This is a (photo-)blog about my corn snake, Bino. He was found in the streets of the biggest Swabian city and nursed back to health by the local animal shelter. I had the audacity to take him away from there and heartlessly put him into his new home inside my home. His favorite movies are Pinocchio and Inception.
Hey, first of all thanks for the advice :) She's about half a year now, and she's got more than enough hides in her enclosure. She's got 5 hides and then her enclosure is build like a ruin so she has many edges and corners she can hide in as well. I hope you're right and she just needs more time. Also, I have cats. Could that also be a reason why she's that aggressive?
You’re welcome! :) Half a year is still very young, it could take one to two years until she’s growing out of her childhood irritability. I’m glad to hear that there are many hides - just to be really sure, temperatures are managed in her enclosure?
Are the cats allowed in the same room as the snake? It’s possible that she smells the cats and feels alarmed all the time. If it’s possible, move the snake to the quietest room of the house and wash your hands before you handle her in order to minimize the alarming scents you give off.
I’m optimistic that all those small changes help your snake over time, everything’s just a little bit slower than we’re used to. :)
Hey, so I have a problem with my little corn snake. I've got her for about two weeks now. She's eating just fine and she also got used to her new enclosure. The problem is just that I can't handle her at all. Every time I try, she strikes and hisses at me. I just can't seem to calm her down somehow. Do you maybe have some advices? 😅
Hello! :) At first glance, your little corn snake appears to behave perfectly normal for a young individual. Do you know how old she exactly is? Young corn snakes are almost always unsettled and quick with aggression, it’s because they’re also preyed upon in the wild (also by mammals - and you are one), and their personality hasn’t developed yet. Most corn snakes mellow out when they grow older, so my first advice is that you just need to give her a bit more time. It takes more than two weeks for her to really settle in (it’s a tiny reptile, after all - we can’t project our giant, hot mammalian brains onto them). If she’s eating, she’s not stressed out beyond all hope, but her aggression shows that she needs more retreat. I suggest handling her less, maybe once in one or two weeks until she grows calmer. Also provide her with lots of big and small hides (they feel secure when they can feel the walls of their hide!) in both the cool and warm areas of her enclosure. The more secure she feels, the higher the chances that she calms down. I also recommend a smaller enclosure than what’s used for adults, and gradually expanding it while she grows. A young snake is more likely to be anxious in a too-vast enclosure.
Does this information help you further? Feel free to ask more if you have more questions, I’m glad you asked! :)
In the last days, I read a lot about the potential toxicity of pine phenols towards snakes, and even though I used supposedly sap-free bark as a substrate, I didn’t want to risk anything. After a thorough cleaning, Bino got a nice load of snake aspen as his new substrate. He almost immediately started to burrow and plow tunnels, so the switch was absolutely worth it in every aspect. :)
Hi, I'm looking into becoming a mammy to a corn snake and I have a few questions. What type of snake is Bino? They're beautiful Is having a corn snake safe with cats? I have three and I don't want to stress them out Also is there any tell tale signs that something is wrong with my little noodle? The things I'm worried about is to hot/cold, over/under weight or if there not eating/drinking because they're ill ❤️❤️
Hey! :) Thank you for gathering knowledge before buying/adopting an animal! A lot of text follows under the cut.
Bino is a snow-morph corn snake. I don’t think that your cats would be stressed out by a rather calm animal inside a terrarium, they’d be more interested than scared. Cats can be a major stress factor for the snake, though. Corn snakes are preyed upon by larger mammals and birds in the wild, so their presence may put the snake under constant tension. If you want both species to live under one roof, make sure to give the snake the calmest room in the house and provide plenty of hiding spaces inside the terrarium.
In general, corn snakes are fairly easy to keep regarding temperature and humidity. Normal room humidity (around 50-60%) is perfect, they may need values up to 80% to help with shedding. Bino retreats to the more sealed, cooler, and thus, moister corners of his terrarium before he sheds, so he manages that just fine on his own. You can help by providing a box with some damp moss in it, or mist the terrarium a bit for a few days if your snake goes into shed. Too much moisture can promote respiratory issues, so don’t overdo it.
Temperature should be a bit varied in different parts of the terrarium. The cool side should hover around 22-24°C, the warmer side around 27°C with a heat spot at around 30-35°C. I know about the discussions about heat mats and “warmth from below”, but I went with nature’s solution and let light and warmth come from above; the radiation heats the surfaces up, anyway.
I also want to avoid fire hazards as much as possible, and I don’t really trust red-hot wires under my wooden terrarium. My heat spot is outside the terrarium on a metal mesh wire and all lamps are attached to thermostats with fuses and the smoke detector is right above them.
Corn snakes are fairly good in hiding health issues, but you will develop an eye for the well-being of your companion with time. Sick snakes may cough or wheeze, have dark discolorations on their scales or around their mouths, are lethargic and have a bad muscle tone. Respiratory issues, scale and/or mouth rot, mites and digestive issues are the most common ailments and will be recognizable after you learnt the habits of your snake.
Most corn snakes are very good eaters and won’t cause major problems with that. Bino gets two mice every two to three weeks, I vary a bit between the exact feeding days and the size of the mice. He was a bit on the lean side during summer because he was extremely active, but his current photos show a good overall weight. Being slightly underfed is less dangerous than being overfed, so when in doubt, wait a day or two longer with feeding.. Digesting a meal is a big undertaking for a corn snake; it enlarges its internal organs and will rest for a few days to digest. They’re opportunistic feeders and most will eat everything you put in front of them, so you have to moderate. Their digestive systems need time to “cool down”. Overfed snakes will quickly become obese and live shorter lives. Losing weight is a long process, so just avoid the issue altogether.
If your tap water is free of chemicals, it’s alright to use it as drinking water for your snake. A simple, heavy water bowl in the cool area of the terrarium (to avoid too much evaporation) is everything needed, but you can also provide a bigger bowl for the snake to bathe in. Some corn snakes really like it, Bino never bathes. It’s up to the character. A dehydrated snake will look dull and papery, maybe even carry stuck shed around.
If you’re going to get a hatchling or very young corn snake, please note that they’re naturally agoraphobic and won’t do well in a big terrarium for adult animals. Put it in a small(er) enclosure with lots of hiding spots and move it to bigger enclosures while it grows.
Many corn snakes like to climb, so maybe provide some nice branches or platforms. Terrariums with a low ceiling aren’t suited for corn snakes, and different levels also make it easier for your snake to choose a temperature layer it wants to be in.
Handling is a controversial issue. Some won’t feed their snakes in their terrariums because they fear “cage aggression”, some handle their snakes every day to “tame” it. Corn snakes aren’t tameable in the way other mammals interact and bond with us. Snakes tolerate us and learn that we bring food, but there won’t be a social bond between them and us. It’s alright to handle your snake every now and then, this will also help if it has to be taken out of the enclousure because of cleaning or a visit to the vet, but I’m not a fan of taking out Bino every day because I want to live out my cuddling tendencies. I’m a mammal, I’m way bigger than him, and the only thing nice about me is that I’m a heater and that I know how to operate the fridge. We shouldn’t anthropormize everything, snakes are awesome because they’re so different from us, and I enjoy silently watching this otherness.
I hope this helped you a bit, please ask further if you want to know more! :)
So much digestion to do! Bino outgrew large adult mice and I switched him to x-large adults. You can see the two bulges left and right from the center, and I’ll watch how I may adjust his feeding schedule.
You can’t allay my fears with your cute looks. I know what’s brewing beyond your face... quite literally. Please just not while you hang there like that
Yes, it really was the shed strained that him. Everything came off, albeit not in one big piece. Now that I learned something new about him, I’ll make sure to mist his enclosure the next time. Phew!
Bino had the strangest look on his face today. He was unusually reclusive over the last week so maybe I didn’t catch him going blue, but his dark snout really does look like the last stage before shedding. I normally don’t feed during shed, but I wanted to make sure nothing else’s wrong - at least he ate like the champion he is and spent some time under the heat spot today. Maybe the very dry weather of the last two weeks made shedding unusually exhausting; I’m glad that it’s now rainy and humid again.
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