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Hello and welcome to Reptil.TV - episode 38!
You voted about today’s topic on Facebook. You could choose between Leopard Geckos, Bearded Dragons and Corn Snakes.
The vast majority was for Corn snakes. People came into our shop and said that we should do an episode about these snakes. And of course we received a lot of mails too.
So you all wanted to see the Corn snakes.
Bad news for all the Bearded Dragon and Leopard Gecko fans out there - as it seems there are only few fans of these animals out there.
Therefore we would never feature them in an episode - nobody would want to see that.
So, today's show is about Corn snakes.
These two animals are samples for their species.
The animal in my left hand has a classical color, a wild color .
As you can see, these snakes are cute and small at the beginning. This animal is about 2 months old and has fed 4 to 5 times.
I would guess it's about 30cm long.
The snake in my right hand is an adult male - for whom it may concern, the color variation is called Albino striped.
Comparing both snakes, you can see that they grow quite fast and get real big. They can grow this big in 2-3 years.
What's interesting about Corn snakes is that males grow larger than females - normally it's the other way around.
A male can grow up to 1.6 - 1.7m long. For comparison this animal is about 1.4m long.
1.4m would be the typical size for a big female. If this animal would be a female, she would have an above average size.
A male can gain 20 - 30cm in length.
Let's talk about their area of circulation. They come from North America, starting in the North with Southern Canada; all the way down to Florida - and to California on the other side.
It is interesting to see how big their area of circulation is - especially if you consider the climate.
Canada has a moderate climate - almost as cold as here in Germany. Florida is subtropical, even almost tropical.
You can find Corn snakes everywhere - that could be a reason why they are so easy to keep - because they can adjust their selves to many different climatical conditions.
We also have to talk about their expectancy of life - the small one is about 2 months old - this animal is about 3 years old.
Corn snakes can get 15 or even 20 years old.
This is what a terrarium for Corn snakes looks like.
This is the size I would recommend and suggest. The dimensions of the tank are: 1m x 0.6m x 0.8m.
Adequate for ordinary Corn snakes.
They like to climb, that's why the terrarium is 80cm high. And it should be 1m wide and have a depth of 60cm.
If you have a very large male - with 1.6 to 1.7m - one which almost sets a record - of course this terrarium would be too small.
For the average sized Corn snake, this is the Terrarium size that I recommend.
Let's start with the technical equipment. As said before, Corn snakes are from North America.
At day they prefer a warm, or even hot temperature. At night the temperature can fall to an average room temperature.
Therefore we have to heat the terrarium quite a bit during the day.
In a room that is warm to some extent and with a terrarium roughly this size, a basking spot with 100 watts could already be suitable for heating.
Of course we put the bulb in a protective cage. You glue this ring to the lid of your terrarium.
Put in the protective cage, insert the basking spot. Below the spot light we'll probably reach a temperature of about 40°C. Don't mount it in the middle, mount it a bit on the side.
Then you have one side with - just like I just said - about 40°C beneath the spot. And probably a cooler side, with about 25°C.
Really important is the ambient temperature. If your terrarium is in a chilly room and you can't reach the desired temperature, you might need to install a ceramic Elstein radiator.
If you have to raise the temperature even more, you can put in two elements. For instance this basking spot - which also provides light.
And this Elstein. But then we would have two of these big cages inside.
Or we would illuminate the whole terrarium with neon light or a T5 tube - then we would use the Elstein spot solely for heating.
Again, you should put it in this protective cage, in order to prevent the Corn snake from getting burned.
In this case the terrarium illumination is also the heating and switched on for the day. That’s 10-12 hours. The best solution is to plug it into a clock timer.
At night you can turn everything off. We talked about the climatical conditions, it's no problem if the temperature falls to room temperature, that's about 20°C.
The next thing I want to talk about is fitting the terrarium.
For the foundation you should use mulch. I brought along two different types. This one is the Reptile-Wood and the other the Reptile-Wood Fine.
We use booth. Booth are really good. We haven't noticed that one would be better than the other.
Reptile-Wood used to be a real classic choice. Because a lot of people use the Reptile-Wood Fine for their constrictors, it is used more and more for the Corn snakes.
In the end, you can choose - booth are at par.
Then you definitely need some branches for climbing - because Corn snakes are a species that like to climb.
Therefore you should have a nice big root, or a big branch - in this case I put in a vine.
This big vine wouldn't be enough for a terrarium of this size. I used it to illustrate what I said. You really have to provide some nice climbing possibilities for the animals.
Vines are ideal - or you can go into the forest and collect some nice branches. If they look clean and are not full of bark-beetles you can use them for your terrarium.
Put greens inside! Your terrarium looks much better, if you put some inside. And it also serves as a hiding place for the animals.
To exemplify this, I put in a hiding cave made out of plastic
It's also possible to use real plants. Just pay attention to not buy a bargain from your local supermarket. I would expect these to be contaminated by pesticides.
If you use real plants, pay attention that they are free of pesticides. Use your own coins or buy them from a gardener whom you can trust.
I think your snake could be harmed, if it had to live in a terrarium where it is surrounded by pesticides.
If you consider this, you can use real plants.
Then you need a water bowl. You have multiple options. For instance a ceramic bowl. They look real nice and are the easiest to clean.
Or you can use these bowls that look like natural stones. They look nicer, but with all the edges and gaps they are harder to clean.
A general rule is that the bowls should be so large that the snake can bath in it. For a big Corn snake, these bowls would be all right.
But they could be a bit bigger - as said before, so they can bath in them.
The hiding places are really important. You can use these natural stone or the more sterile plastic caves.
You can choose which one you like better. It does look better with these natural stone caves.
The plastic cave has the advantage that it is easier to clean.
It is really important to put moss inside. We have this sphagnum moss. You soak it with water and get a nice moss pad.
When you put this in the cave, you obtain a high humidity inside - in the wild, caves and holes also have a high humidity.
You can achieve this with the sphagnum moss. Independently you can put some moss in another corner of the terrarium, in order to obtain a higher humidity.
Then you need thermometer, in this case a combined thermo- and hygrometer.
It is difficult to regulate the humidity. You should have between 40-60 % humidity.
Again, you can use the moss in order to raise the humidity.
As I already mentioned, the temperature under the spot will be between 30-40°C and the coldest corner 25°C.
If you start with a new terrarium, it's important not to fix the thermometer to the back. You should try to measure the different parts after each other.
When you find out, that everything is all right, then you can paste it on the back.
Talking about the temperature, I have a hint for you. These cork boards are great for insulating the back and the sides.
They help you to achieve the high temperature you need. Insulating can help you with that.
It's easier to reach the temperature. And the animals feel well, if they don't have to live in a transparent glass case.
If they have a bit more protection and view barriers, so that they can feel more at home.
At the end you should have a lock on your front panel. It's not only useful to prevent your kids or their siblings from opening the panel. Although that is important.
The snakes are quite active. Sometimes they fiddle with the panels so long that they open a little gap and then they are gone. Then you can look for them for weeks.
On that account, you should put a lock on the panel.
Last but not least we have these tools for handling the snakes.
I can recommend this snake hook. This an extendable pocket hook or a medium sized snake hook.
So you can take out the snake and handle her. It is advisable if you don't have to use your fingers all the time.
The second tools are these tweezers. Especially when you feed them - or if you feed mice. Try to avoid feeding with your hand - the mice take on their scent.
Also if you want to keep a safe distance between you and the animal. Tweezers really are standard equipment.
One last, but very important hint! People tend to do everything quickly and fix a lot with tape. It is practical and quick solution.
Don't use it in a terrarium - especially double sided tape. You fix something with it
The thing you fixed - be it a heating mate or something else - over time their fitting loosens - this can because of the heat and this also happens in the course of time.
The sticky side can then be exposed and your snake might crawl over it and get stuck - and might find it a day later, hanging there in distress.
There is probably nothing that adheres better than snake scales.
You really have to pay attention.
Although there is a good use for double sided tape. If your snake breaks loose and you can't find it in your flat.
Build a sticky trap with it. Put the tape on a board and place it under the closet or cupboard.
It works the same way - the snake wants’ to crawl over the tape, gets stuck and can't go anywhere.
It's important to check your traps regularly - it wouldn't be good, if the snake has to hang in there for 3 days until you find it. Do check regularly!
For that case tape is good - but do not use it in a terrarium!
This is a mistake a lot of people make - it also made it about 20 years ago - almost everybody in my circle of friends made it.
Some poor snake had to pay for this mistake and get stuck on it.
Because you watch Reptil.TV and pay attention - this is a mistake you'll avoid!
Let's talk about handling these snakes. In general, Corn snakes are quite well behaved, especially if they are used to been held in your hand.
The part you have to pay attention to, is when you take your snake out of the terrarium. It'll probably lie under its hiding place or be in a tree.
There you have to take out your snake, without annoying it. Because otherwise, they 'could' bite.
I had customers who wrote that their snakes want to bite them, if they want to take it out of the terrarium.
In episode 12 we talked in detail about how to handle your snake.
If your snake hangs somewhere, I come from above and pick it up from under their hideout or from a branch, just like this.
You shouldn't approach your snake from the front and hold your hand in front of it, waiting if it will bite or not - this is something a lot of people are used to do from their dogs and cats.
Because then it could be the case that she may start biting you.
A good sign is the tail, as you can see here. It's vibrating excitedly, which does look cute. It's starting to get nervous because of my fumbling around in front of its face.
In an ideal case, it would bite me. But that never happens in front of the camera or when you want it to happen.
If you look at its tail, you can see that it is annoyed.
With my hand, I come from above and take it out. Then I can carefully let it crawl through my hands.
Never grasp a snake, like you would grasp a stick. Snakes don't like being held too firm. It wants to be able to crawl around freely.
And with Corn snakes there is also no reason to hold them just behind their head.
Let them crawl in your hands - and they will show their best manners and not bite you.
As you can see, it's time to talk about feeding.
In episode 17 we already talked about this topic - How to feed snakes - in detail. But I want to show it to you in particular with a Corn snake.
This Corn snake is clearly over 1m long, it's about 1.2m long.
You can feed such big mice, in this case even two mice at once. You have to really see that it has something in its stomach.
Or if you have a small rat, one animal should be enough.
Corn snakes are good eaters. You can feed them dead animals. In some countries, such as Switzerland, you are by law not allowed to feed live animals. This can be an alternative.
You can try out if your snake eats dead prey or if it does not.
You should feed babies and pups every 5-7 days.
If you have an adult animal, the interval depends on the gender. Males are feed every 2-3 weeks.
You should feed a female often, about once a week - especially if you use it for breeding or if they are producing eggs.
As I said before, feed them sufficiently. A common mistake is that people buy a baby Corn snake and feed baby mice. They feed these mice until their snake is 1m long.
If a snake is 1m long, it needs more than a baby mouse. If you think about feeding your baby snake - it had a really nice and thick belly.
And a big Corn snake should also have a big and thick belly. You can either feed bigger prey or give them two, or even three animals.
We will now feed the animal with a dead mouse.
With tweezers we'll present the animal to the snake. Hold it somewhere inside the terrarium. Often the snakes accept the dead prey quickly.
Usually they choke it, independently if the prey is dead or alive. But there are also animals that start to eat, because they realize that the prey is already dead.
They start by looking for the head and then they swallow it.
In this case, the snake didn't choke the mouse. You can see that it is interested in the prey that is presented to it.
But it didn't bite its prey and show the choke-reflex.
It's looking for the head, because they always start with the head.
It's looking, even trying to eat the mouse from behind.
It found the head and the right position.
I'm often asked in person or by mail, if my snake is dim-witted, because it tries to eat the prey from behind or crosswise - and what are the reasons.
If your snake eats its prey this way, then your prey utterly too small.
Your probably feeding too small chucks since half a year or a year. Then you have to feed bigger animals and your snake will eat the mouse from the front.
I told you some important facts about Corn snakes.
As with all animals, you can't get around reading a good book. I preach that after each episode about animals. Grab a good book.
In the meantime some good books have been published that are all about Corn snakes, so called monographs.
We can more or less recommend all the books that you can see here.
Read it, we can't possibly cover every aspect in 15 minutes.
Another important aspect is winter rest, we are often asked questions about this fact.
Personally, I don't hype winter rest that much. I told you that Corn snakes can be found all the way down to Florida.
There the climate doesn't change that much through the seasons.
You'll automatically have light winter rest, because during winter your home is slightly colder.
That's enough to stimulate the animals. During this time they will also eat less. But hardly anyone puts them in the fridge, as it used to be common.
Personally, I don't use this method with my animals. That's what I would advise you to do.
You don't know if your animal is from Florida or Canada or if it is an offspring, in the 72nd generation.
That's why I proceed that way.
One more important fact: take a scat sample on a regular basis.
It would be best to take one once a year. There are these prefabricated sets, they cost about 20€.
Take it once a year, or take a scat sample to your veterinarian or send it to Exomed in Berlin - this is a great institute to analyze your scat sample.
If you do it once a year, you know if your animal has parasites or not.
A common question, or an old fairy-tale is that you can only feed your snake after it has pooh-poohed or taken a ***.
I wouldn't advise you to feed your snake only after it has had a dump.
Snakes sometimes contain their scat, for instance before they moult - sometimes there is no reason at all.
It's not like humans can only eat after they have taken a dump.
Feed your snakes in regular intervals, just as I explained earlier. 5-7 days for a baby or pup.
Independent of it scatting or not. I rarely have seen a Corn snake with an obstruction of the bowels.
There is no need to be afraid. If you notice a hump near the cloacae, the animal is probably on the verge of defecating.
It'll do this on its own, it doesn't need your help.
Only if you notice a really thick rigidification near the cloacae it can be the case that your animal has an obstruction.
As I said, that is rarely the case. Normally you don't have to pay attention to your animal defecating, just feed it in regular intervals, it doesn't need your help.
Corn snakes are wide topic. I'm far from talking about everything today. I would like to show you the color variations and breeding - that's what I'll to in the next episode.
We'll do another episode about Corn snakes.
I have a question for you: Here I have a very unusual and interesting animal. It's a so called 'Scaleless'. There are animals that have no scales.
This inheritable, because the cause is genetical. But it's also discussed in a controversial way.
Some say this breed suffers pain because of this and the animal is in no good condition. The animal doesn't suffer, because it moults and eats without any trouble.
But we are well aware, that this is a border, that even goes beyond the color variations - I would like to know your opinion on this matter.
Is this interesting for you and do you think we should show you the animal - or would you say, don't show it, there is no need to propagate something like this.
Send your thoughts via Facebook or comment here on YouTube. Let us know your opinion.
Look forward for the next episode, remain faithful and check my balls!
That wasn't bad, but good is something else. I got a bit distracted at the beginning.
ähm - no not ähm - well it doesn't matter.
[exhaling] that was all there is to say about techniques’.
I'm in a flow.
I tell you something in a minute.
I would say that was fantastic!
Stefan: alright Camera man: Is it gone?
Stefan: There is something I want to tell you! In the last episode you made fun of me because I always groomed my hair. Camera man: [laughing] But it didn't help!
The last episode was about the t-shirts. I had to change my shirt many times! After changing a t-shirt, I always look like this!
I look like a fool. That's why I tried to keep my hair groomed, at least a bit. I am not somebody who is vain.
I have my tail, my hair has to be proper, and then everything is alright. And you try to make it look as if I would groom my hair after each and every take.
I only did that because of the t-shirts - that's what I really had to say!
Yeah man!
I did well?! Ok!