Royal Corn Snake???

[mr~python]

i think ive seen a royal corn in person at the Lodi Great Valley Serpentarium. www.snakemuseum.com is there website.

[frankykeno]

Humans are stupid. I was buying some stuff from the local feed store recently (where we get our snake hides aka rubber dog bowls). This one clerk mentioned they used to have a burm. I should have known when she said used to but dummy me has to go ahead and ask what happened to it. Well she says in this nice voice like it's a perfectly fine thing...."oh we got rid of it...it got too big".

Too big! arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhh They got a burmese python, what in the (bleep bleep bleep) did they expect it to get other than big!

Stupid, stupid humans!

On the upside I shut my mouth, gritted my teeth and made my purchase. I am still welcome at the feed store...whoooooooohooooooo!

Lovely snake by the way, is this is new cornsnake morph?


~~Jo~~

[Razaiel]

Hey, I'm back I really, really wanted to come here and post yesterday but my internet at home isn't working (apart from MSN and Outlook) so I couldn't get here (if anyone knows if I can fix this easily - please let me know )

Anyway - got to their house yesterday evening - kids at home (mother never is! - when she isn't working odd temp jobs she's going clubbing! - well enough of that).

First thing I ever heard of this particular snake was "I think it's a BP coz it looks like yours" and when I heard that 2 albino corns were being kept with an adult BP it was Well the day before yesterday when my daughter spoke to the mother she said, oh no - not a BP - a Royal Corn. So intrigued my daughter and I went round last night - the daughter (who isn't quite so scatty as her mother) said it's a normal corn. Well this creature is as big as an adult BP (about 5 feet) and has black and grayey-white markings (I've seen them somewhere - must search). It's about 2 inches thick on its thickest part.

It has (what I'm told by the girl who was told by a "pet shop employee") 'an abcess which was the result of a bite'. It's large and it's nasty. Very small pink-ish looking area at an edge where the lump is but it doesn't seem to bother the snake when touched, isn't bleeding, and seems to have healed over in a black mass on top. Well they had already got the snake out - it was cold as it's little cramped rubbermaid had no heat in it - it had no water because the rubbermaid wasn't large enough to put a water dish in even (even in our larger one at home where it is temporarily housed - there is no room for a water dish - we will have to get him/her out for regular baths/drinks until we can get a larger viv).

It has shed coming off it but I'm not sure if it was in the middle of shedding when removed or it is old shed just hanging on (I'm still relatively new to snakes and little Emily has always had hers come off pretty much complete). When I get home from work lunchtime I'm going to offer her a large mouse. I want to take her to the vet about this lump but want to make sure she has eaten with us and has some food inside her.

Am I doing the right thing by trying to settle the snake and feed it before rushing off to vet? (It's had this abcess/wound for at least a couple of months apparently) but they don't know when it last ate and there was only urates that came out when she pooped in the bath. She appears happy and moved about when she was out when we were there with her - but settled comfortably into her make-shift rubbermaid yesterday evening when we got her home. We haven't disturbed her at all - just let her settle in. Our make-shift viv isn't large enough to provide a hide even - so we covered the whole thing top and 3 sides with a dark towel. Like I said - this will only be temporary - hopefully she will be OK until early New Year - what with Xmas we weren't expecting to have to buy a new viv - and will have vets bills too we weren't expecting

If anyone has an urgent message for me - please use my email that is working snowdreamer@btinternet.com - as I won't be able to get access to this forum once I leave work here in a few hours time.

OK - I just found a link for a pic of it - it's the black and white one with the albino http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...lr%3D%26sa%3DN

[The Cannibal Monkey]

Ugh that is just such a horrible story, I'm so glad you're getting them out of that situation, at least some people in this world still have a heart. I hope everything goes alright with the hurt one, and it gets better

=( poor guy

[ScreeminChikin]

I probably wouldn't feed it and then run off to the vet with it. I like to let mine chill for 48hrs or so before any handling. You dont need the snake to regurge on top of everything else its going through. If the vet visit is more pressing then I would probably do that first. If you just brought the snake home, it might not eat anyways. I ususlly wait a week after bringing a snake home to settle in befor feeding.

[Bev]

looks like an anerythristic cornsnake to me in that pic, so if thats what yours looks like then thats what it is.

i have a baby anery and they are black and grey, so cute.
corns tend to be hardier than bp's so she should be allright for a lil while in a small tub, adult corns can grow up to 6ft so could be a bit like a bp size wise lol.
great that you rescued her, good luck.

oh yeah, i do echo the not feeding an rushing to the vets, if you feed her then vait a few more days to go the vets and maybe you will have a fecal to take with you then.

[Razaiel]

I probably wouldn't feed it and then run off to the vet with it. I like to let mine chill for 48hrs or so before any handling. You dont need the snake to regurge on top of everything else its going through. If the vet visit is more pressing then I would probably do that first. If you just brought the snake home, it might not eat anyways. I ususlly wait a week after bringing a snake home to settle in befor feeding.

I didn't feed it in the end - the vet visit is scheduled for today so, yes, no feeding before operation. I hope vet can sort it out and Snakey (still no name) isn't hurting too much after - I expect they'll keep her in overnight at least - especially as the little thing she's in currently is only like 1 1/2 ft x 10 inches I'm going to have to see if either of my 2 local reptile guys can lend me an old (maybe surplus old) 3 ft viv they could loan me until I can get money to buy a new one. The vet bill is gonna cost like £100 and all this at Christmas ...

Anyone here live in the Oxford (UK) area by any chance?

[Bev]

you can get a huge plastic tub from places like bwise and most pound shops for about 6 quid, id get ya one but im in wales and donr drive so not much i can do xcept tell ya that pound shops and places like that sell great snakey plastic tubs really cheap.

theyre huge and are definately big enough for an adult corn. a friend of mine breeds corns and gets all of her tubs from places like that. just go have a look around.

[frankykeno]

Raz, I think it's wonderful you are taking on this obviously abused snake that will need expensive vet care, especially at this time of year. I don't know about your vets over there but I know my vet and lots of others will offer either reduced prices or a payment plan for rescuers/rehabbers as there are just so few places that abused/neglected snakes can be placed. Don't be shy to ask about this.

I would definitely look at a nice small plastic tub from your pound stores (I'm assuming this is like our dollar stores over here) and just a bit of cheap paper toweling for a substrate (or whatever your vet recommends). Right now the snake won't need a lot of space anyways, just somewhere safe and appropriately heated with hides and fresh water and whatever medications the vet sends home with you. Lots of quiet and a bit of time then a good feeding when it's appropriate and hopefully this poor beastie will do a good turn around for you.

With our rescues, once they were cleared for feeding we started them out with quite smaller than normal prey just to help them get back into a feeding routine and kick start their digestion without over stressing it with a large meal. We were advised and have found it to be true, that's it best to start out with the smaller meals and move up slowly to their regular sized prey once we were sure they were holding down those first initial feeds.

Very best of luck Raz!

[Razaiel]

Thanks, Bev - I think we might have one of those in Banbury. There isn't much room in the plastic tub she's in now - about enough to move from hot end to cool end - but I'm definitely going to find a bigger one as there's no room for any hides - though I always cover part of it with a towel. Have you found any decent way to keep one of these plastic tubs heated? For our lizards I've always used ceramic heat emitters up in the corner top of viv. We've got a heat mat which we never found really satisfactory first time around - it gets either too hot or too cold - I guess maybe I can use a thermostatic control for that same as a CHE? (sorry - I'm just not used to mats!)


Jo - our vets won't consider that here - and in fact this vet I'm now going to is a new one to us - but is one of the top exotic specialists in the country so I daren't ask. Just not having to buy a viv though would be a great help! This snake is so cute and really friendly despite all she's been through.