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Tomorrow would be too soon. He could regurge, and with snakes, the stomach acid won't return for weeks. Not a good way to start off the big guy. Frozen and then thawed (F/T) is the best way to go in my opinion. It is the cheapest and safest. Put the mouse in a baggie in cold water for about 30 minutes and then add hot water. Blood may come out of its nose due to the temperature change, but some snakes won't eat cold mice. Hold the mouse by the tail to feed, and he'll feed. This would be in a week to let him settle.techen said:Thank you Vibora, Hes very curious at the moment, Going all over the tank. The guy gave me a mouse and said to feed him 2mro? Should I just stuff it back into the freezer and hold off with that now? Am not a fan of live foods anyway so it will be frozen mice if this is okay?
It has a heatmat in there but no thermostat or anything like that. Could you link me to something I should have with the heat mat to keep the tank at stable temps?
Also, A hide? No, There's some fake bushes he crawls into sometimes but I'll get him a real hide like a cave or something.
I signed up to the website, Just waiting to be approved.
Lastly, I do want a light but are these not recommended? Could I not put a reptile light in there or just a normal one for day/night cycles?
Great info! Yeah, I wondered if perhaps he'd need a small rat, but as you said, he looks a bit chubby. Most snakes can live their life on mice, but he's such a big boy! Anyways, Flora is lovely. I love butters, almost as much as I love caramels. -Edited to add- Most of the UTH in the US are programmed to malfunction off, but some brands break on. I don't know how it is in the UK, but yes, I would agree that a rheo is needed. Another bad thing that could happen, is if water spills on a non-regulated UTH. Then the tank will crack.MBOU said:In the UK, the most common make of thermostats is Habistat. That is your urgent priority! With no thermostat, there is nothing to tell you if it stops working and the snake gets cold... or much worse still... with no thermostat... there is nothing to prevent a fault where it heats up so hot it cooks the snake... which is, unfortunately a common fault in heatmats.
Long term, you would probably be much better off looking into getting a ceramic heat lamp and a stat, heatmats are just... *meh* if its a big ole snake, it will get hot very quickly sitting on a heatmat and they are often too stupid to get off the heatmat. With a ceramic bulb, you can set it (with a guard) down one end of the vivarium which will give you better control for the temperature variant down each end of the vivarium.
As for the frozen/thawed food, that is the best way to go, corn snakes are rarely ever fussy feeders! But some snakes do dislike wet food, found a good way of defrosting it and keeping it dry is using a hair dryeror if you get the ceramic on the viv, keep the heatmat and lay frozen mouse on the heatmat to defrost.
He will definitely want an adult mouse or a really small rat at the size he is but depending on how fat he is, might only want feeding every 10 days or so....
My friend has a good website, a good simple article on corns as well...
http/www.thamesvalleyexotics.co.uk/page6.htm
Here is the heating you want:
Pulse Stat
http/www.eurorep.co.uk/heating/thermostats/habistat-pulse-prop-thermostat
Ceramic (though I am not sure on wattage..)
http/www.eurorep.co.uk/heating/ceramic-heaters
If you are on FB, ask Kat on here for any questions or photos of her corn snake setups, she will most happily oblige
https/www.facebook.com/pages/Thames-Valley-Exotics/203422953746?fref=ts
Here is my corn (had to sell her when I moved in with my now ex), she was a beautiful American bred Serpenco Butter corn snake called Flora lol.