hi guys. new here but need advice

[littleshewolf]

hey i have a baby albino corn snake. bought from prt store. he ate 2 days ago, a pinkie mouse, and last nite he threw up on me. also since he shed 2 weeks ago i have noticed he has some brown almost scar or scab like tiny spots in a few places on his body is any of this something i should be overly concerned with? i do not have a vet in my area that deals in reptiles or exotics. closest one is quite a drive from me. would rather not go unless i must due to gas prices. ;)

[infernalis]

Can you please tell us the temperature in you enclosure, do you have a basking light?

Do you handle the snake? a sure fire way to get a snake to regurgitate is to handle it within 24 hours of eating, the stress makes them vomit.

[shaunyboy]

Can you please tell us the temperature in you enclosure, do you have a basking light?

Do you handle the snake? a sure fire way to get a snake to regurgitate is to handle it within 24 hours of eating, the stress makes them vomit.

^^^^^
also pictures of the scabs will help us see whats going on

cheers shaun

[littleshewolf]

well yes, i keep him in a "ekoterra" enclosure with a white basking light for day and a blue one for nite. and yes i do handle him daily
pet stor advised it as a way to keep him tame
do not have the ability to post pics, as i am using computor @ library, but i got a phone w camera? i think i can e-mail pics off phone but am not sure. i am not the most tech savvy person on earth.

[Gungirl]

Ok.. a few things. Corn snakes are very simple, I do not use any heat with mine and he is fine. I keep my house 65-70 winter and 80-85 summer. If you have a heat mat use a thermostat. Set the heat mat to 80 that will be more than warm enough.The brown spots could be burns from a heat source with out a thermostat. you can continue to use the bulbs but you still need to use a thermostat with them. Heat mats are better IMO.

Feed it a small pink the same size as its widest point. Once it eats do not touch it for at least 2 days. This will allow it to digest it's food. After it keeps down a meal you can increase the food size to 1.5 times its widest point but still never handle the snake for at least 2 days after it eats. I handle my corn once a month if that and he is as tame as they get. You do not need to handle it every day. if you want you can email me pics and I will post them for you... ktomacie@gmail.com

[littleshewolf]

awesome, thanx! will email u in about 10 min

[Gungirl]

ok sounds good..

[EmbraceCalamity]

well yes, i keep him in a "ekoterra" enclosure with a white basking light for day and a blue one for nite. and yes i do handle him daily
pet stor advised it as a way to keep him tame
do not have the ability to post pics, as i am using computor @ library, but i got a phone w camera? i think i can e-mail pics off phone but am not sure. i am not the most tech savvy person on earth.Everything anyone tells you at the pet store, take it with a grain of salt. They might mean well, but they're very rarely experts. A lot of people have lost pets making that mistake (myself included). If you don't know something, either ask on a place like this or someone with lots of experience. And make sure you do your own research on how to care for these guys.

Like Gungirl said, corns are very easy to take care of. We had one for years who wasn't handled more than once in a blue moon, and she was still tame as could be.

~Maggot

[Lankyrob]

I keep my corns at 86f hot end and 75f cold end apart from that everything gungirl says is the same. I handle mine rarely but they are all calm and docile :)

A lot of pet stores will say anything to make a sale, their purpose is to make money not know about animals ;)

[Gungirl]

Here is the OP's Photo..

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee454/KAMacie/imagejpeg_2.jpg

[Lankyrob]

That looks very much like the inside of a car - why the hell would you have a snake loose in a car?

[Gungirl]

Here are the other pics..

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee454/KAMacie/imagejpeg_4.jpg

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee454/KAMacie/imagejpeg_6.jpg

http://i1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee454/KAMacie/imagejpeg_7.jpg

[EmbraceCalamity]

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Never loose in a car. EVER EVER.

EDIT: For everyone else here, I know with albino geckos, their eyes are more sensitive so it's suggested not to use lights. Is it true for albino snakes as well?

~Maggot

[Wildside]

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Never loose in a car. EVER EVER.

EDIT: For everyone else here, I know with albino geckos, their eyes are more sensitive so it's suggested not to use lights. Is it true for albino snakes as well?

~Maggot

I have heard this, not sure how true it is as neither my albino geckos or boas or any other albino thing I've kept in the past seem too bothered by lights or the sun.

Also I don't see any brown scabby spots :confused:

[poison123]

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Never loose in a car. EVER EVER.

EDIT: For everyone else here, I know with albino geckos, their eyes are more sensitive so it's suggested not to use lights. Is it true for albino snakes as well?

~Maggot

I don't believe it at all. I've kept uvb lights on albino animals and they have never had any issues.

[Wildside]

What kind of substrate?

[poison123]

Its hard to tell from the pics but it looks like it was to dry for the snake while i as shedding.

[EmbraceCalamity]

I have heard this, not sure how true it is as neither my albino geckos or boas or any other albino thing I've kept in the past seem too bothered by lights or the sun.

Also I don't see any brown scabby spots :confused:I've heard of some people who say their albino leos won't open their eyes much with lights, but they're nocturnal, so it's hard to say. Personally I know my eyes are more sensitive to light than most people's - not that I'm albino, but just to make the point that the norm isn't necessarily always true. Could also depend on what kind of light and how far away it is from the reptile.

~Maggot

[beardeds4life]

I love how you clarified that your not albino. I laughed out loud when I read that.

[EmbraceCalamity]

I love how you clarified that your not albino. I laughed out loud when I read that.Well I figured there'd be someone on here who'd go, "OH SO UR ALBINO? LOLOLOL." So I figured I'd clear it up before it happened. :)

~Maggot

[KORBIN5895]

I see two spots right behind the head. Do you help it get the shed off?

[Falconeer999]

My ex wife is albino and DEFINITELY more sensitive to light. I'm not sure how snake eyes work, but with human eyes you do have pigment in your eyes that kind of act as sunglasses to filter out some light (the color of your eyes - brown eyes have more pigment, blue less - blue eyed people have more difficulty seeing in the sun. There's even a study that looked at baseball statistics and found that players with blue eyes had like a .020 lower average batting average during the day than brown eyed players and equal to slightly better at night).

[MoreliAddict]

My ex wife is albino and DEFINITELY more sensitive to light. I'm not sure how snake eyes work, but with human eyes you do have pigment in your eyes that kind of act as sunglasses to filter out some light (the color of your eyes - brown eyes have more pigment, blue less - blue eyed people have more difficulty seeing in the sun. There's even a study that looked at baseball statistics and found that players with blue eyes had like a .020 lower average batting average during the day than brown eyed players and equal to slightly better at night).
Interesting.

I'm sure everyone's albino snakes love all the camera flashes. :D

[Falconeer999]

I'm sure. If someone snapped off a flash picture of her when she was looking, whereas most of us see that flash spot for a couple seconds/minute at most, she'd see it for 15-20 minutes and it would take up most of her field of view because she didn't have any pigment (pale blue eyes - not pink - I know that question is coming) to filter out any of the light.

[EmbraceCalamity]

I'm sure. If someone snapped off a flash picture of her when she was looking, whereas most of us see that flash spot for a couple seconds/minute at most, she'd see it for 15-20 minutes and it would take up most of her field of view because she didn't have any pigment (pale blue eyes - not pink - I know that question is coming) to filter out any of the light.I have trouble with that too. Not 15-20 minutes, but definitely longer than the average person. That's why I hate driving at night too. Just regular headlights blind literally everything around me, including the road. But apparently my pupils are bigger than most people's, so presumably I get in more light than the average person in combination to the fact that I have light blue eyes. People always think I'm high 'cause my pupils are huge. :)

~Maggot

[LunasKiss]

Question: You guys said that you rarely handle your corns, and I handle mine nearly every day. They get two full days to digest and get left alone entirely when I know they're about to shed but other than that they're out for...at least 10-15 minutes a day. Is handling them that much alright?

[poison123]

Question: You guys said that you rarely handle your corns, and I handle mine nearly every day. They get two full days to digest and get left alone entirely when I know they're about to shed but other than that they're out for...at least 10-15 minutes a day. Is handling them that much alright?

some people prefer the wild side in there animals so they choose not to handle them. i dont handle my corn all that often but i trust him with my life. and 10-15 minutes is fine.

[Lankyrob]

Mine get handled once a month or so, my opinion is that as long as the animal is eating regularly then you arent doing too much wrong.

The second that it misses a feed stop all handling until it has eaten two or three times in a row. :)

[Wildside]

some people prefer the wild side in there animals so they choose not to handle them. i dont handle my corn all that often but i trust him with my life. and 10-15 minutes is fine.


I don't think that's really it. Snakes aren't social animals like dogs or cats. Yeah they can be tamed but I don't believe they ever develop a desire to be handled. In many of them handling only causes stress.

[EmbraceCalamity]

I don't think that's really it. Snakes aren't social animals like dogs or cats. Yeah they can be tamed but I don't believe they ever develop a desire to be handled. In many of them handling only causes stress.When we had our corn, that's why I didn't handle her often. Occasionally I'd bring her out and handle her a bit, and she was very tame, but it never seemed necessary to do very often. I knew it wasn't something she looked forward to, and I have other pets to lavish with affection. :p I'm the same way with my leo.

~Maggot

[MoreliAddict]

It depends on the individual snake.

My Ball Python sometimes likes to roam late at night, and if I open the cage while he's roaming, sometimes he'll willingly come out to explore for a bit (he's very used to me). So I probably handle him twice a week.

My Carpet Python Spot would never strike at me, but he prefers it in his cage. He gets jumpy when pulling him out, and has a hard time relaxing outside of his cage. So I just pull him out every month or so for cage cleaning (and pictures :D).