#xephirxx

[i-m-snek]

Do you know of reputable corn snake breeders that ship? I've been looking around for months but I want to make sure I support a good breeder~

I don’t know of any right off the bat :( I got my corn from a local dude. I would go onto the classifieds facebook pages and get reviews on breeders from there :)

[i-m-snek]

So, I know you don't reccomend ball pythons as first snakes, but I would like to rescue a little beastie instead of buying from a breeder, and I haven't been able to find any reputable corn snake breeders nearby? So my only real option for a corn is PetSmart, and I'd rather not support their animal practices :c Do you think I should look more for a corn breeder? Or would I be okay rescuing a ball python?

I would for sure look into a corn snake breeder, ball pythons don’t make good beginner snakes and rescuing a snake is not like rescuing a dog or cat, there’s always a risk that they are sick, or have incredibly special needs, etc. I would look in to getting a corn snake shipped to you, it is an extra $40 usually but is 100% worth it to buy from a reputable breeder :)

[i-m-snek]

So a friend of mine houses two ball pythons (one male one female) in the same cage and moves them to feed them. He says it's more natural because ball pythons have companions in the wild. Also, I should believe that's fine because he has 30 years of experience with reptiles. But everything I've read said not to keep two snakes in the same enclosure and that it can cause unneccesary stress to move them for feeding. What are your thoughts on this?

He needs to separate them ASAP. Even if someone has been doing something for 30+ years doesn’t mean they are  doing it correctly. Ball pythons absolutely do not have companions in the wild, they don’t even have the part of the brain that forms bonds with other animals, they evolved out of it to be solitary predators. The male will over breed the female, and it can possibly make her egg bound as well. The ‘cuddling’ that people see is actually an act of dominance where they are fighting over the better spot in the cage. Ball pythons kept together will often not eat as much or as often as they should because of stress. They will refuse and/or regurgitate their food. Even if he hasn’t experienced this, it is a very real possibility and he should not be taking the chances with it. 

[frickyeahsnakesandstuff]

Ahh okay. Then do you by any chance know any reputable cornsnake breeders that will ship their noodles?

I’m not super into corn snakes, but I know a few. Kathy Love has some. Her website is painful to look at but she’s a really big corn snake person. She’s written books and stuff. I’m also not sure about the last time she updated so I don’t know if the stuff she has up is still available or not. 

VMS Herps is also really big and well known and it seems like they have a lot of different ones to choose from. 

Don Soderberg is the guy. Probably the biggset name in corn snakes that I know of. He’s also written a couple books and he seems to always be the first one with new corn snake morphs. 

Those are the only really big and reputable ones I could find, and I’ve never done business with any of them so I don’t know how nice they are to work with. My aunt bought a few from Don I think, and she never said anything bad. The animals were perfectly fine. I would probably go to him first. There are also places like LLL and Reptmart, which are less corn snake specific. I’ve never bought anything from LLL, but I’ve purchased several colubrids from Reptmart and they’ve always been perfect. I hope this helps a little. 

( I tried to get the reptmart link too but it’s not loading right now. It’s just reptmart.com)  

[i-m-snek]

Hi! So in a couple months I'm going to start the adventure of looking for a snake and getting an enclosure set up, but for now I'm just doing research. I know you're supposed to quarantine a new snake when you get it, but if it's my first and only snake, can I just put it in its enclosure? Or should I have a separate enclosure for quarantining? And if so, what should that enclosure contain/look like?

Hello! Congrats on starting the process :D So the quarantine cage can be the cage you will be using after, it will just be set up differently :) Paper towels as substrate, and only the two hides and water bowl at first. That way you can keep an eye on them for the first month or so and see any mites or funny looking poops. After the first month you can add a few more things, but keep them on paper towels until after the third month. Then you can add what ever you want to the cage if everything still looks good for the snake :) 

[i-m-snek]

Is that really all a black widow needs? What do you feed your spiders? Do you ever handle your black widow? How did you get her? Basically I want to know everything about your spiders haha~

Yup! They just need something to build their web on, and the odd thing is about every two months it’s good to destroy the web because by then it is worn out and less effective. The widow will build a new one over night and it will work much better, since in the wild their web gets destroyed probably once a week or so. I feed them baby dubia roaches, or even just flies or moths from outside :) I don’t free handle her just because of the risk of being bit, she is mostly for show. I found her in a corner in my last house and didn’t want my husband to kill her, so I caught her and have had her ever since :) Female black widows live about three years when well taken care of and can grow to be fairly large when fed well. They are generally very docile, and would rather run or play dead than bite, but I still don’t free handle just in case :P 

[kaijutegu]

My mom finally told me I could a noodle once some things get done and I'm /so excited/ I just want a cute little corn noodle for my firsf snake and I was wondering if there was a place that had everything you need to know about corn noodles?

Yeah, scroll down to “corn snake” on this list and there’s several people who have resources and great advice! In particular, this is a good resource page!

[kaijutegu]

So that bookcase you modified, did you just put glass doors on it and drill holes in the side or was there more too it? How big are the tanks?

The inner cabinets of the bookcase are 12 inches deep by 30 inches wide (about the same as a 20 long; it’s a bit bigger on the outside, of course) and there’s a lot more to it than that! Holes in the side, false floors- basically just elevating the tiles so that I could snake heat cable underneath- sliding track and plexiglass doors. Bottom enclosure has full UV lighting, other two have LEDs that I’m gonna swap out for UVB eventually (all lights of course are on a timer, and the heat cable’s on a thermostat to make sure it doesn’t get too hot). Heat cable and all probe cords snake out holes in the back so that you can slot it against stuff. The trick is finding a bookcase the right size.