New Corn - Hides Sufficient??

[BP_okay]

Hi All,

I posted a pic of my new striped corn recently and I have a ? about his behavior. Just to recap, he is an 08' and is about 22 inches long. I am providing a pic of his current tank set up, just to get your opinion. The cool side is the left side, that hide has 2 separate little hiding areas for him. The right is the warm side with an undertank heating pad, and obviously I am using paper towels for now to make sure he's healthy.

My main question is that he is spending 90% of his time in the coconut shell in the middle. Does he need different hides on the left and right?? He came out last night for just a bit, and stretched out over the log on the warm side. Then he proceeded to go back to his favorite coconut shell. Granted he's only been in his new home for 2 days, so maybe he's just adjusting. What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Traci

[Chu'Wuti]

The one on the left may have too large an opening for his "taste," while the one on the right is too big and exposed at two ends. Corns like to curl up in something that is a pretty tight fit if they can't burrow. You could improve the one on the right by closing off one end so he won't think anything could sneak in the back way to get him, and you could close off half the opening on the one on the left to see if that helps him like it better.

Of course, you could move the cocoshell one over the UTH . . .

You also need a digital thermometer with temperature probes that you can put on the bottom of the enclosure to check the temps where the snake is. The stick-on thermometers are only telling you what the temp of the glass is where they're stuck.

Good luck!

[BP_okay]

Hi there,

Okay, so I have two questions. I was wondering if I pushed the log against the back of the tank maybe with a paper towel between the glass and the back of the log, so he feel like nothing is behind him, if that would help. To close of the left would you stuff some paper towel in there or what? I even bought 3 more cocoshells, since they are so inexpensive. I thought about taking the log on the right out and putting two small cocoshells on the warm side. I then could move the climby hide on the left further over to the left and put the 3rd cocoshell there.

As far as temp, I just probed with a one of those by zoomed with the suction cup. I just held it directly on the paper towel where he was. It was around 75, then I checked the warmer side to the right and it was around 82-86, depending where I put in the heater area.

Btw Sandy, you are such an angel! Your advice is always so helful :)

Thanks again,
Traci

[Chu'Wuti]

if I pushed the log against the back of the tank maybe with a paper towel between the glass and the back of the log, so he feel like nothing is behind him, if that would help.
Sure, or a piece of brown construction paper or paper bag that you could tape up there.

You might get some sphagnum moss and put it in the two bigger ones, too--not fill them up, but just enough moss that he can kind of burrow in it to get comfortable and hidden.

And thank you! You are very welcome!

[BP_okay]

I happen to have some of that moss on hand so I will try to close off the climby hide on the left a bit, as you described.

Thanks again girl,
Traci

[bugger]

Two of my young corns live in a 18 gallon tall, basically 10 gallon that is almost twice as tall, aquarium. The top is sliding glass with a small screen that slides in after the glass and stays in place with a pin. This vents the tank, but keeps humidity in also.
I have my friendliest that stays in the 'rainbox', which is a tupperware type sandwich container that has a one inch hole cut in the center of the lid, and forest moss in it. Half of it is over the heater and the other half isn't. The snowcorn lives in there, till night, and sometimes daytime.
My amel is in the same tank and it goes between the rainbox and the back corner of the tan behind the sandwich tupperware w/ a hole in the lid that holds their water. It lays between the box and the back glass, sometimes curling around the sandwich box.

These snakes like to come out at night. They sleep mostly in the day. Sometimes when they're hungry you'll see them roaming the enclosure seeking food.

I keep rocks that have little 'caves' that they like to slither through, and have a piece of wood and a fake tree in there that they climb and lay in.
When I came home one day and it was 93 degrees in the house they were up in the 'tree', I assume trying to cool off and catch a breeze, or just escape the bottom heater.
I scrub then soak things before putting them in the tank, for about an hour or more. I sometimes then put them in the oven at 300 degrees for at least 20 minutes, sometimes longer.
You have to watch some things if you heat them in the oven or microwave as they can combust. I have had a smoke smell while heating them, but no fire. The microwave seems to cause fast blackening of wood, and smoke come off it if you don't watch it well.
I have a cactus skeleton in there for them also.

In my okeetee tank, a 20 gallon long, I have a plastic shoe box with moss, half over the heater. This rainbox 'rains' more, since it's longer and there's more moss and more temperature variation for condensation.
I have a small hide, that is zoomed I think, that I got on a clearance of $4. They regularly run around $19 or more. All three of the snakes used to stay in the hide together when I first got them, before I set up the 18 gal. They'd be laying in coils, like they were made to stack in there :)
I had the tree thing, like on the left of your pic, in the okee tank, and I never saw it use or climb on it. Maybe when I was sleeping, but I never saw it.
The okee is odd though, as he will kill prey in front of me, but won't eat it while I'm in the room. Doesn't want to be in a compromising position in front of me I guess.

I use shredded aspen. I got a bale of it cheap at a reptile show, and it's lasted for months, and I still have half of it left, and I use it in the mouse and rat enclosures also.
I have a screen sieve that I shake the aspen in to get the dust out of it before I put it in the enclosures at cleaning time.
I spot clean regularly, but change the bedding every two or three weeks.
I just cover the tank bottom with about half an inch of bedding. I move the bedding out from under the rainbox so heat goes to it, but the moss inside keeps if from getting too hot where the snakes lay, and since I keep the moss moist it is humid, very humid, in the rainbox, thus the name rainbox :)
I keep the rainbox in there cause it helps with their skin softening for shedding when it's time. Plus they seem to really like the rainbox.
The okee is either in the hide or in the rainbox, sometimes under the moss hiding.
He has rocks, and a wood burl or knot that he likes to lay on at night.

I used to feed twice a week, one pinky per snake a feeding, but I went to two pinkies once a week cause I didn't like not being able to handle them for a day after feeding twice a week.
You shouldn't handle your snake for a day after feeding, so it can digest.

The water won't evaporate nearly as quick with a lid on it, with a hole in it.

Your tank looks neat, and they will slither through the other stuff when they get out, after they get comfortable, but I agree that they like a smaller enclosed area to hide in.

Not trying to wear out your eyes, but I thought I'd share what I've learned that they seem to like. I've only had my snakes for about 6 months.

[Chu'Wuti]

Maybe your Okeetees are nocturnal, but according to the Smithsonian, corns are primarily diurnal: Corn Snake Fact Sheet - National Zoo| FONZ (http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/Facts/FactSheets/Cornsnake.cfm)

I wonder if your corns are staying in their hides most of the time due to stress? Snakes are solitary animals and should not be kept together in the same enclosure.

I think the suggestion to use aspen shavings for a substrate is a good one; they often like to burrow through it.

Good luck, Traci!

[BP_okay]

Thanks for the well wishes Sandy. He is doing much better.

As for the tree thingy on the left, after putting some moss in it, per Sandy's suggestion, I figured out he did go in there, but I figured out he used it, as I discovered poo far in the middle. It seems like I just can't get that smell out of it. I have taken that hide out, as it was too much trouble. I added a few more coconut shells, and put in a climbing branch, and some more fake leaves, which he seems to really enjoy when he is roaming around.

Sandy, do you think keeping him on paper towels in the long run, will stress him out, since he can' t burrow. He does have alot of hides, but I just love the cleanliness of the paper towels. Also, he is very calm after I have taken him out, but the initial going in and getting him makes him jump a bit even though I do it nice and slow. I just wonder if the burrowing and me searching for him would freak him out more, when I try to retrieve him from his tank. Now I just take once of the hides off him very slowly, when I know he's awake.

Hope all well,
I haven't been on in a whle, b/c I have flying the freindly skies too much.

Traci :)