new set up

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poison

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Floof said:
She's a Kisatchie (aka Slowinski's) Corn snake. They used to be classified as a subspecies of the corn snake, but I think they've been reclassified as their own species now (Pantherophis slowinskii). Native to Louisiana and eastern Texas. She's a normal/"wild-type." :)

ah yeah ive heard of them. well shes very pretty. is this the one that laid the eggs?
 

Floof

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Yes, this would be the hatchlings' dam. :) I'll have to do a thread soon with pics of mom & dad and new pictures of a few of the babies. Still have a couple that aren't eating (still trying to find the right trick--skink scenting didn't work, so I guess next time I have to suck it up and buy an anole... lol), but most of them are finally getting going.
 

poison

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please do i would love to see them. ive never feed an anole to a corn but i heard its pretty hard to get them switched off once they've had one. Have you tried chicken broth(100% organic)?
 

Floof

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Don't plan on switching them on to straight anoles, just plan to see whether scenting the pinkies with anole gets them eating. :) I did try actual chicken and had it work on around 4 non-feeders (most of which, I believe, are now eating fairly consistently), with no interest from the non-feeders... I'll have to see about picking up some chicken broth to try that, too. I was hoping straight chicken would be a good alternative over having to go buy broth, but stranger things have happened than a snake preferring the smell of broth over the smell of raw chicken!

I'll throw up a new thread tonight, if/when I get some free time. :)
 

StudentoftheReptile

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First off, great-looking set-up and great-looking snake. Yes, the Kistachie corn is named for the late Joe Slowinski, a great herpetologist who met a tragic end; go check out the book, The Snake Charmer: A Life & Death in Pursuit of Knowledge by Jamie James, for his biography.

Just wanted to comment on a couple things...

Would be just too easy for it to get in a bite and do some damage.

hes gotten some pretty bad bites from rats so i decided no more rats mice only lol. Havent had any problems with mice bites so far.

Healthy snakes if kept properly and fed properly have no problem dealing with live prey. Many successful snake keepers feed live for decades without incident. Usually "incidents" occur when the habitat is not set-up right, the snake is stressed (many factors contribute to this), being offered incorrect prey, left unattended with the prey item or any combination of the above.

Some people do have good legitimate reasons for doing pre-killed, or F/T, such as a significant other or housemate disallows live feeding, or it simply may be more economical for their personal situation. But there is a misguided perpetuated notion that F/T is the ONLY way to feed your snake, and it quite simply is not true.

I can elaborate in much greater detail either in private, another thread, or in this topic...whichever you prefer, if anyone is interested in opening their minds.
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And yes, corns will turn cannibalistic if they are hungry. I can't think of a snake that won't if it's hungry enough. I recently saw evidence that even blood pythons will munch on each other if provoked. *shudder* Expensive lesson on that one!

but if kept well fed i dont think they would bother imo.

Famous last words. There are several instances of snakes being kept together for years suddenly turning on each other, whether it was a feeding response gone wrong, or adult animals combating. Bottom line: there are plenty of solid good reasons to keep your snakes separate. There is NO legitimate reasons to keep them together (aside from pairings during breeding season). Don't do it.

For the record, I just came across a photo of a hatchling cornsnake attempting to eat a hatchling king cobra (obviously the opposite of what the keeper intended!). It was not photoshopped. Anything can happen.
 

Floof

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Thanks for your post, Student! I'll have to check out his biography, for sure.. I spoke to another keeper recently who had read it and enjoyed it, but never caught the name of the book.

Thank you for your input on live feeding. I respect that it has its place and that many keepers do it and often do it successfully, but I think I'll stick to pre-killed and frozen/thaw, personally--besides the fact that it's more convenient for me, I'm paranoid to a fault when it comes to my animals' safety... Lol. One of those things that will continue to make me panic, whether or not it's really a legitimate concern.
 

StudentoftheReptile

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Floof said:
Thank you for your input on live feeding. I respect that it has its place and that many keepers do it and often do it successfully, but I think I'll stick to pre-killed and frozen/thaw, personally--besides the fact that it's more convenient for me, I'm paranoid to a fault when it comes to my animals' safety... Lol. One of those things that will continue to make me panic, whether or not it's really a legitimate concern.

Understood...but I have to ask: what makes you feel this way?

Imagine this hypothetical scenario (VERY hypothetical because animal rights would have a cow!): if you kept a tiger in a proper habitat in a zoological facility, and you were faced with offering it a live deer, would you be paranoid that the deer would seriously hurt the lioness? Obviously, a well-aimed hoof could cause some minimal damage,

I understand its not an ironclad analogy, and someone is sure to argue that "these snakes are not in the wild, they're in captivity".....but my main point is that realistically, the risk of injury is very minimal. Claims to the contrary are usually stemmed from people who quite simply, are not experienced in keeping snakes and are just regurgitating misinformation from other people who, likewise have not been keeping snakes successfully very long. If you have had an accident, it is 99% of the time an error on part of the keeper.
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My main concerns with F/T is that the process of thawing out the mouse. This isn't like thawing out a pre-cooked burger patty. You are essentially taking a dead animal out of frozen storage and laying it out in the open air to thaw. My question is: what forms of bacteria is the prey being exposed to during that period of thawing before you actually offer it to the snake? Granted, I think there needs to be a little more study into this, but it just seems a little odd to me, and I prefer to offer live, fresh prey to my snakes. And my snakes have no trouble dealing with live rats or mice. In 20 years of feeding thousands of snakes, one snake received a bite from a rat during a feeding. It healed up within a week, and the scar was gone by the next shed. Again, with proper husbandry & proper feeding methods, the risk is very minimal.


Mind you, I'm not necessarily trying to "convert" you over. I am merely trying to offer a broader perspective on this issue that many new hobbyists simply do not have. They are told by others that feeding live rodents to your snake is just a recipe for disaster, and basically using scare tactics. My question is: who started this notion?

Like I said, people who have been keeping, raising and breeding snakes for decades long before I was born have been feeding live before anyone even thought to freeze rodents, and no one had problems. Where did it begin?
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With lizards, there's a risk of crickets and mealworms eating the toes off if there are too many left in the habitat. But that rarely keeps most folks from feeding live insects. There's right ways and wrong ways to do things. So why is this a big deal with fledgling snake keepers?
 

LunaLupus

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I feed F/T for many of the same reasons as Floof. Just add in that I can't stand the smell of rodents, and I'm cheap. F/T is cheaper, and I don't have to deal with breeding the rodents on my own.

As for safety and to bring up the deer/tiger comparison here is my $0.02. Comparing a mammal to a reptile is not accurate in the least. If a prey item injured a mammal, we as humans have the knowledge to fix up the mammal. However, we do not have the knowledge to fix the equivalent injury in a reptile. With their metabolism, reptiles tend to heal slower, and that is what would worry me. And yes, I am one of those people who make sure there are no crickets left in the enclosures when it's time for lights out.

My theory is this, I chose to have this pet/breeder/hobby, and it is now my job to make sure they have the best of everything that I can provide them. For thawing, I actually thaw my rodents in the fridge for two days, then soak them in very hot water for a minute or two just to bring them up to temp.
 

poison

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well i added a bit more of substrate sense i see he likes to burrow. and sure enough he did. i haven't seen him in a couple days i knew he was still in the cage because i could see the substrate was lifted up where he had made a burrow.

He made a borrow under this piece of bark
P1030275.jpg


and heres the other end of the burrow
P1030283.jpg
 

poison

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Look at this great looking burrow he made
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Its pretty big around and deep.


I cant seem to get a good pic of how deep it is but trust me it is much deeper.
 

poison

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P1030876_zps3c3fad2f.jpg


P1030877_zps8ad5dd7e.jpg


P1030881_zps7a1b514b.jpg


P1030882_zps5610c7ec.jpg



Basking with his whole body at 109F
P1030992_zpse9229c47-1_zpsea1e473a.jpg


And part of his upper body at 117F Pic isnt clear but you can see him in the background
P1030994_zps975b9dc2.jpg
 
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