Corn snake!!

[Lori P]

So, I have heard about an Okeetee corn snake who needs a home. :-) She is red, about 1 1/2 yrs old. I think I would very much like to have her, but have never had a corn snake. I'll do some reading, but in the meantime, anyone have any tips for me? She eats two mice a week, according to the current owner. She is in a 10 gallon so will have to move her into something bigger asap.

Anything special about corn snakes I need to know?

Thanks!!! :-)

[Lulu Bennett]

lol lori you are in the same boat i was in when i got lumbered with the boas lol

just read and read and read lol oh and dont get bit lol

[Lori P]

Oooooh look Lulu!!! This is what she's supposed to look like:

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/okeetee2.jpg

I think I can handle her care... been reading all evening on corn snakes... they are native to my area, how cool. Their care seems very similiar to the garters!

I'm picking her up Sunday morning... can't wait. :-) Will post pics when I get her.

She is eating live mice now... do you think it will be hard to switch her to f/t??

[Lulu Bennett]

if they are native to your area then are you sure you are aloud to keep it. are there not laws against keeping native species?

granted though he is absolutly booooooootyful

[Lori P]

I see them on sale at the pet stores all the time, so I assume it's fine? They seem to be a very common pet snake. I haven't seen this coloring before, most are a yellow color. I don't have any idea what the Va. state laws are... will go research now!!

[Lori P]

I am learning so much tonight! :-)

"Several of Virginia's snakes are rare and one, the canebrake rattlesnake, is protected under Virginia's Endangered Species Act. Neither the snake nor its habitat can be wantonly destroyed. Also by state regulation, non-endangered snakes cannot be killed unless they are a nuisance or health hazard. Unless you have no reasonable alternative but to kill a snake, it should be left alone.
An individual may have up to five live snakes of any single native species for personal use, but no endangered or threatened species may be possessed. A permit issued by DGIF is required to hold, propagate, and sell native snakes species for commercial purposes. Otherwise, possession limits and restrictions may vary depending on the county and city you live in, so please check with DGIF and your local government if you wish to keep snakes as pets."

I didn't know we had a state regulation stating snakes could not be killed (unless a nusiance or health hazard). How cool!

[MoJo]

Congrats on adopting the corn snake. Her care is very similar to the garters but you will find her to be less "outgoing" than the garters. I suspect she will switch over to frozen thawed mice pretty easily. Let her go hungry for a week or two so she will really want it!

Good luck with her she looks like a beauty!

Joanna

[anji1971]

Oh Lori, I'm so happy for you!! And the new snaky too, she's going to a good home!

[zooplan]

Nice snake:rolleyes:
but no gartersnake:eek:

[lampy]

I have corns, you shouldnt have any major problems with them, they arent that much different to garters care wise, though they do tend to be less active/inquisitive.
Mine have allways been on pre killed mice, but I reckon if you waggle that mouse around abit it will strike as if you were feedin a live un, my male seems to be quite happy eatin ones that are definately dead lookin he's quite lazy and doesnt bother constricting if it looks dead.

[flakgunner]

hey,
Can't go wrong with a Red Rat Snake,currently I have 12 Rat Snakes,including three Red Rats,one is a Okeetee,excellent,calm snakes,and each time it sheds,the color are more brilliant!! at a 1 1/2 years,it should be around 26"-28" ?and fed a couple mice a a week,they grow fast,averaging a good 1" a month,you'll defiantly need a larger set-up then 10 gal. ,average length is 4',and 5'+ is not uncommon,their setup should have some height to it,their excellent climbers,so tree branches,going from bottom to top should be used .Red Rats by far are the easiest to care for,my personal experiences,have found the Baird's Rat snakes to be quite difficult to care for.Yellow's and Gray's are pretty decent,Black's do well also,if acquired young,but cautious,even after years of captivity they still can be a bit nippy,for me owning a Trans Pecos,has been the big dream,it took me quite afew years to find a Baird's,and I've heard that a dealer has been showing up from time to time with Trans Pecos,but he hasn't been their when I go to the shows.I've got a few of my Rats snakes in my photo Gallery,my Albums-0ther reptiles

Joe

[Lori P]

Wow, Joe, thank you sooooo much!!!!! GREAT INFO!!!!!!!!! I have a 40 gallon tank that I'm setting up for her, until I can get my hands on an affordable used 55. I'm hoping that will be adequate for her??? I'll definitely give her plenty of climbs. We've been taking cholla wood pieces and gluing them to the backs of the tanks at all different levels, to give them more places to climb, and it's worked out really well.

I'm very excited to get her. She's lived in a 10 gallon with paper towels and NO hide, no climbs, nothing but a water bowl for her whole life. I am itching to give her a cool house.

[Charlet_2007]

you can go to walmart and buy a 55g with nothing in it but the lid for like 80-90 bucks you may want to look into that...

[Lori P]

Natalie, the 55 gallons at our Walmart are $149 for just the tank and lid!!!! I see used ones a lot with the stands for $50-$75, just gotta be quick enough to catch 'em. I guess the price must vary from area to area...

[adamanteus]

Congratulations on the Corn Snake, Lori....whatever 'floats your boat'!!:D

[flakgunner]

Wow, Joe, thank you sooooo much!!!!! GREAT INFO!!!!!!!!! I have a 40 gallon tank that I'm setting up for her, until I can get my hands on an affordable used 55. I'm hoping that will be adequate for her??? I'll definitely give her plenty of climbs. We've been taking cholla wood pieces and gluing them to the backs of the tanks at all different levels, to give them more places to climb, and it's worked out really well.

I'm very excited to get her. She's lived in a 10 gallon with paper towels and NO hide, no climbs, nothing but a water bowl for her whole life. I am itching to give her a cool house.hey Lori,
40 gal. will work just fine for her,one good hiding spot and some nice clean branches,draped with some nice looking plastic or cloth foliage,Wo Hoo,she'll think she's in paradise,she'll climb up to the top and drape herself over the branches,and lay their for hours.
Even thou I'am not a big fan of petco,I'll go their in a emergency,for crickets(for our Dragons),last time I was at are local petco,they where running a sale on standard glass tanks,$1.00 per gallon,so a new 55 would cost $55.00,this didnot included odd shapes or bow fronts and nothing else came with it,a screen top with a pair of clips will run around $25.00,so if you have one of these near you,you might want to give them a call,to see if their running a sale like this.and check the newspaper classified ads,and garage sales,a few months ago,i picked up 2 ,55 gal. tanks,iron stand,and all of the supplies(for both tanks) needed for fish,for $75.00,we used one tank for our fish,and the second tank is used for our baby Dragons.

Joe

[Lori P]

Thanks again Joe!! There is a Petco near where I work. I hate it... nothing in there ever looks healthy, the store is always a mess, and the help is absolutely clueless. So like you, I generally don't give them my money. But for a deal like this... :-) Do you ever go on Craig's List? There are always tanks on there, you just have to be quick. I got the 55's I have now from there, one for $30 with the stand and one for free with no stand. Check it out if you don't already! Lots of reptile people post on there too, at least around here.

I've read aspen is ok for substrate... you agree?

[flakgunner]

Thanks again Joe!! There is a Petco near where I work. I hate it... nothing in there ever looks healthy, the store is always a mess, and the help is absolutely clueless. So like you, I generally don't give them my money. But for a deal like this... :-) Do you ever go on Craig's List? There are always tanks on there, you just have to be quick. I got the 55's I have now from there, one for $30 with the stand and one for free with no stand. Check it out if you don't already! Lots of reptile people post on there too, at least around here.

I've read aspen is ok for substrate... you agree?hey,
can't say ether way,i'am not familiar with it,back in the olden! days,newspaper was the way to go,or washed sand,i did like the chopped corn cob,but when it got wet,it would get fuzzy white mold,almost over nite,I know theirs concerns about crushed Walnut shells,it does look very nice and is easy to keep clean by scooping but it does have it's issue,I have seen first hand where this would be a big problem with using for Garter's and Water snakes,with their food being slimy worms and fish,with the mammal eaters like the Red Rats,never have I seen this to be a problem,unless they dragged their meal thru the water first,like our dam Bullsnakes do,but Ive switched over to using the green reptile carpet,and I like that,it washes up easy,only down side is that,it has to be washed when the mess it up.but I look at it on a positive note,it makes me pull everything out,spray the carpet down,and hang to dry,and I'll wipe the tank down,,and it ends up getting rearranged ,so its always something different for our snakes,if I'am pressed for time a hair dryer,on medium setting,helps the drying time.

Joe

[Roy Munson]

Congrats, Lori! Corn snakes are my favorite snakes (I guess that's why I have dozens and dozens of them), and they're very easy to keep and breed. Aspen IS the best substrate for them. And like Joe said, a 40 gallon tank is more than adequate for a single adult corn. :)

[Lori P]

Great, thanks Dean! I get her this Sunday. I've read differnent opinions on keeping more than one together-- what do you think? Could she eventually have a roomate??

[MoJo]

Lori,

It is generally frowned upon to keep more than one corn snake together. Many people feel it stresses the snake, if there is a problem with one (i.e. diarrhea, regurges etc.) you will not know which snake it is and you are risking the health of both snakes if one is ill. There is also the problem of premature pregnancies if young snakes that are unsexed are kept together. In general corn snakes are solitary animals and not nearly as social as garters.

Joanna

[Lori P]

Thanks Joanna, that answers that!! Good enough. Are they as active as the garters? Actually that's probably a dumb question... I can't imagine anything as active as these garters!!!!

[MoJo]

I don't think they are as active. I keep my garter in tanks so I can see them since they are out and about more and my corns in tubs in racks.

Joanna

[adamanteus]

Are they as active as the garters?

By no stretch of the imagination could Corn Snakes be described as being 'active'!:D

[Stefan-A]

James is right. :) The one I had was active for about 0.1 seconds at a time. But apart from that, they are really nice snakes to keep and it's not hard to see why they've become so popular.

[Lori P]

LOL! Well, that's fine too. They're probably on the active scale with the ball pythons, then. Which is pretty much comatose 99% of the time. :-)

[zooplan]

It seems to me, that they are the right snakes to keep in a rack system.
There are so many beautyful colors....



like my tie collection:D

[Tori]

Lori, I know it isn't the accepted thing, but I have two corn snakes that have lived together for over 2 years now. They are both females and have separate boxes for hiding in, but prefer to share one. They have the option though if they want it. The only time I see either one is if it is close to feeding time or if I take one out then the other comes out to look for it. I feed them separately. One of them has a serious spinal problem that she has had since I got her and they said she wouldn't live 6 months. Well she is still alive and doing good. She is actually the larger of the two snakes. I have an old photo of them that is over a year old but you can see them clearly, they are 3 1/2 and 4 foot long now and very thick compared to a garter. One is a green blotched snow and the one with the spine problem is a anery motley.

http://www.repticzone.net/images/13869/Goober.jpg

[zooplan]

Nice picture Tori,
that could be worth an entry to the photo contest even if they were garters:D

[Lori P]

Tori, that's really interesting! I'm glad the one with the spinal problem has done so well for you; must be the great care she gets. :-) They are very pretty snakes. Well, you know, here's something I've never told anyone: when I got the baby ball python, who was only about 8 weeks old, everyone told me to NOT, not, not put her in the tank with the adult. But her breeder told me that they'd never had a problem mixing all ages of balls. I waited about two weeks, and then against all the advice I'd gotten, I decided to try it. And they've lived peacefully together ever since, always curled up together except when I seperate them for feeding. So I guess there are always possibilities...

:-)

[Tori]

Thanks, they were my first corns and I have to admit I was a little disappointed that they are so reclusive ( unlike garters) Garters are still my favorites. One of the few photos that I've taken that didn't come out barely seeable. I suck at taking pictures. The camera I have is capable of doing a lot, but I have no idea how to get it to do anything other than click. I have to admit that I've been very lucky in that neither have ever reguritated (hope I spelled that right) or been sick. When they were babies I didn't realize that they both had retained a little bit of shed on the tip of their tails until it turned dark, so both lost a bit of tail before I could get it off. The breeder sold me the green blotched snow as a blizzard but I still think she is a beauty. She developed the green/yellow blotches after she got larger. I've thought about breeding her, but she is so close to the anery that I don't want to mess that up.

[Sid]

A little late, but congratulation on the Corn snake Lori. The one in the photo is great. I have an '07 male like it on the way. Extremely docile creatures. I'm sure you will have a lot of enjoyment with her.

[Lori P]

Well, I am very bummed about the corn snake issue... turned out the woman was giving away the snake behind her husband's back!!!!!!!!! He found out and needless to say, I did not get the snake. What bums me is not that I didn't get it, but that the snake will continue to live in a barren 10 gallon enclosure. :-( The woman sounds so useless... lol, what I mean is, I told her to go out and get the snake a larger tank and decorate to her heart's content, and she basically told me it was her husband's deal and she couldn't touch it. Oh, but you'll try to give it away, huh??!!

Ah well. Hopefully at some point he'll tire of the poor thing and give it up. I told her to call me anytime.

[anji1971]

Oh, Lori, I'm so sorry to hear that!! And very sorry for the poor snake too.:(:(:( Maybe you need to call her husband and scream at him for a bit- if you scare him good, he may just hand over that snaky anyhow!!

[Lori P]

If there's one thing I'm good at , it's talking people out of pets they shouldn't have. But this guy is one of those hard nosed, "I know everything about everything types" and he wasn't hearing a word. Personally, I think she was giving away the wrong snake. :rolleyes:

[anji1971]

LOL!! But if she gives away the 'right' snake, you don't really want HIM, do you???????:D:D:D:D

[Lori P]

No, great googly moogly, NO!! But I can always have him neutered and then drop him off at a homeless shelter.... LOLOL

[anji1971]

Yeah, that sounds about what he deserves.

By the way....................................
"Great googly moogly"?????
My kids used to watch a cartoon with a character who used that expression ---have you been watching "Maggie & the Ferocious Beast" lately???:p:p

[Lori P]

LOL!!!!! My sister says that, and I don't know where she got it from-- but she has a one year old, and she has been watching a lot of cartoons lately!! She sent me an email the other day in reaction to something I said and it read, "Holy cow, great googly moogly, Jesus jump up, NO I DON'T"

LOL!!!!!

[drache]

Yeah, that sounds about what he deserves.

By the way....................................
"Great googly moogly"?????
My kids used to watch a cartoon with a character who used that expression ---have you been watching "Maggie & the Ferocious Beast" lately???:p:p

I thought that was just a line from a Zappa song
shoulda known he picked it up some place media

[brandon0133]

i have 3 garters and 2 corns in my 175 gallon tank,,lol

[flakgunner]

hey,
don't think keeping rats snakes with garter snakes,is a good choice.I've got my young rat snakes together,plans where to separate them,but their doing so well together,i just might leave them,their eating every week,and growing aleast a inch+ per month,even with numerous hiding places,their always together,24" Okeetee Red Rat,22" Baird's and 23" Fox,as far as coloring goes,it hard to tell with Rat Snakes,but the Okeetee Red Rat was a b-day present a year ago,it was 15" then,its color has gotten a little brighter,the orange base color mainly,but overall,it hasn't changed drastically.and from what i can tell,this will be her adult coloring,yet,one of my other Red Rats,was a cream color base at 14",he's now close to 30",and he's base color is now a med.golden/brown.

Joe

[RZL36]

Brandon,

I have no idea why the ratsnakes are not eating the garter snakes. How long have they been together?

[brandon0133]

i removed them from the tank,,they went right under the ground and stayed hidden over night,i had to dig them out and i put them back in with the baby corn snakes,, but i removed them once and put them right beside the garters and i did not see any problems,,they just licked each other alittle and slithered away,,

[rancor_]

i removed them from the tank,,they went right under the ground and stayed hidden over night,i had to dig them out and i put them back in with the baby corn snakes,, but i removed them once and put them right beside the garters and i did not see any problems,,they just licked each other alittle and slithered away,,
yep. sounds like a good idea....
P.s is the turtle still in there/?

[brandon0133]

yes but he tank is covered so they cant play together anymore,,the turtle grabed the new garter and drug him into the tank,,lol,,did not hurt him but i cant take the chance now,,so hes got a new metal roof and neither can get in of out of the little tank now,,