far as feeding goes. I say you're doing fine. Many people here will insist that you use mice due to higher fat content in rats. I had a lengthy conversation with a herp vet, very respected, who has kept and bred corns and other snakes for 25+ years, and he told me that it really doesn't matter which rodent you feed your snakes. He gave me very specific scientific reasons why the two rodents are basically a "push," health-wise, but he was talking so far above my level of comprehension that I couldn't re-explain what he said if I was paid to :).

The best advice I can give is to not take ANYBODY'S advice as gospel. Everybody's an "expert" out there. Do Your research and make the best decision you can based on the information you have. Good luck.
 
Thanks for replying Joba. That thermostat looks totally do-able. What size of heat mat would be best for a 20 gallon? I'm glad their vivs aren't too small. I've been a fish keeper for years and I automatically think bigger.
 
I don't know the exact size, but it should cover about 1/3 of the bottom of the tank (doesn't have to be wall-to-wall). I personally think that each UTH should have a thermostat. Some people may be successful plugging two UTH's into a splitter and then plugging the splitter into the thermostat. But if you do that, I'd really make sure to have an independent thermometer in each tank to make sure both UTH's are maintaining the same temp (I do that anyway, because I don't trust the probe on the thermostat; paranoid? ME? Noooooo). I had one thermostat (Zilla, I think) that was designed to split and run two UTH's and it didn't do a good job at all. The two tanks were wildly different temps. Temps are very important to the snake, so just keep that in mind.
 
I have this in the 16 watt, on our Gecko's 20 long tank along with a hydrofarm t-stat. You want your UTH to cover at least a third but less than half of the tank.

Good for not just putting them both in the same tank!!

And I'm glad to hear Rigby pooped. Sometimes they just like to save it up and go all at once.
 
Also instead of sticking the UTH to the tank you can cover the sticky side with tin foil and then use aluminum tape to attach it to the tank. That way you can take it off if you have to.
 
Thanks for the advice. The vivs also came with cut to size floor mats, sort of thick felt or thin carpet material. I have been putting shredded aspen over these and I washed them once. Is it good to keep these in? And I would put a temperature probe under them, right?
 
Reptile carpets tend to hold bacteria, if it were me I would pitch them and just go with aspen. If you decide to keep them yes the thermostat and thermometer probes go under it, on the glass, directly over the UTH. Snakes are sneaky, you want to make sure if they get under all the substrate the glass isn't to hot for them.
 
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