Feeding day for my snow corn snake

[maxfox426]

Originally Posted by sillysally

So as snake owners, what do you do with your snakes? Is is kind of like fish, where you are setting up a proper and attractive environment and observe them? Do snakes enjoy being interacted with?

You can set them up as a "look only" pet like we do with fish, but I find that terribly boring. LOL! (Of course, if you keep venomous species aka "hots" they are definitely not for handling. But THAT is a whole 'nother topic.)

Snakes don't *need* interaction to thrive, not like dogs and cats, but I personally would say that some do enjoy it, depending on the snake. They aren't really going to be cuddly and lovey like a pet mammal, but most will still be perfectly willing to hang out with you. They do have distinct personalities, too, though not as defined as we are used to with dogs, etc.

Cornsnakes in general are particularly docile when it comes to being handled. I have seven corns. Six of them will come to the front of their habitat to see me when I open up their lids. The seventh... is a jerk. LOL. He doesn't bite or anything like that, but if you touch him he flails around like "OMG UR KILLINZ MEEEEE!" Once you have him out for a few minutes he will eventually calm down and be perfectly fine after that. He's definitely the exception to the rule.

[maxfox426]

Skittle, sorry that I've kind of hijacked your thread... LOL!

[sillysally]

Lol, yeah, I didn't mean to hijack with snake questions. The truth is that while snakes scare the crap out of me (something I consider my problem, not the snakes problem), I find them completely fascinating. Whenever we go somewhere like an aquarium or zoo I love to see the snakes. If they start moving towards the glass part of me is like freaked out but I can't look away.

[lizzybeth727]

I just want to thank this thread for keeping me up last night having nightmares about snakes. Then I was jumpy all morning at the park, thinking that every little twig was a snake. Snakes aren't even out right now, it's too cold, but still.

[LostAndConfused]

I'm really enjoying this thread. I love looking at snakes. They're such amazing creatures.

[skittledoo]

Originally Posted by maxfox426

Skittle, sorry that I've kind of hijacked your thread... LOL!

No don't be sorry. I actually am enjoying where the conversation is going. It's been so much fun getting back into snakes. I forgot how much I enjoyed having them (used to keep balls) and now I'm so fascinated with corns, especially with learning how their genetics work.

I actually do want to do a small breeding project, nothing crazy big like some of the breeders on the cornsnake forum with tons of snakes, just something small and not for another few more years. I'd actually like to breed this little bloodred of mine if I decide on the right mate, but that's not anything set in stone. I'd like to understand how genetics work and have a direction and end goal in mind before I do. I know his daddy is a P/S bloodred, but I need to ask his breeder about the mom to get an idea what hidden genes my little guy could possibly have. I would LOVE to create a P/S blood though.

[sillysally]

What do you look for when breeding snakes? With your new guy, for example, what would be the "right" mate?

[skittledoo]

Originally Posted by sillysally

What do you look for when breeding snakes? With your new guy, for example, what would be the "right" mate?

That's the part I'm trying to learn right now. Won't breed him for a few years and even then I only plan to breed him if I have a goal in mind I'd like to achieve in the breeding and probably with the help of someone way more experienced with corns since this would be my first time breeding. I don't want to breed him just for the hell of breeding so I'm taking my time to learn right now and I'm slowly starting to understand how genetics work. I know that since his dad is a Pied Sided blood, he possibly carries the pied gene even though he isn't showing pied himself. I know for sure I'd like to focus mainly on bloods and I really want to see if he will produce any pied sided bloodred hatchlings. I'm still learning what would be the best match for him to achieve this and if I do I definitely will be keeping one or two of the babies at least as my holdbacks.

As far as what you look for... Obviously first and foremost, you want to only breed healthy snakes. With dogs we tend to often look down on breeders that breed focusing on color, but in snakes, the colors are a big focus from what I've been noticing... At least in corns and I know when I had ball pythons, color and patterns were a big deal too though my balls were what is called normals. I'm hoping Maxfox will chime in on this since I know shr hatched a clutch not too long ago and I consider her a bit more knowledgeable on this subject than me.

Eta: I probably won't ever breed my snow even though she is gorgeous. The guy I got her from had intended to breed her since she is a fantastic example of a snow, but he changed his breeding plan goals and she didn't fit in his new plans. Since I'm mainly wanting to focus on blood morphs, I'm not sure she would fit in any breeding plans of mine. She's such an awesome pet though and I wouldn't trade her for the world. I think I would loan her to a corn breeder I trust if she fit a project that they were working on, but outside of that she will not be be bred, especially since I just want to work on a very small project with bloods and not do much breeding at all.

[Skits]

First of all, lovely corn.

This was more in the beginning of the thread but I wanted to put in my two cents. I feed all my snakes frozen. I wouldn't ever be able to see and hear a mouse being eaten. I've been bitten before by my young ball python and that hurt, I can't imagine how much it would hurt a mouse.

I don't know if anyone mentioned that the reason feeding frozen is better, is that live can injure your snake. There are reports of mice eating a snake alive, either while the snake is going for it, or sometimes snakes won't be hungry and some will leave the mouse in the tank.

I just wiggle a thawed mouse in front of them.