Corn snake care questions

[Aranea8717]

I am looking to buy a corn snake soon. I heard they are a good starter snake and I was very interested in keeping one. Before I go to buy the snake and supplies, just wanted to ask some questions that you guys can hopefully help me with.
1. After looking at different websites, I planned to buy my snake from Underground Reptiles, who is also a pet store in Florida . The ratings are good, but just wanted to know if anyone had experience with this place and what you think.
2. When I get her, I was going to start her in a 10 gallon and then buy a 20-30 as she grows. How long could she be housed in the 10 gallon? Certain age/size?
3. How long could frozen pinky mice last in the freezer? I was going to buy a 50 pack and dont know if it would go bad after a certain amount of time
4. How often do I feed a juvenile (12-13 inches).
5. How fast do they grow?
Thanks!

 

[silverhaze269]

1. I don't have any experience with that store/website.

2. I think that would be a good size tank...you want something that the snake can stretch out in, so if you straightened the snake out and then wrapped it around the bottom it would fit head to tail...if that makes sense to you. Like, if you made a rectangle out of your snake, would it fit around the tank completely, or would it overlap on itself?

3. I wouldn't get that many pinkies to start, I'd go with 25 (at most) and see how far that takes you. The snake may outgrow that size prey faster than you think and then you'd be stuck with a bunch extra. A good rule of thumb is to stick with smaller quantities of feeders when they're small, and then once they get to larger prey items you'd be safer getting more at a time. You also don't want them to get freezer burnt. You want to feed them something that's no bigger than 1.5x the girth of the snake in the middle, whatever size that happens to be.

4. We fed ours two prey items at a time (one after the other, a few minutes apart - we waited a few minutes after she had the first one down), until she got up to weanlings, I think - then we fed her one a week, until she got up to adult mice, and now we feed her a larger mouse once every 2 weeks. She's aways been a really eager to eat though. We went with the same feeding schedule the pet store had when we got her.

5. It all depends on how much you feed them, and how often - and the size of their enclosure. You also don't want to over-feed them. They grow faster when they're little though.

 

[Aranea8717]

Awesome, this helps a lot. Thanks!

 

[pyro fiend]

I am looking to buy a corn snake soon. I heard they are a good starter snake and I was very interested in keeping one. Before I go to buy the snake and supplies, just wanted to ask some questions that you guys can hopefully help me with.
1. After looking at different websites, I planned to buy my snake from Underground Reptiles, who is also a pet store in Florida . The ratings are good, but just wanted to know if anyone had experience with this place and what you think.
2. When I get her, I was going to start her in a 10 gallon and then buy a 20-30 as she grows. How long could she be housed in the 10 gallon? Certain age/size?
3. How long could frozen pinky mice last in the freezer? I was going to buy a 50 pack and dont know if it would go bad after a certain amount of time
4. How often do I feed a juvenile (12-13 inches).
5. How fast do they grow?
Thanks!

sooo im jump right to 2 and 3....thats a hatchling.. i ALWAYS start my corn hatchlings on small rat pinks because i hate how small mouse pinks are lol and i usualy have rats on hand lol.. but pinks dont last that long so id also say no on the 50 pinks [rat pinks are 2x larger and 75% of our calubrid hatchlings can eat a normal sized rat pinkie] but if you wana stock up on mice later down the road they stay for a super long time. like year or more so long as they dont get freezerburnt but always feed about 10-20% bigger then widest part of your snake

now.. 1 a ten is okay. Calubridae are verry active at times and kinda squirmy so may wana give her branches and whatnot to cruse around itl be more pleasing to your eye. a 5.5 with locking lid may be better if you can score it off the then move to a 20 long [largest itl need and thats huge for them imo]

4) this all depends on your goal.. i hate small snakes [lol yet i breed them, and end up with thousands of eggs a year lol..logic right??] so i feed them as quickly as they will digest. usualy with my temps [80*min] its about every 3 days.. but thats because i want my females up to size sooner and my males to a managable size for me... otherwise i would say once every 5-7 days is fine once they are on adult small mice [snake will be a at least a hundred grams] i do once a week with exception of my breeder intended females i never feed double pray items i feed apropriate sized rats as theyl digest sooner and theyl eat again

5] sorry to throw ya under the bus silver, but tank size has NOTHING to do with the snakes size.. iv adopted 5ft snakes that lived in 5gallons.. and i keep all my snakes in totes [much smaller then a cage] but you are right on the amount you feed them.. me being a breeder i like to let them pound down as many as they will. a juvie can not be overfed. they are growing and will NOT eat more willingly then they can digest in a timely manner.. once shes 4ft she can be overfed and it will be seen noticably by scales very distant from eachother on her side sof the belly [shell also look fat trust me] but its not common in anything under a few years imhe

 

[Aranea8717]

Ok, I'll look into buying rat pinkies. Would you recommend buying my snake from a pet store instead of buying her online? The place I am ordering her from is highly rated and is also a "pet store" in Florida.

 

[pyro fiend]

Ok, I'll look into buying rat pinkies. Would you recommend buying my snake from a pet store instead of buying her online? The place I am ordering her from is highly rated and is also a "pet store" in Florida.

Well like i said 75% accept rat pinks. Not all.. Imo id do it on a weekly basis.. Pinkies around here are $0.25-0.50 a peice for mice and 0.50-1.00 for rat pinks frozen thawed.. A snake may only take a few pinks before it needs a fuzzy then a hopper mouse before you know it.. Last thing ya wana do is spend a bunch of money on a food item you cant use all of

Personaly id say get her before buying a food item. Because youd kick yourself in the bum if shes actually bigger then u thought and u need different pray

Online can be cheap and thats how my shop does most of their buisness but youd get to pick out one if you go to the store and being as u want a pet, it means u get the exact one you want and can find proper pray all in one swoop.

As for who you chose.. I shall keep my mouth shut as one buisness should not say something about another.. All i can say is check all reviews on here, snake forums and anywhere else you can find and check the store out if u can ahead of time make sure it meets your standard for a storefront

 

[Aranea8717]

Thank so much for your advice!