Crickets for corn snakes?? (at Petco)

[Lolo76]

First, let me preface this by saying that our local Petco is a decent one... they don't carry many reptiles (mostly due to restrictions within city limits), but the animals they do have are generally well cared for. Of course I always check out the reptile aisle, and haven't seen anything troublesome until now. Usually they just have a few small colubrids, leopard geckos & beardies - all healthy in appearance with proper housing, and the same goes for their rodents and birds.

Now for my question... when I was at this Petco yesterday getting feeder mice, I went to see what they had in reptiles. They had a (very cute!) baby corn by his/herself, with water and CRICKETS. There were only a few small ones jumping around, but clearly too many to have gotten in there by accident. I've only had BPs thus far, but was under the impression that corn snakes - no matter how small - primarily eat rodents. This one was extremely tiny, although I assume large enough to take a pinky mouse. Right?

If this was a big no-no, I'll tell the salesperson who owns reptiles... she only works the register, so probably doesn't get much time to observe the in-store animals. I've gotten quite friendly with her over the last few years, and I'm sure she would WANT to know if anything's wrong. The floor clerks are semi-clueless about snakes, so I rely on this cashier for most of my questions/concerns. TIA for your replies, since I don't want to say anything if I'm wrong about this.

[ApexPredator]

Cornsnakes are not insectivorous so having live crickets within it's enclosure is a big no no. Crickets could actually end up feeding on the live snake when they get hungry and are not provided with food. There are snakes that eat insects like rough green snakes so maybe they stuck the cornsnake in the wrong enclosure but it being Petco it would not surprise me one bit if they actually thought that cornsnakes ate insects.
HTH

[Lolo76]

That's exactly what I thought. Thanks for the response! I'll mention it next time I'm there...

[Lucas339]

not a big deal. in the wild, they would eat anything they could grab.

from the link:
"Corns are most active at night or in the hours of dawn and dusk (crepuscular). While they are primarily ground-dwellers, some are semi-arboreal. While the Elaphes feed on everything ranging from fish to frogs to rodents to mammals, wild Corns start off feeding on small invertebrates and vertebrates, such as crickets"

http://www.anapsid.org/corn.html

[mainbutter]

I'm 100% sure in the wild that baby corns eat insects when given the opportunity. They aren't all getting their food by tracking down nests of mice for a nice juicy pinky.

[Lolo76]

Huh... that's interesting! I guess I won't say anything, unless it seems like they aren't healthy - but why would a pet store, which has plenty of access to mice, offer crickets instead? Maybe they thought the snake was too small for even a pinky?

[spygirl]

PetCo's policy is to feed baby corn snakes pinkies once a week. My guess is either the crickets climbed in there from another enclosure (those enclosures generally have small gaps in them, making it easy for crickets to do this) or someone accidentally put the crickets in there while doing morning feedings. I'd mention it to a manager. It wouldn't surprise me if an employee was dropping crickets in their enclosure who didn't know any better.

[derrabe]

From my past experience most pet stores and their employees (not all) are in the buisiness of selling animals and the best care for the animal is usually backburnered to making them look attractive and sellable

[MarkS]

I'm 100% sure in the wild that baby corns eat insects when given the opportunity. They aren't all getting their food by tracking down nests of mice for a nice juicy pinky.

And I'm 100% sure they do NOT... I've been breeding corns for 20 years and I have NEVER seen a baby corn take any kind of insect whatsoever. These rumors got started because in analyzing the stomach contents of wild corns insect parts were found. The reason for this finding is because some of the animals that corn snakes DO eat, like lizards or tree frogs or even rodents DO eat insects and so the snake will ingest whatever is in the stomach of their prey. Couple that with the fact that one of the most printed out corn snake care sheets is on Melissa Kaplans site where she states in there if your baby corn will not take pinky mice you may try insects. Melissa Kaplan has VERY little if ANY experience with corn snakes. And despite the fact that MANY MANY prominent corn snake breeders have repeatedly asked her to change her care sheet, she has refused to do so.

Not only do baby corn snakes NOT eat insects voluntarily, but the hard chitinous exoskeleton may even be injurious and cause impaction.

Please do NOT feed insects to your corn snakes.

[wilomn]

not a big deal. in the wild, they would eat anything they could grab.

from the link:
"Corns are most active at night or in the hours of dawn and dusk (crepuscular). While they are primarily ground-dwellers, some are semi-arboreal. While the Elaphes feed on everything ranging from fish to frogs to rodents to mammals, wild Corns start off feeding on small invertebrates and vertebrates, such as crickets"

http://www.anapsid.org/corn.html

Lucas, melissa crapland is a load of manure.

You cannot rely on her information to be valid or up to date. She plagiarized, poorly, many people when she started up and doesn't really know much about anything other than peta is great.

I've never in all the years I've kept and bred corns, heard of one single one that ate a cricket. I've been doing longer than you've been alive, most likely.