The excape artist is back !

[nanna]

My husband and I were sitting in the living room when our four year old daughter came out and said look who I found mommy big red. She found our baby corn that escaped about a month ago under her bed she has no fear of any of the snakes so she picked him up and brought him to us. Ger and I are so happy he is bach were he belongs and safe. Our daughter is excited because he choose her bed to hide under because he knew she would protect him. Kinda funny the night he went missing she came into the room and said don't worry mommy and daddy I will find him for you. Well she did.:yes:

[Freebody]

Sweet :) im glad you found her, 3 cheers for your little lady as well :)

[deighaingeal]

Yes, it was a well needed moment in our house. I believe we were just coming to terms with him being gone, but sure enough there he was. We even figured out when and how he got out and I will fix it tomorrow (it was in the feeding tank, no danger of escape tonight). Just to be sure there will be no escapes tonight I decided to add weight to the top as well, just for the night. If that 10 inch long corn can move 40 lbs of textbooks, 20 lbs of cast iron and 2 cans of chicken broth (ask nanna) I think he deserves to be let free; because that is one tough snake.
Oh and he would have to scale two feet straight up the tank side then 8 inches across the top to get to the opening.

[infernalis]

Glad he's safe and sound.... Congrats.

[Lankyrob]

Glad he is back!!

[marvelfreak]

Congrats on finding him.Tell your little girl Chuck said great job finding him. :)

[shaunyboy]

glad you got him back and such a sweet story behind it

bet your daughters chuffed to bits she kept her promise and found him

got me sitting here grinning from ear to ear

cheers shaun

[Ch^4]

Congrats! I'm glad to hear he's safe and sound!

[deighaingeal]

When we found him he was almost grey in color. We fed him two pinkies last night and he took them like a champ. Today he is red, active and curling up with his 8 brothers just fine. He is even shiny again.

[Reptile_Reptile]

thats great ^_^

[NennaMeerkat]

I am so glad you found your baby because of your other baby! I would have been devastated to loose any of my pets especially such a young one. Good on your child for bringing it to you and I hope your snake will not escape again! Goodness scary time indeed!

[Aaron_S]

When we found him he was almost grey in color. We fed him two pinkies last night and he took them like a champ. Today he is red, active and curling up with his 8 brothers just fine. He is even shiny again.

I'm glad you found your little guy but really you keep NINE snakes all in one enclosure?! That's 8 too many in there.

[deighaingeal]

I'm glad you found your little guy but really you keep NINE snakes all in one enclosure?! That's 8 too many in there.

They are baby corns. We'll move them out as they grow, but in my limited experience baby corns do better when they are grouped a few together. According to my breeder it is fine, he said that corns are strong clutch animals and work well together up to a point.

[Reptile_Reptile]

hmm im going to look into that to verify but it sounds legit

[NennaMeerkat]

I know our two full grown corn snakes lived together quite nicely in one aquarium, though it was a really really big one mind you. Still would often find them all curled up together. Kinda cute if they weren't both guys.

[nanna]

All of the babies are doing very well: eating, shedding and socializing. We have never intended for them to stay together their entire life. They are in a large enough tank and all are very young. We have discovered that their level of stress is greatly decreased when they are all together which makes basic care much better for all involved.

[Aaron_S]

I hope the two people who replied about keeping snakes together and they 'curl up' and 'socialize' realize that snakes don't socialize except for mating. They also don't 'curl up' for companionship. They do that because that's probably the best hiding spot or hot spot.

These are solitary animals. Besides that fact, what if one has a really runny poop and seems sick? How would you know which one has it?

EDIT: How do you know their level of stress decreases with being group housed? Did you keep them all individually for a lengthy period of time, in the exact same manner and keep records? Did they all not eat? Did you house them properly in the first place?

[NennaMeerkat]

I hope the two people who replied about keeping snakes together and they 'curl up' and 'socialize' realize that snakes don't socialize except for mating. They also don't 'curl up' for companionship. They do that because that's probably the best hiding spot or hot spot.

These are solitary animals. Besides that fact, what if one has a really runny poop and seems sick? How would you know which one has it?

EDIT: How do you know their level of stress decreases with being group housed? Did you keep them all individually for a lengthy period of time, in the exact same manner and keep records? Did they all not eat? Did you house them properly in the first place?

Of course I know snakes don't socialize. The aquarium we had our two guys in was quite large, large enough where two snakes could easily separate and not even see one another. We have several different hiding spots and under aquarium heating pads on either end (they didn't cover the entire bottom so there were cool spots). In the winter we added two heat lamps on either end as well with low wattage bulbs in to make sure they got the heat they needed. We were living in Kansas in a really old house...was always cold in that durn house. If they wanted to be separate they could easily have done so.

At the same time if one of them had gotten sick (thankfully it never happened) we did have smaller "back up aquariums" that we could temporarily observe them separated. These things were not meant for reptiles and kinda small, to small for me to be comfy with leaving them in there all the time. We also separated them in different bins to feed. I never feed my snakes in the place they live.

I am not saying that every corn snake can be housed together, or that it is the BEST option. But at the same time I had two healthy snakes that ate well, never got sick, and they lived together. It isn't an impossibility that two snakes could be comfortable in the same space as long as it is large enough and adequate space is given when they want to be apart.

[Aaron_S]

...I am not saying that every corn snake can be housed together, or that it is the BEST option. ...

This is the only part of your post I need.


EDIT: If it's not the best option for your snakes then why do you do it?

[Marica]

I am very glad your escapee turned up, and very cute story how it was found :)

However, I have to agree that housing multiple - especially young - Corn Snakes together is not a good idea. I've heard of more instances of cannibalism in baby/young Corns than aggressiveness in cohabbed adults, though I believe that they should be housed separately at any age. There are so many legitimate reasons not to cohab, and no legitimate reason to cohab. I have seen way too many pictures like the ones below.

Note: If the pictures need to be removed, a goggling 'cannibal cornsnake' will bring up an assortment of images.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/SCI-MCC/cannibal.jpg

http://www.gourmetrodent.com/images/freaks%20and%20curiosities/cannibal%20corn%20hatchling.JPG

[Aaron_S]

May I save those pictures if they are yours? I'd very much like to have them for future threads like this.

[Marica]

They are not mine, however I would assume that their use for this topic would be permissible. I just Googled (not goggled...lol) these pictures for this thread and there's plenty more online.

[Will0W783]

I have to agree with Aaron and Marica here...housing an entire clutch of corn snake babies together is not a good idea. Most breeders, at least the respectable ones I've seen and dealt with, immediately separate babies into individual shoeboxes in a rack once they've hatched. Why risk them eating each other? I know hatchling racks can get costly, but I figure it's better to make the initial investment than to risk vet bills down the road. Just my $.02, but I feel it's better to give them each their own house, from babies up to adults, and only put them together for breeding purposes.