New to forum, and have a new corn snake

[MrPower]

hello everyone!
My name is joe power, user name MrPower.
im from alberta canada and have been into keeping reptiles for quite some years now. Im very good at it and enjoy it much. a friend of mine recently bought an almost adult amel corn off a seller and iv been over there handling and enjoying the company of his corn snake for a few weeks. so i desided to purchase my own because i liked his corn so much.

I purchased a little baby ghost corn from my local pet shop. it is a great little snake for sure. Me and my friend thought it would be funny to name him orvil redenbacher lol. cuz hes a dorn snale and hes poppin. Here, poppin means very cool lol.

I have a simple question for all you great people here, iv been reading tis forum for some rime now and i like how polite everyone is here, not like a motocross forum at all lol.

My question is.....whats a good feeding meathod that well reduce me ruining my mice. my mehod right now is to unthaw a frozen pinky during the day in a container, and my evening when the lights go out i place it in a food dish in the tank. my first feeding was last week when i done the same thing and he came out and ate it within an hour. so five days have past and i done the same. i seen the snake out around the dish yesderday evening but this morning it has not been eatten.

now 2 a few things come in mind for me. first im glad he took the food 5 days ago because i noly had him a couple days then and i was hopping he would eat to show hes not stressed. also it could be that where im new to snakes 5 days seems like a long time to me but in fact he might just not be hungry yet. also i was thinking about just lifting his hide and holding the mouse up next to him to see if he just didnt find it last night. and lastly since the mouse has been out of the freezer now for 24 hours i should probably just throw it out.

since im new to the site im sorry if this is a long post, but i like to give all the info i can right away so people dont have to ask a bunch of questions before they can answer. so any info, comments are great. or if anyone catches me doing somthing wrong feel free to tell me. this is my first snake so i have things to learn.

thanks
sincerely joe power

[SpOoKy]

Hello and welcome to the forum...
Be sure if you leave food in overnight, remove it first thing in the morning if it is not gone.
If he ate 5 days ago, he could just be full and still trying to settle in.
It would be helpful if you posted your set up info, viv size, substrate, temps, hides...
This will allow poeple to see if there is anything off in his housing that could make him not want to eat.
I don't own corns, nor do I know much about them but there are many knowledgable people on this site who will be around shortly to help you out :)

[MrPower]

cool, thanks for the reply.

my settup:
i have a 20 gallon tank, with one of my homemade aluminum screen tops, wich i design to clip on to the top for security and safely fastens the over head lamp too.

there is 2 inches of aspen bedding, wich he burrows into somtimes but not often, usually just cruises around on top of it.

for heat and lighting there is a medium tropical under heat pad with a log hide over it, the temp prob is just stuck into the top layer of aspen under the hide wherew he curles up most the time with 85 degree temp. the cool side has the rock hide with room temperature usually around 73 degreees. over the top is a lamp with uvb light. although i read they dont need it, i like to provide uvb to all my reptiles even nocturnal geckos just because they would come in contact with it in the wild when they venture out so i like to provide it aswell.

for the rest of setup, there is a nice size rock water dish on the cool side, food dish over there. some sand blasted tree branches from pet store for climbing and some plastic furn and other assortment of fake plants for decor.

i mist the tank lightly about 2 in 24 hour period, and he has a plastic humid hide he uses a little.

all that said i keeped a nice few reptiles in my time and i know the signs of stressed reptiles. i dont like to bragg much but my reptiles are very happy do to the fact i do my research and have eveything settup and tested very well before bringing the reptile home and give them thier period of discovery. my little guy is settled in good and iv been handle him a few min every few days and he dont mind it at all, dont try to bit, and dont mind exploring my hands lol.

thanks for answering my question about throwing the mouse out. i figure its best because its been out for 24 hours now. i guess im just used to feeding my lizards everyday and not used to a snake never hardly eatting lol

[youngster]

Don't bother misting corns unless you live in like Antartica.
Especially with aspen, it can become infested with mold and gross stuff like that.

I would offer it to the snake rather than letting it sit out like that.

5 days is definitely not "never hardly eating" Feed once every 7-14 days depending on size of teh meal.

For thawing I just leave the feeder in warm (not hot) water for about 10-20 minutes depending on size then let it dry out for like 10 minutes and I've never had a problem. I feed during day time, they have just as good of a feeding response then.
It seems you're taking fine care of him.

[Trent]

Hi and welcome!

[theapexgerman]

Welcome to the best forum in the world ok I'm getting a few corn soon I would switch out aspen for repti bark and don't mist a corn tank and if he's a baby feed him once a week as he gets older like 2 years and up start feeding every 10 or so days congrats on your new pet

[marvelfreak]

Hello and welcome to our zoo.

[MrPower]

thanks again for the replies.

i pretty much do live in the arctic, i live in the most northern part of alberta isolated by 5 hours of no where. the himidity here is 5 persent on the damp days lol. so i do have to lightly mist most of my reptiles even my leapard geckos at some times. its always a humidity battle here.

as for bedding, i may try a couple different types as i get a little more understanding of the snake. seems like with all reptiles, bedding is one of the biggest debate subjects out there. for example one person would say sand is great for bearded dragons and other say its terrible ect ect lol. if had people tell me aspen is the best and others say it no good. dont get me wrong im glad you mentioned repti bark because i was thinking of switching to that anyways. but as of now i dont see a problem with the aspen.

also do alot of people feed thier snakes by hand, meaning dangling it near it with the mouse on tweasers. i was thinking if he got used to food comming at the end of my hand, my hand would be seen as a food sorce and end in a hand strike. thats why i keep the mouse in a dish so it dont associate my hand with food.

and when you guys thaw out your mouse, and it doesnt get eatten, do you just freeze them again or is it pretty much a one time thing and be thrown out

thanks

joe power

[youngster]

also do alot of people feed thier snakes by hand, meaning dangling it near it with the mouse on tweasers....and when you guys thaw out your mouse, and it doesnt get eatten, do you just freeze them again or is it pretty much a one time thing and be thrown out

thanks

joe power

yes, most people do the "zombie dance" with their food, it provides a better feeding response.

I throw mine out but some people freeze them.

[theapexgerman]

Reptibark beats aspen anyday love that stuff you can even re use it and I use calci sand for 2 of my desert snakes but as long as you don't feed them in the sand you should be good I'm one of the few people that perfer live over f/t

[MrPower]

ok, ill see how my little guy like zombie mice lol, guess ill wait a few days since its been only 6 since he ate.

and i do the same sand thing with my leapard gecko only. the reasons for that is the leapard only use one spot for fesses so they wont cantaminate the sand. and also my leapard well only eat out of my hand so no worries in him eatting sand by mistake. and that they are actually naturally found in sand of pakistan, and surrounding forests. thats why i set my tank up with sand and desert setup on warm side and fadding into reptibark forest on the cool side. he loves it.

lol off tropic a little bit there, but hanks for the advice everyone. iv sucsessfully got threw a post, finding out the info i wanted and not running into any ignorant key board haters like most other sites. so already i think this is a great site to chat about reptiles. with other respectable people as i like to be.

[theapexgerman]

you just haven't meet all the other peoples yet lol there's atleast two people that put things blunt and in a mean way

[Gungirl]

you just haven't meet all the other peoples yet lol there's atleast two people that put things blunt and in a mean way

That's a nice way to welcome them to the site. Yes a few of our experienced keepers do say things bluntly but they only want the best for the animal.

[youngster]

there's atleast two people that put things blunt and in a mean way

No one here puts things in a mean way. Blunt and to the point, but not mean.

In the end, they just want to help.

A little while ago I thought the same way, then I realized I was just being stubborn and they were more than completely right.

[theapexgerman]

Just giving him heads up not saying nothing bad lol and theres more ways to say something then the blunt way

[MrPower]

sorry i ment to say motocross forums lol, loads of ignorant people on motocross sites who think they are the kings
This is the first snakes forum i joined, and i like it.

[MrPower]

ok, just to update all you nice people who i have talked too.

my little guy finally ate his second mouse today, well pinky i mean lol, it was last night, night 8 since the first one and he ate it the perfect way i wanted. he trook it all my himself out of the dish again.

I seen him out on the go after the light went out. so instead of having a 24 hour air thawed mouse i took advice and headed water in a cup and put the mouse in it for 20 min or so and laid it in his dish, i get up this morning and its good. and im glad.

I have some pics of him i took the other day if someone could tell me how to upload pics lol. im not much of a computer guy
thanks

[youngster]

There's a few ways to post pics.

1. (best) If you have a image hosting account on photobucket or similar you can just copy the IMG code and paste it in here. If not, make one :p Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/)

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad280/eliwuzheer/1.png
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad280/eliwuzheer/2.png

2. Go to go advanced, then click the little paperclip and select the picture off your computer.

[theapexgerman]

Ok here it goes go to Postimage.org - free image hosting / image upload (http://www.postimage.org) make a free account then upload the pics from your computer to the site and if you took them on a camera transfer them into ypur computer than after you upload the pics into postimage in a few minutes or so it should give you a link next to it says forum link 1 or 2 take that link and copy and paste it onto here and your pics are seen by everyone on the forum

[theapexgerman]

There's a few ways to post pics.

1. (best) If you have a image hosting account on photobucket or similar you can just copy the IMG code and paste it in here. If not, make one :p Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/)

http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad280/eliwuzheer/1.png
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad280/eliwuzheer/2.png

2. Go to go advanced, then click the little paperclip and select the picture off your computer.
Aww you beat me to it postimage is way better than photobucket lot easier to use to

[kernel]

Looks like everyone has given you the correct info, but I would like to say that aspen beats reptibark any day. Also, make sure to post tons of pics!

[theapexgerman]

Looks like everyone has given you the correct info, but I would like to say that aspen beats reptibark any day. Also, make sure to post tons of pics!
Reptibark>aspen lol not as cheap but smells better

[kernel]

I prefer aspen, but if that's your preference, it's good too.

[theapexgerman]

there both good but aspen smells funny to me and I think Jessica is allergic to it I use it once befor and when she got near it sneezing hell broke out lol

[kernel]

Lol! I like the way it smells, but if enough dust kicks up, it will make me sneeze a little. I just love how absorbent it is though!

[theapexgerman]

Only thing that sucks bout reptibark is it not the best stuff to absorb stuff but I just like the smell lol

[kernel]

Yea, that the reason I switched to aspen, that and the fact that I can get 4 cubic feet in the small animal section at petco for $14.

[theapexgerman]

yea I pay like 30 bucks for like 28 quarts I belive but I don't go through it a lot and you can reuse it but I haven't try that yet

[kernel]

Wow, I forgot how expensive that stuff is. You know what? We have hijacked this thread big time lol.

[theapexgerman]

Yea I'm a hijacker what can I say lol

[MoreliAddict]

reptibark is nice, but dangerous if swallowed, so i stick with aspen ;)