*Den's Thread*

[Charley101]

Just to let you know Den is a snow corn snake. There will be images of her so if you don't like snakes then please don't read on. I hope it's okay to make this thread about her.

[Charley101]

As mention above, Dennis (or Den) is a 4 1/2 foot long snow corn snake. We have had her for few months after taking her in from someone who didn't want her any more. She is the first snake we have owned. We was told she was male (hence her name), but after I counted her tail scales and read about sexing, she is in fact female

At first I was a bit sceptical as I was worried she would need a lot of care. However, this isn't the case. She lives in a 4 foot viv, has appropriate heating, gets fed thawed food (would never feed live food) and comes out regularly for 'cuddles'. She is a very friendly snake and I'm glad dad adopted her. My mum is besotted with her

In the warm weather, I have been taking her out for walks in the garden (well I held her whilst I walked about ) as I thought it would be a good experience for her. She seemed to enjoy it (well her tongue went crazy tasting all the new smells) lol.

[kyrilliondaemon]

This thread may be a useful one for me
We (very recently) started to realise that one day a corn snake could make a good pet for us but its a very debatable issue and I can't join reptile forums because people tend to have giant snakes in their sigs and it freaks me out lol
Seeing lots of Den would be useful

[Charley101]

She really is such a good snake. She has calmed a lot with us. Her colouring has also changed as she never used to have the yellow stripes down the side of her face.

Corn's are considered a great starter snake as they don't require any special lighting and don't need high humidity levels. Her viv is 39% humid (room level) and that is fine for her. She gets fed once every 7-12 days. It does cost a bit to set up a viv correctly though but that is the same with any animal (eg hamster cages).

The only 'issue' we have had was moving her into the larger viv. She was originally in a 26" viv which was well too small. Snakes can find change hard to cope with and she was a bit unsettled at first and went off her food. However, I over came the problem by making a movable divider. It was in effect a stud wall which I placed inside the viv to make it seem smaller. I gradually moved it, increasing the size of the space she was living in. She now has full use of the whole of the viv and is back to eating her normal medium mice (hope you understand )

She has shed since we have had her and it was really cool to watch. Her eyes went cloudy for 3 days and within 24 hours of them going back to normal, she shed the lot in one go. I have kept her 'head' part and protected it with sellotape. It is really interesting as you can see her eye caps and everything!

You can tell when she is in a grumpy mood though as she imitates a rattle snake and vibrates her tail against the side of the walls. She was grumpy at the beginning of the week so I left her alone but she was back to normal yesterday so we had a stroll around the garden again

Sorry for the long reply. I could talk about her all day

[Charley101]

Here's a (poor) pic of her shed I kept...

[kyrilliondaemon]

That was an interesting reply! Its good that you found a way to make her happy with her bigger space
Its also awesome to know how to tell when she's in a grumpy mood, and the shed skin looks quite cool. We had a tarantula shed his skin when staying with us when I was younger but that sounds very different to the way Den shed hers

[Charley101]

Yeah, like I said above you can tell when a snake is going to shed as they go off their food, the eyes go cloudy (blue if they have black eyes and a milky hazy red if they have red eyes) for around 3 days. When her's went back to normal on the third day, I gave her a warmish bath to hydrate her skin and within 24 hours it had come off. She has branches in her viv so she could rub herself against. You know if they have had a good shed as it should be whole or in large parts. If its not (small parts shed/shed still stuck) then you may have to help and have to pay particular attention to their eyes and tail. If they do have a bad shed then something isn't right with their environment usually meaning the temperature or humidity levels.

I spend a lot of time with Den and try and find out her personality and little things she does so I know if something is up. I think i'm more worried by the fact that she is our first snake so i'm not an expert by any means and would hate for something to happen if I could have prevented it....

She has a funny little thing of sticking her head of of her house and staying stock still staring at us. She does it alot when we walk past. She also loves going up my jumper sleeve and rest on my shoulders and down my back. I think it is nice and dark in there so she's more comfy although she is never allowed around my neck for obvious reasons

[Cupcake]

Wow she is very beautiful! I always found snakes interesting and we have a friend that used to keep snakes that are considerably larger than Den I always found snakes to have very beautiful colours and our friend had an Albino Boa Constrictor that had similar colouring to Den's...well with a bit more yellow. I am so glad you managed to give it a permanent home, a lot of people buy snakes only to own an exotic pet and to later realize they don't have the time or interest to keep the animal anymore

[Charley101]

Originally Posted by Cupcake

I am so glad you managed to give it a permanent home, a lot of people buy snakes only to own an exotic pet and to later realize they don't have the time or interest to keep the animal anymore

Thank you I completely agree with you as that is the exact reason why we got her. Snakes can live a long time so it isn't something that should be taken lightly. Den's approx 3/4 now but can live till her late teens/early twenties! Mum and Dad will be in their retirement if she lives that long so I have told them I will take her on. She is practically mine anyway but just not at my flat

[Kissa]

Mum's boyfriend has a constrictor-type snake (another pet his daughter acquired and has left with him, like the guinea pig mum's now ended up looking after ), and my aunt used to have snakes too. I've always thought they were beautiful creatures but I've never been convinced that they make good pets