new corn snake and some ?'s

[fishwithoutabik]

K, I got a gorgeous little Okeetee corn snake last weekend, and I just wanted to make sure I am doing what I am supposed to. I tried looking online for help, but knowing how off tarantula care sheets were, I figured I would ask you guys.

Here is the current situation:
Housing: Plastic shoe box sized container with air holes drilled in lid.
Bedding: Zoomed Aspen Snake Bedding
Food/water: shallow water dish, defrosted pinky mouse x1 weekly

The guy who sold it at the show said it wouldn't need a heat source as long as my house is comfortable room temperature and doesn't need a light source.

Go ahead and tell me what's wrong

Also, is there a reptile forum that is as fantastic as this one for spiders? any recommended resources?

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Housing: Plastic shoe box sized container with air holes drilled in lid.

Technically a good setup, but I'd say it was a bit too small - and I don't see any hideboxes. You should have two of those, one on the warm end and one on the cool end.

Food/water: shallow water dish, defrosted pinky mouse x1 weekly

I'd go for a deeper water dish, just don't fill it more than an inch or two deep and don't get one so tall the snake can't get back out of it. Sometimes they like to soak in there, especially when shedding.

And while I can't tell from the pic, pinky mice are fine provided they are at least as big around as the fattest part of the snake. If they're smaller than that, you should go up to the next size, and so on.

The guy who sold it at the show said it wouldn't need a heat source as long as my house is comfortable room temperature and doesn't need a light source.

While they don't need a light source, keeping them without heat is far from ideal. Corn snakes are somewhat better at surviving longterm in "less than ideal" conditions than something like a ball python, but that doesn't mean keeping them without heat is the best idea. (Especially because "comfortable room temperature" can mean anything from temps in the 60s to 80s depending on the human, and cold-blooded animals just can't tolerate that sort of thing like mammals can.)

http://www.cornsnake.net/care.php3 is a good caresheet and recommends a warm end of the tank in the mid-80s. Reptiles need some warmth in order to properly digest their food and (if my python is any indication) to help with bowel movements. Keeping them too hot or too cold will also trash their immune system and possibly cause them to regurgitate (which does a lot of damage to a snake's insides and is a big deal).

 

[fishwithoutabik]

thanks so much! I actually have a small heat pad, a couple of hides and a larger version of the same container on hand. I'll go pick up a water dish tomorrow.

Can you give me any info on handling. I have been told it is important to handle a few min a day so that they will get used to it. Thus far, the little gal seems kinda skittish.

 

[tigger_my_T.]

don't worry bout the skidishness, my corn does the same, but their totally fine to handle I hold mine all the time, just remember to wash your hands after.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Can you give me any info on handling. I have been told it is important to handle a few min a day so that they will get used to it. Thus far, the little gal seems kinda skittish.

I wouldn't do it every day - it's best not to handle on feeding day and the day after that, and I usually don't handle the day before feeding day either. But besides that, I'd stick with every other day at most. While keeping a snake hand-tame is a good idea, you don't want to stress them out too much either.

 

[Beardo]

I wouldn't say the tub is too small....looks perfectly fine to me. You don't want to keep small snakes in big enclosures....they stress easily if out in the open.

Small snakes=small tubs is my philosophy.

Also, that snake appears to be plenty big enough to take small fuzzy mice.

A temperature gradient of 75-85 is ideal for Corn Snakes......they can tolerate slightly cooler and slightly higher temps but that 10 degree gradient seems to work best in my experience.

Hold off on handling the snake until you get it to take a few meals.

 

[GailC]

try this forum. its very good.
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/index.php

 

[Mushroom Spore]

I wouldn't say the tub is too small....looks perfectly fine to me. You don't want to keep small snakes in big enclosures....they stress easily if out in the open.

Small snakes=small tubs is my philosophy.

While this is true, I also always heard (and it made sense to me) that a snake should at least have room to stretch itself out completely. I'm not advocating a 45-gallon tank for a juvenile corn snake or anything, but a little bigger than that tub couldn't hurt. Plus it strikes me that it'd be a pain in the butt to get a 85-88F temp on the warm end and have it cool off enough on the other end of the tank, if the other end of the tank is so close by.

 

[Beardo]

While this is true, I also always heard (and it made sense to me) that a snake should at least have room to stretch itself out completely. I'm not advocating a 45-gallon tank for a juvenile corn snake or anything, but a little bigger than that tub couldn't hurt. Plus it strikes me that it'd be a pain in the butt to get a 85-88F temp on the warm end and have it cool off enough on the other end of the tank, if the other end of the tank is so close by.

Not really....I've done so successfully in every rack system I've ever had.