# Corn Snake Questions



## Spepper (Jan 30, 2014)

Alright, I may just be a paranoid beginner snake owner... but is it normal to not be able to find my snake's droppings?  She's only about 16" give or take a little.  She's a corn snake too.  Should I be worried?  I can see dark spots inside her body when I hold her up to the light just right, and they're always different... not the same shapes in the same place every time and I've had her for about a month I think.

I also have another question.  I'm not entirely certain she's not drinking from her dish in her cage, but a couple weeks ago when I was trying out putting her in a little warm water in order to get her to um... "go" she instead began drinking.  So earlier today I tried warming a little water and putting her snout by it and she began gulping down the water like she was really thirsty.  Is it possible a snake will only drink warm water?

Thanks everyone so much in advance.  I'm probably just paranoid but I'd like to know for sure.


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## Tongue Flicker (Jan 30, 2014)

Snakes only poop after they've eaten. The best thing you can see if they haven't eaten yet are the white liquid poo which are ureates and basically a reptile's version of urine. As for warm water, that is possible.


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## Spepper (Jan 30, 2014)

She's eaten several times and I haven't seen anything.  That's why I'm confused. :unsure:

Then I guess I'll have to make sure I give her ample opportunities to get warm water if that's all she'll drink.


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## Tongue Flicker (Jan 30, 2014)

Hmm.. what're the temps inside the enclosure?


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## Spepper (Jan 30, 2014)

When I checked earlier the warm side was 83°.  I'm not sure about the cool side though because I have a probe-type thermometer that I keep stationed on the warm end.  She's in a 20 gallon long.  She's always on the cool end though unless she's digesting right after I feed her.


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## catfishrod69 (Jan 30, 2014)

If you really wanna make her poop. Give her a warm soak. Then take her in your hands, and gently run a hand down her body towards her tail. Keep repeating this until she goes. But watch out!


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## Spepper (Jan 30, 2014)

She hates being in water though.  Do I put her in a big enough container that her whole body is in the water?  And how warm is "warm" to a cold-blooded creature?  I don't want it to be too hot!  Also, soak for how long?  Sorry for all the questions.


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## catfishrod69 (Jan 30, 2014)

Yeah all of my snakes hate being in the water too. Sometimes my red tail will have a small bit of shed stuck on her tail, but i still give her a soak. It might freak her out for a minute, but she will live. Well take into consideration your body temps. Test the water with your hand. If it feels just slighty warm, then it should be good. Soak her for 10-20 minutes. Just depends on how fast the water cools off. Also give her enough room for her whole body to be in it, but make sure her head can be above water. What i do is put a few inches of water in the bathtub. Not saying she will absolutely poop after you try this. But its possible. I had a ball python that got her stomach massaged, and i truly wish i hadnt. It was like Joe Dirt and the atom bomb .





Spepper said:


> She hates being in water though.  Do I put her in a big enough container that her whole body is in the water?  And how warm is "warm" to a cold-blooded creature?  I don't want it to be too hot!  Also, soak for how long?  Sorry for all the questions.


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## RzezniksRunAway (Jan 30, 2014)

Baby corn snakes are amazingly stupid (read intelligent) when it comes to water. I have 6 hatchlings right now and only one of them goes over to a still dish and drinks. When I mist the cage down, they see the water droplets on the water dish and go over and act like it's a brand new thing to them. A lot of animals won't drink "still" water, and it's a learned behavior in captivity. Water movement means that the water is fresh and not going to harm them. 

The temps sound fine, just make sure you are keeping the humidity or providing it with a humid hide (moss in a box). Depending on your substrate and your individuals attitude you might not find poop. My boa lets it be known that he pooped, because he goes in the water dish. Every.single.time.  But with the hatchlings, I've seen very little poop since they were put onto cocofiber instead of paper towels. I usually just look for the urates to lead me to potential poop spots.


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## pyro fiend (Jan 31, 2014)

sounds like your doing okay. i used to keep a few corns... but as to when they poo and where always depends..i had a hatcling go 7 meals befor he pooped [he was turning into a balloon lol]..alot of babys poo under the substrate tho and you may not see it with such a big cage...but id say bump up the hotspot a bit...  but a 20g long is kinda big for a hatcling imho... id personally keep it in a kk or a 10g..  only way iv every pulled off a 20 is deep substrate [mine loved shreded aspen] and many hides including a humid hide [little dollar store bowl silid color(not opaque) big enough for him/her to curl up in.. i sink mine into the sub a few inches so i can have some inches of cocofiber/moss or wet paper towel in it] 

iv noticed ime most babies hide under the sub no mater how many hides you give them.. so uth are at times out of the question. unless you have a good tstat [herpstat is what i recommend] but 80s is nice but id go higher in temp tbh they are local to almost everywhere. you find them in missouri and its always 80-90 in spring. so a nice hotspot would be good just incase its having trouble digesting. 

what i would do in all honesty.. bump him down in cage size. that big cage can stress them.  deepen the substrate [inch or so] so he can hise alot of babys burrow... and make sure your temps are consistant and not near a window..80 is a nice ambient but you might want a hotter warm side id say a few degrees at least.. . even if its a small rock the light shines on that they can hide by to keep warm.  i myself am in missouri and they are found around here.. i used only air temp in the spring and summer into fall every year [many days hit in the 90s-100s] and in winter id turned a heater on [i have ball pythons so need it lol] keeping it around 80 and and threw a lamp on top[25 wat or so to heat up one hide].. 

so 1) smaller cage or more hides 2) deeper sub 3) little higher temps just incase

without knowing how your keeping it sub and hide wise all i can do is hit all topics XD sorry for the ramble just my experience and how i kept mine before i decided i liked heavier snakes XD  the rock always worked for me they loved it in my cages plus something to scratch against for sheds


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## Spepper (Jan 31, 2014)

Thank you everyone for all your help.   I have a warm hide and a cool hide (she favors the latter unless she's digesting) and seems to be fine with about an inch of substrate with some reptile carpet underneath.  I did have more substrate... probably two to three inches but then I didn't have reptile carpet.  She burrowed all the time then but now she uses her hides and burrows a little under them even sometimes.  Her cool hide is a half-log bark type thing from a petstore so it's a little rough on the outside, and her warm hide is a hollowed-out burl from outside with a hole drilled in it as her only entrance so that one is super nice and dark inside (don't worry, it's been sanitized! ).  As for a humid hide... I was under the impression that they only needed that when they were going to shed?  If not I can fix that.  She also has a manzanita stick for climbing on.  (It has also been sanitized.)

Heat... I can bump it up a little but I recently lowered it because I was worried it was too hot staying at 90° or a little lower. 

And I don't really have the option of getting a smaller tank right now because I don't have the money but I have construction paper taped around three sides so she doesn't feel extra exposed when she isn't hiding.  I hope that helps anyone who wants to know the things about her keeping I haven't already explained.  If I'm doing anything wrong just tell me.


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## RzezniksRunAway (Jan 31, 2014)

I leave a humid hide in mine all the time, in case they want to use it. I'd add plants if you don't have any, vines and such all along the stick and shading off the cool area can go a long way in making it feel secure, especially since it's a larger tank. You have a large enough tank that the temp on the highest available surface can be approaching 100 as long as the cool side is in the 70's. They're good at deciding what they need for themselves in terms of temperature. Burns usually only occur with under tank heaters and in-tank rocks, and as long as you're misting and making sure the water dish is full the humidity should be fine.


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## Spepper (Jan 31, 2014)

Alright.  Upping the heat.   I don't have a heat rock as I've read they're horrible for snakes but I do have an UTH but she can't come into direct contact with the glass under the tank because of the reptile carpet so I think she's safe from burns unless I'm missing something.

I run a cool humidifier in the room she's in at night and I checked the humidity once in the room when I first got her and it seemed to be fine in the day.  I'll put in a humid hide.  But if I still need to mist, how much?

---------- Post added 01-31-2014 at 11:07 AM ----------

Oh and I'll keep the vines in mind.

I just checked the humidity in the room again and it's about 69-70%.

My poor snake, I thought I was taking better care of her than this.


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## pitbulllady (Jan 31, 2014)

The poops from a snake that size are often really small, and  you might be missing them, especially in a 20-gallon enclosure, and ESPECIALLY if you've got lots of decorations in there.  Snakes which are impacted generally will refuse to eat, for obvious reasons, so as long as she is eating, and not regurging what she eats, I would not be concerned.  What I AM concerned about is you cooking your snake! Corns are NOT tropical snakes and DO NOT tolerate the same temps at which you would keep a Ball Python or GTP!  One this small will be far more susceptible to heat stroke than an adult, too.  Corn Snakes in the wild are normally active at night when the temps are in the '70's, and this is the temp at which I keep them year-round unless I'm planning to breed them, and then I cool them down to the '50's to brumate them first.  
Soaking the snake in warm water will work best to encourage defecation.  By "warm" I mean use the same test that you'd use if you were going to bathe a human infant; put some of the water on your wrist and if it is the least bit hot, it's too hot for the animal.  Fill a Stearlite shoe box about half-full, put the snake inside, close the lid.   You want to leave plenty of air at the top above the water and you don't want the water so deep that the snake cannot touch bottom and keep its head above water at the same time.  Snakes can and will drown if they become exhausted swimming around.  Honestly, though, from decades of experience keeping snakes, I have never known a snake that really had a problem which would eat and still keep down what it had eaten, IF it was willing to eat at all.  I suspect that the snake has been "going", but you just have not seen the results because they're small.

pitbulllady


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## RzezniksRunAway (Jan 31, 2014)

You're not doing anything "wrong", just things that can be changed slightly. I don't check my ambient humidity, ever. I drive myself insane with it. I have coco-fiber mixed with cypress in some of my enclosures, and some have a modified "ABG" mix that's usually for planted terrariums. I have deep substrate in most (6-14 inches) so the bottom stays moist, and the top slightly dries out. In my tanks with less substrate I add water once a week when I clean the tank and stir around the bedding, and mist lightly in the AM over all the plants/rocks, and sometimes another light mist in the evening. Our house is SUPER dry. I also have isopods in my substrate to keep the mold to a minimum because the amount  of substrate and moisture. 

If she has access to a nice warm side, a nice cool side, clean water and an area that is higher humidity than the rest of the cage you're good. My theory on humid hides is to give the animal access to something that would simulate a moist burrow at all times for when they might need extra hydration. It sounds more complicated than it actually is, and relying on numbers will make you absolutely insane. I have a temp gun, and I only use it to check the absolute hottest part of the cage, and the absolute coldest.  It's more a game of giving the animal lots of options if you want to do it that way. Breeders keep them in racks with heat, a dish and a hide and they survive and breed. I like keeping mine in natural enclosures to get a different range of behaviors out of them. My hatchlings are all living in a tank together right now, and they are all over the place. One is perched on the cool side on a branch, another is hanging out by the water dish. A few are in various hides and one is just cruising around the cage climbing on random plants. 

As for the plants, it helps them feel secure without a smaller tank. Their biggest threats come from above, so giving them that bit of shelter blocks the view of the imaginary predators that they're no doubt concerned about.


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## Spepper (Jan 31, 2014)

Okay you've all been very helpful.

I do try to do what is best for my snake, and I've read several places that corn snakes can be kept with a heat gradient of 85°-75° so I try to provide that, but once it gets warmer I'm going to remove the heat pad entirely.  I'll figure out a humid hide as well and always be looking for ways to improve her tank.  

I think I must just be missing her poop then.  Thank you all for answering my questions.


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## Smokehound714 (Feb 1, 2014)

I was able to get sceloporus lizards to drink from a dish by placing a punctured bottle (use a really tiny needle, it'll ensure a super slow drip rate.) of water above the tank, got their attention real fast, and they loved it.  Before that, i had to be weird and place a rock in the dish.  THey drank, but only if they stumbled into the water on accident lol, but the drips really did the trick.


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## Spepper (Feb 1, 2014)

Hmmm, that's a good idea.  So fill it, poke a needle hole in it, and set in on top of the wire lid over the water dish?


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## pyro fiend (Feb 2, 2014)

your doing fine spepper. most people get the wrong info from the net anywho.  i myself keep humid hides in every tank besides my ball pythons because they are in totes. most of the time my gecko will go to the humid hide when needed just like my corns would [once they got out of the sub hiding faze they loved there humid hide even with my ARH at or above yours] sounds like alot of decor. but may wana add the humid hide incase my cousin kept his similar and got a verry dehydrated snake after a while. even her scales crackled [which made it funny because her name was flame..a crackling flame...XD] now that i made him keep the humid hide in there they r fine... i kept my cages lightly misted when i had them. 35% is what me and some breeders i know recomend. just incase.. as i said they are found in missouri and it can hit 100's and 90% humidity for weeks on end end we find anything from cornsnakes to rattlers here. so you wont cook her and if your providing a water bowl and humid hide youl be fine she wont get a uri   iv seen mine drink from water without any tricks tho as well as drink from water in the humid hide..

btw r u using a dial or digital hydrometer? dial are very unreliable.


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## Spepper (Feb 2, 2014)

Thank you pyro fiend.   I'm going to add a humid hide now that I know better, haha.  I'm using a digital thermometer.  I bought the tank used and it had a dial one stuck to the side but when I put a different more reliable one in I realized that it wasn't just a little off... it was _way_ off.  Like 10° off. LOL  (I knew that dial thermometers weren't very accurate so I didn't really trust it in the first place but I had my fears confirmed.)  So I got a probe digital thermometer and now I've got that all settled.


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## pyro fiend (Feb 3, 2014)

Good lol glad we could help. Glad u got a digi too lol i bought 4 dif digis and dials ime zoomed made best one my lazer read it perfect and every dial was +/- 8° as well as some digis were 2-4 off but so long as its a digi youl be fine hope happy keeping... oh and i hope u find urself a local rodent breeder as well to cut back on feeder costs x3

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## Smokehound714 (Feb 3, 2014)

Spepper said:


> Hmmm, that's a good idea.  So fill it, poke a needle hole in it, and set in on top of the wire lid over the water dish?


that's what i did, except i didnt have a wire-lid.  It was a large outdoor enclosure i built for them, using screening and wood, and i stacked cinder-blocks and driftwood from the beach, they loved it so much.  No electricity needed   What I did was hang it with an old wire coat-hanger, with a hole near the mouth of the bottle.  

  because they were outside, and in full sun, the water evaporated quickly, so the drips worked the best for me.


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## Spepper (Feb 3, 2014)

Thanks so much guys!  You've been a ton of help.  I'm going to try the water bottle drip-system so see if that'll get any more interest from Hydrangea (the breeder named her, not me. But unfortunately I couldn't think of anything better. xD)


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## Perentie (Feb 6, 2014)

pyro fiend said:


> Good lol glad we could help. Glad u got a digi too lol i bought 4 dif digis and dials ime zoomed made best one my lazer read it perfect and every dial was +/- 8° as well as some digis were 2-4 off but so long as its a digi youl be fine hope happy keeping... oh and i hope u find urself a local rodent breeder as well to cut back on feeder costs x3
> 
> Sent from my SCH-R530C using Tapatalk


 Oh god it hurts to read this... the thermometers you guys are using work, I have this though. http://www.amazon.com/ThermoTech-TT...igital+infrared+laser+temperature+thermometer


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## pyro fiend (Feb 6, 2014)

I have one too thats how i knew which thermometer to go with. I find it simpler to just look at stats then pulling out a tote and using gun

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