Cold Corn Snake

Luthien · 03-16-15, 11:25 AM

Some of you might know that recently I got my first baby corn snake, she's now 7 months old and doing well. She eats once a week with no trouble and she's had 2 sheds with me, the first shed was a full one piece shed and the second was in 2 pieces but I looked her over and everything came off well.

My question is, is it alright for her to be cold? She is very seldom on the warm side of her viv where her closed in hide is. She's always either in her "open" hide on the cool side or just buried under the substrate on the cool side. When I pick her up her skin is cool but she doesn't look any worse for wear, she's active when I hold her and everything. Anyone else's corn do this?

Thanks!

prairiepanda · 03-16-15, 12:04 PM

Try turning down the temperature on the hot side. If she's always on the cool side it's a sign that the hot side is too hot for her. What are the temperatures at throughout the viv? I've seen some crazy high recommendations on care sheets around the web.

FWK · 03-16-15, 12:08 PM

My Corn is very similar (well, not my Corn but a friends that I'm keeping until he moves again. His current apartment doesn't allow snakes), you have nothing to worry about as long as you provide a proper thermal gradient. The snake will move back and forth as needed. If you keep an eye on it for a few hours after feeding you'll probably see it hanging out on the warm side. Double check your temps every once in a while just to be sure everything is as it should be. Do not trust your hands to judge the temperature of the snake. They will lie to you, they can only tell you if the snake is warm or cold relative to your current skin temperature. For example if you dip one hand in warm water and the other in cold water for a few moments then handle the snake the snake will feel cool in the warm hand and warm in the cool hand. Even subtle changes in the ambient room temperature can throw you off. If you want to keep track of the snakes true temperature you can use an infrared temp gun. An infrared temp gun is very handy for double checking your warm and cool side temps as well.

Cmwells90 · 03-16-15, 12:34 PM

What are your temps and how are they measured? My corn prefers around 87 on the warm side and will move throughout the day.

Luthien · 03-16-15, 04:04 PM

I have a reptile digital temp gun that I test with. The hot side is 80F and the cool side runs between 70-72F (it's room temp)