getting started

[snakehunter]

my father is extremely interested in buying a corn snake, and i was just wondering if you guys could, give me some info on the snake like habits, eating status on the species. i have read the corn snake manual at least twice cover to cover. i have a BP, and i know that corns need alower temp than BP's, and i was wondering how you hit that range etc. thanx.
-Jacob

[Lisa]

You can get a lower temp by using a rheostat on the undertank heater. If you need to know how to build a rheostat look in the enclosure creations forum and you'll see a link at the top which will link you to the directions for the rheostat that katey and I built.

[RaVeNo888o]

Originally posted by snakehunter
my father is extremely interested in buying a corn snake, and i was just wondering if you guys could, give me some info on the snake like habits, eating status on the species. i have read the corn snake manual at least twice cover to cover. i have a BP, and i know that corns need alower temp than BP's, and i was wondering how you hit that range etc. thanx.
-Jacob

well, compared to a ball, they are much more active. They are known as great eaters, not often that you have trouble feeding a corn, usually take f/t right away. Temp gradient from 75-85ish, around 70 at night. The rheostat idea works if your temps are too high. You can just buy them also if you dont wanna go through the trouble of making one. They dont really need much humidity, it isnt as important with them. although too much or too little can cause respitory problems (but thats the same for all snakes)..umm..you wont need a big tank, the biggest would probably need to be a 20 gallon.
thats all i can think of right now

[Vanan]

umm..you wont need a big tank, the biggest would probably need to be a 20 gallon.

Adult corns, especially males, have the potential of reaching 5ft. Personally, I would recommend a 33gal tank for a corn. Add branches and some hides and you have a cage which would last it it's lifetime. Point to note, you may wanna start with a smaller tank first (10gal-20gal) for young corns as with insufficient hides is may stress a young corn out if in a huge space.

[lordkovacs]

yeah, a 10 gallon for first few months anyway... isn't the rule that for a corn you should have no less then 1.5 X it's body length for floor space? so, if you corn is 36", you need at least 24" length of floor space? Something like that anyway...I"m sure someone here has heard that rule... don't quote me on that...
After you get past the first few months, and he/she is eating well, the enclosure size isn't so important (that is, go bigger, not smaller!). Just make sure, as was said, that there is a lot of hides.
Cheers, and good luck!
MIKE

[Smilts]

Wy doeslots of room stress them out is it just being captive, because the wild is pretty big.

[lordkovacs]

lots of room doesn't... that's why you need many hides. nature provides unlimited hides, so you can't have a typical tank that has newspaper as substrate with one hide and a waterdish for some snakes, particularly younger ones.

[RaVeNo888o]

not lots of room, just lack of hiding spaces..you dont want them to feel out in the open and vunerable. How would you like to be in a huge field with big things looking down at you? :D