My New Herp...

[scbrooks87]

Hey everyone... New to Herp here. I have been working on an aquarium journal for a while, and in the meantime, my fiance and I got a snake... well she really is taking the reins on this one mostly, but I get to do some of the research lol.

Anyway, we got a baby corn snake... I used to have a corn back when I was just a kid, my parents took care of it. I don't remember a whole ton about them.

We got a zilla snake starter kit for it, is a 20 gallon long enclosure, daytime light/heat lamp, and night time heat lamp. Also a little rock hide, a water dish, and we picked up a fake tree thingy for it to climb on.

So now I'm wondering, what did we do wrong? And what do I need to replace? lol. From my research it seems they like humidity between 40-50%, and temperature around 75ish? Does that seem right? We live in so-cal, and so we tend to have a dry climate... what's the best way to add humidity? Mosses? Wet substrate? Misting? Suggestions? lol

In general, is there anything I should really really know to make sure I do right by this snake? We plan to feed it once every other week with thawed frozen mice. That's what the pet store has been doing. Does that seem like it's enough feeding? Or should it be more frequent?

Thanks for any and all info!
-Scott

[dprais1]

if it is a baby i would feed every week. misting the substrate 1x a day works well for humidity, esp make sure the substrate in the hide box gets a good mist. substrate should be 100% dry by the afternoon/evening.

feeding can be tricky. when small i would feed mine, wait till the 'bulge' in their belly was gone, wait 2 more days then feed again. this may start as 1x per week then advance to 2x per week as they get bigger. after 2-3 weekd of 2x a week feeding it's time to move up to the next larger size mouse.

HTH and that is what I did with success

[scbrooks87]

Thanks for the info! I'll get a spray bottle of regular water to mist with for humidity during the day when the main light/heat lamp comes on. I was using the spray stuff that came with the zilla enclosure but it has a very odd smell to it and I don't really want to use it till I learn more about it.

So I supposed I'll be feeding this little snake sooner than later, they said they fed every other wednesday and this wednesday would be it's normal feed day.

Oh and for those interested till I get a pic on here, I am almost 100% sure it would be considered an Anerythristic color pattern. It looks a LOT like the snake in the top right of this little pic:


Any way to tell gender at this young age? We want to name him or her, but don't wanna get gender wrong lol.

-Scott

[dprais1]

probing is the only way I know of determining sex with any accuracy.

I'll let you google it.

[dreamwallaby]

I would not do the heat lamps. I have 6 corn snakes myself and they need belly heat. You should get an under tank heater. Check out www.cornsnakes.com

[Tabberwok]

if it's a baby def feed more often. until mine are about 15" I feed small meals every 5 days