Just got my second 'baby'

[ruthupton]

Just bought my second snake and settled him down in his vivarium. I was told that he is a Carolina Corn.

Anyone know where I can find some online piccies to compare him with? Haven't got time to take piccies of him and upload them tonight because I am off to stay with my parents for the weekend.

[vanderkm]

Congrats on the cornsnake. The designation Carolina corn seems to be a UK convention that is not used as much in North America. I have seen it used to refer to both what we would term normal (classic) corns and the amelanistic normal corn - so will be interesting to see your new little one.

Some sites here that have photos include Simon's gallery at
http://www.extremesnakes.com/ and Serpenco's site at
http://www.serpenco.com/shop/customer/.

mary v.

[HeatherK]

Congrats on the new 'baby'.

[ruthupton]

He seems a hungry little thing. Has managed a pinkie each day, three days on the run. I am now wondering if he hasn't been fed properly before I got him.

I'll try him on one every other day until he gains a bit of weight.

[sapphire_moon]

Don't feed him everyday! Snakes are not meant to eat every day! Once every 5 days at the most, and just feed 2 at a time.

[ruthupton]

Fair enough. What should I do if he is genuinely under-weight?

[Auskan]

He will gain weight if fed properly, but as Sapphire said, don't feed more often than every 5 days. If he will take 2 pinks at a time, great. Depending on his girth, he might even be able to take a small fuzzy. I actually tried something new last night. I have some small corns that cannot yet eat fuzzies, but I have quite a few fuzzies in my freezer and was out of pinkies. So, while it was still rock-hard frozen, I sliced a fuzzy in half lengthwise, then thawed it out in a little ziploc bag in a mug of hot water. The corn was able to handle that. The half-fuzzy ended up weighing about the same as a large pink, and because I sliced it lengthwise, it contained roughly the same nutrition as a whole one would have. I'll feed the other half at the next feeding.

[sapphire_moon]

slow feed, like one pink every 5-7 days. If you hit his system with that much food, that quick, and his system isn't used to it, he might regurge. How do you mean genuinely under weight? Corns are slender as is.

[Andy_G]

Baby corns have a very fast metabolism and can be fed once every 3-5 days, not every day though. A pinkie every 3 or 4 days starts a corn off just right because pinkes are extremely fast and easy to digest because of the low bone mass and lack of hair. Once you start feeding anything bigger than a pinkie you need to lengthen the time between feedings a little bit.

[ruthupton]

He cannot manage anything larger than pinkies at the moment because his girth just is not big enough. He struggled with the pinkies.

He is five months old, measures 14" and weighs 10 gms. Your opinions would be most welcome.

[sapphire_moon]

I'm not good with grams and such, so can you compare him with something? like is he as thick as a pencil?

If he can barely handle one pink, then it would be best (in my opinon) to do 1 pink, every 5 days until he gets used to eating regular meals (about 3-4 feedings) then up it to every 3-4 days until he puts on some girth. You can also take a F/T rat pup and split it in half (length wise) and give it to him (after you defrost), rats seem to make snakes grow faster.

[ruthupton]

Sapphire, I would say that, at his widest part he is a little narrower than a pencil and his skin looks as thought it is 'too big' for him.

[sapphire_moon]

If his skin looks loose then he is dehydrated. But is this the same snake that is in the other post? Do you have a pic of him stretched out? (maybe next to a pencil if he doesn't decide to go the opposite direction)

I don't remember what to do about the dehydration. You would probably want to make another post about it and someone would be able to help you with that. And if you do include pics of how you think his skin looks loose.

[ruthupton]

Sapphire, I wouldn't say it looks loose exactly. Being a beginner it's hard to explain. Stretch him out? LOL He is a fast little beggar!

A friend of mine is calling around on Thursday to see him for the first time, so I will see what he says and let you know.

[Andy_G]

In the pic you have posted I think I see some crinkles at one of his coils. Underfeeding and/or dehydration causes this.

Dehydration in baby corns is usually but not always caused by regurgitation and can be corrected with pedialyte(sp?), if your snake has not regurged recently than he probably isn't dehydrated and just may not be getting enough food. 10 grams seems somewhat small for a 5 month old corn to me, maybe you should offer him two pinkies and see if he eats both. If he eats both, offer two pinkies for a few more meals and move him to fuzzies. Usually at close to the girth of a pencil corns can take fuzzies at the least but every corn is different.

[sapphire_moon]

Good, I know what you mean! I meant something more along the lines of put him in a large container, wait let him stretch out, (have camera and pencil ready!) quickly put the pencil down and QUICKLY take a pic! lol

I can NEVER get our corn to stretch out. Though I did go upstairs today to find her caught under her lid :( she has dent marks on her head and under her jaw :( I think she'll be fine, but tomorrow was feed day, I think I'll wait a few more days and let her de-stress and check on those dents. I am sure she will be fine though. I held her for a few moments and massaged the areas to get blood flow better, before I put her back in her cage the dents were un-denting (for lack of better word? lol), I put her in her warm hide and when I checked later she was in her middle hide.

[ruthupton]

He has not regurgitated at all and is pooing properly. I also saw him with his head in his water bowl. I honestly think that he is under-nourished lloking at other examples of this snake that I have seen.

I think he will take two pinkies without batting an eye-lid. which would be better - a fuzzie or a pup rat? My Cali King prefers pups to fuzzies.

[sapphire_moon]

Well if you were to feed it a rat it would have to be a new born, f/t split in half length wise! lol so complicated, but since I put my corn on rats she has grown like half a foot! And is getting a nice girth on her (Especially if I want to breed, which I don't!) Which ever one you feel more comfortable with giving. A newborn rat is about the size of a mouse fuzzy.

[ChokeOnSmoke]

If he is eating properly and you saw him drinking I wouldn't worry. Keep feeding him a pink or two every three to five days and he'll be back up to the weight he is supposed to be at in no time.