Getting first corn soon. But have some questions

[Roadside Jerker]

Hi! First off I apologize that this post is long but I just need to get some answers before I go for a cornsnake. Anyways I've always loved snakes but never really had one before. I did have a Ball Python for a couple days at the start of the year but returned him due to personal problems and being stressed about care. That was at the beginning of the year and now I'm certain I have my personal problems sorted out and am willing to try owning a snake again. I have all the supplies from the last snake but cleaned and disinfected them all and have the tank setup again. I'm getting a cornsnake because everyone has said they are a better beginner snake than a Ball Python so I figured I'll get a cornsnake.I am familiar with the different needs between the two species but am not 100% sure so that's what this thread is for.

As for the tank it's a 20G long glass tank with locking mechanism. I have an UTH plugged into a thermostat and set to 85F. The cool end is 70-80F depending whether or not I have my fans on. I have two hides and silk vines for cover and aspen for substrate.

As for my really important questions I'm just wanting to know if the temperatures are correct?

Second question is humidity. I was always worried about the humidity in my BP's tank because it would not stay up no matter what. I'm not sure exactly what the humidity for a cornsnake should be even after reading caresheets. They say household humidity is fine. My current humidity is 20% when my window is open and 30% when it's closed. I live in Eastern Canada if that helps any. There is no water in the bowl currently but may raise it a little and nothing currently over the screen top. Basically is approx. 20-30% humidity alright for a cornsnake with misting during shedding without it getting sick or anything?

Third question is their personality you could call it I suppose? How squirmy and fast are the compared to a BP? I'm aiming to get a yearling depending on what I can get. And are they known for any hunger strikes like a BP? Sorry if it's hard to answer just trying to get a comparison to a BP.

Last question is escapes. Everyone always says they're escape masters which has me worried already. I have a metal screen lid that I set on top and it just sets in place and I rotate two locks at the front. I always give a tug at each corner and 3 are good but there is just a little gap in one that's making me nervous. I can't quite fit my pinkie in there if that helps although I could take a picture for reference if needed. I have 4 dogs and 2 cats. The snake would stay in my room but it couldn't get out or one of my other pets may find it. So I just want to prevent an escape as much as possible and an tips on doing that would be helpful.

Thank you for anyone who reads this as I just needed to ask these questions but didn't know who to ask. Once again I'm sorry for length.

[wescoast]

Im not to sure on corns. But I would go for a ball try to adopt one from craigs list cuase ur still not 100% ur ready. They are calm docile nice and some dont really move or do mutch... cuter too in my opinion and they max out around 5 feet but are fat. I think with the extra mass a healthy ball could deal with a half a year fast better then a corn. Ur decision but be sure ur ready. I love my two balls and check and hanlde em every day. I wouldnt change a thing

[Brad_Brinkman]

No worries on the lengthy post, knowledge is king so never be afraid to ask questions. To answer your first question a 20 gal long tank will be fine just make sure you have plenty of hides for a smaller corn snake to help him feel secure. As far as temp goes just make sure you have a thermometer on both the hot and cold side of the tank. The hot side should be between 80-85 deg and the cold side should be in the low to mid 70's, you shouldn't need and fans for you corn snake enclosure.

The Enclosure humidity should be okay were it is at 20-30% because corn snakes don't need a lot of humidity unless they are getting ready to shed. When your snake is ready to shed what I like to do is take my snake cave like this on http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/snake_cave.php and fill it with moist Sphagnum moss http://zoomed.com/db/products/EntryD...D=2&SearchID=5 until it shedsl. I do this with all my snakes and when they are in shed phase they hardly ever leave this rock.

To answer the personality question, corns snakes can be more mobile and twitchy than BP but all animals are different, you will occasionally find a BP that will have a cranky personality, it just happens. What I recommend doing is checking with some actual breeders online like http://bhb-reptiles.myshopify.com/co...ns/corn-snakes or http://www.lllreptile.com/catalog/54...-and-ratsnakes or checking on any breeders in Canada closer to where you live for shipping cost reasons. But what they can do for you is not only have a larger selection of paint jobs than a chain store but you can also contact them directly and tell them you are new to corn snakes and request they send you one of the calmer snakes in there collection. This is what I did with my first snake I bought from BHB and they were happy to oblige.

For you last question the rule of thumb is if they can fit there head through a gap then they can get the rest of there body through, so if you gap is bigger than there head you will want to try and fill it with something they cant push out. I wont lie corns are good at escaping so if there is a hole it will eventually find it, and cats would love to get at little snake if they get the chance, I know my cats will sit and watch me when I'm handling my snakes just waiting to see if I'll put them down for them to play with, of course I don't let them get close to me when I doing that for safety reasons.

I know you didn't ask but I wanted to touch on substrate real quick. As I'm sure you know there are several kinds of substrate, I typically use paper towels or Eco Carpet http://zoomed.com/db/products/EntryD...D=2&SearchID=5 they are both very easy to work with! Paper towels you just toss and add new the only drawback is they don't look the greatest if you care about that sort of thing. The Eco carpet looks nice and it's washable, I just recommend you buy 2 of them so you always have a clean one ready to go in when your cleaning you enclosure. I will say the carpet doesn't lay very flat at first but after a little while it will straighten out. The main reason I am bringing us substrate is because a lot of people recommend using Aspen Chips or Shredded Aspen for corn snakes which is fine for older snakes but it can cause issue with the smaller ones. I used Aspen bedding for my first corn snake and after a few months I noticed a slight swelling on one of his eyes and after a few days it was really swollen, it looked like a large clear bubble over his eye, I'll post a pic to show you what I'm talking about. What the Exotic Animal Vet said probably happened was the dust created by the wood chips can clog up there Nasolacrimal duct (tear duct) if it gets in there mouths. Snakes tear ducts drain into there mouths and the smaller baby corns have very small tear ducts that can clog very easily. Typically if this happens and it doesn't resolve itself quickly it can lead to blindness, eye rupture, and infection and typically the only way to fix the problem is to remove the eye altogether because the baby snakes are to small to clear the blockages without harming them worse than they were already. I just want to say that I'm not in any way trying to scare you but I just try to tell people what I've dealt with.

Well I hope this helps answer any questions and if you have anymore I will do my best to answer them.

[HVani]

Good choice in a first snake IMO. Corns don’t tend to go on hunger strikes, don’t worry much about humidity and the morphs tend to not be very expensive compared to balls. I have 2 corn snakes and I adore them. I have an adult and a baby. The baby has escaped once. I had a screen top with Velcro all around the edges and he still got out. I went out and got a tank with a sliding screen top and he has not made an escape since then. Babies are tiny and can get out of the smallest places.

For personality, babies can be a little jumpy but calm down quickly. Adults are fairly active but very calm. Going with a yearly or older is a good plan.

I’ve never heard of substrate being an issue for baby corns until the above post. I stalk another forum that is all about corn snakes and I have never seen this mentioned. My baby is on a mixture of ecco earth and reptile bark without issue.

[Brad_Brinkman]

The condition my snake has doesn't happen a lot but I have talked to a few people on a few different reptile forums that have dealt with this issue, the one i have seen most often is about a corn snake named Cherry. I haven't heard about this happening to adult snakes, just the littler ones. I only post this so people will know about this condition because there isn't a lot of info made available about it. The exotic animal vet I took my snake to said she has seen a handful of these cases but unfortunately there are people out there that consider the cheaper snakes as throw away pets so when something like this happens they just set them loose or euthanize them so we never hear about all the cases out there. I truly hope nobody has this happen to any of there animals, it is truly hard to see anything you care about go through something like this!

[Brad_Brinkman]

Very nice looking snakes you have there, I really love Corn Snakes!!