Question about Corns...

[DeadLegs]

So I'm in Florida and my baby cousin in Missouri has a 5 month old Corn she's been asking me questions about. I've advised her to come here but she continues to ask me, haha!

I'm out of ideas so I thought I would come here and ask. As mentioned, her corn is 5 months old now, according to her it has great feeding response, temps are kept up, humidity levels are "good" and she's generally healthy but in the four months she's been with my baby niece, she has not shed once. Is this normal in Corns?

She's taking advice on how to care for it from Petco, so I'm leery at best. She has no heat source, only "room temp", no hydrometer and she mists the cage every day, as the Petco individual advised her...

Any help would be wonderful.

[NH93]

Yep... nope.
Corns need a heat source! Mostly in order to digest food. A thermostat set at 85F for a UTH is often suggested. Hygrometers are important as well. They definitely don't require as much attention in that department compared to balls though.
If it hasn't shed in 4 months, I STRONGLY presume something is amiss. At it's age (if it is indeed 5 months) is should have shed about 4 times by now.

www.cornsnakes.com is fantastic. Or send her the Cornsnake book by Bill and Cathy Love - they are awesome, and actually frequent that forum as well.

[DeadLegs]

Yep... nope.
Corns need a heat source! Mostly in order to digest food. A thermostat set at 85F for a UTH is often suggested. Hygrometers are important as well. They definitely don't require as much attention in that department compared to balls though.
If it hasn't shed in 4 months, I STRONGLY presume something is amiss. At it's age (if it is indeed 5 months) is should have shed about 4 times by now.

www.cornsnakes.com is fantastic. Or send her the Cornsnake book by Bill and Cathy Love - they are awesome, and actually frequent that forum as well.

Thank you for the reply, I've got her heading out to pick up the necessary things.

[Jay_Bunny]

While a heat source is recommended, there are people (like myself) that successfully keep corn snakes with no heat. My reptile room stays around 75 and I do not heat my corns. They feed, defecate, and shed normally. I used to heat them and since switching them to no supplemental heat I have seen no difference in their growth, feeding, or behavior. I also do not monitor the in-cage humidity but room humidity is around 50-60%.

In regards to the no shedding, I would take a look at the prey size and feeding schedule. She should also keep weight records. If the snake is not gaining weight then it will not shed. Also not all snakes shed on a monthly basis when they are young. I would have your cousin keep track of the size of prey that is being offered, how often the snake eats, and it's weight over the next few weeks. If the snake is eating regularly (a snake about that old should eat every 5-7 days) and there is no increase in weight, then I would be concerned.

[xStatic]

I also might add that although a snake that young not having shed yet is really odd and pretty worrisome, its still possible that the snake just hasn't needed to shed yet. *Generally* growing corns shed every month to month and a half, but they can also shed more or less frequently.

Once I was convinced my corn hadn't shed in two months, but then I realized the day before I had changed out all of his substrate for new aspen. I went and dug around in the bag of old aspen and found a shed all balled up and buried. If she's keeping it on aspen or something similar have her dig around and make sure he didn't shed under the substrate. A lot of baby corns really like to burrow