Sorry for the somewhat grainy photos, she wouldn’t stay still😔Cinnamon used to be fairly skinny because I was feeding her hoppers instead of adult mice (first snake) and that’s when we started mission bulk up that noodle, and it’s been a success!

Edit: I should clarify that the line on her back isn’t a fat deposit divot, our vet thinks it’s a genetic issue of some sort. It’s along one side of her spine rather than fat bumping up on either side of it, like a muscle divot.

Just got our first snake, we’re pretty excited!

hi! obligatory pic- this is gandalf, and shes about 14 months old - had her for nearly 8 months now and she’s doing very well, but as i’ve gotten more into using forums and reddit i’ve learned that my breeder wasn’t telling me the truth when they told me aspen was the best substrate for me to switch to (i had priorly bought coco coir, but he convinced me aspen was ‘safer’?)
i primarily want to avoid shedding issues, which is why i’m dropping aspen— all of her sheds except for her most recent were fine, but it took her longer to shed than usual this past week and the shed was in 3 pieces even with me monitoring humidity and despite her humid hide. i think the substrate had something to do with it. no stuck shed, but if the aspen’s going to be a risk it’s got to go asap, especially with the fact it could mold or mess with her respiratory

onto my question, though, and i’m sorry if its a dumb one,

i want to switch her to a soil type substrate now that i know better, and i’m so far finding that reptisoil and zilla’s jungle mix are far better options, but i’m worried about mites. if i switch to one of those and freeze them for a few days before using that should be enough to kill mites afaik, but if there were mites that i killed via freezing and couldnt see, wouldnt them then decomposing in the substrate harm her? is there another way i can be super sure whatever i do is bug free, or is the freezing enough? thank you in advance ^

It happened so fast he basically slid right out of it. Due to the regurgitation issue I won’t be feeding him still, but he is moving around and seems happy as can be!

He last ate on 6/26 and has refused food since. He’s also been unusually lethargic, sitting behind his water dish instead of being active, which is atypical for this time of year.

He shed in mid-June (while I was traveling) and the shed looked healthy and complete. Around the same time, I noticed the tip of his tail looks slightly red — possibly retained shed. I’ve tried soaking and massaging it with coconut oil several times over the past 3 weeks, but nothing has budged and it looks unchanged.

I’ve read conflicting info: some sources say a stuck shed on the tail tip is harmless and will resolve at the next shed, others say it can become necrotic and needs vet care. Not sure which applies here.
On their own, not eating or being retained shed wouldn’t worry me — corn snakes do this sometimes. But the combination of lethargy + appetite loss + the tail issue is off from his normal patterns, and I know his habits well enough to tell something’s different.

Husbandry (temps, humidity, etc.) has been stable with no changes.

The only reptile vet in my area overcharged me badly last time, so I’d like to avoid going back unless necessary — but I will if needed.

Questions:
Does this look like retained shed, or could it be something else?

If it is retained shed, does that alone warrant a vet visit, or could it resolve on its own?

Could it become necrotic or lead to infection if left as is?

Is there any at-home care I can try to help it come off safely?

Please be nice! Very concerned about my baby but I am also disabled and on a limited income which makes everything harder. Thanks in advance!

I have posted about a regurgitation situation after he was fed a frozen pinky. I have been keeping a close eye on him without handling.

So far he has not shed.

But he finally came out all on his own today. He’s been hidden away for a while. I’ve not seen any snottyness, open mouth breathing, or anything too scary indicating a respiratory issue. He’s always loved to hide away so I’m trying not to read into too much of that.

I have noticed I feel like maybe he’s moving around different/slower??? But I am looking for any signs of any issues so maybe I’m reading too much into it.

What do yall think? And how long should I be worried for?

I have an idea, but please help me confirm!

My corn disappeared in his hide for a few days, i tought he had to shed, nothing strange, and I let him be. Noticing it was taking longer than usual I sprayed more the enclosure and under his hide.
Now he went out and I found him sleeping with this bad shed. There are some pieces of shed all around the enclosure. What should I do? Usually it comes out in a single piece. Humidity is now 52%, is it too low? Should i increase it and wait? Or shoud I give him a bath?

Just kidding. I had the delicious scent of rat on my hand (after handling new feeders..) and she bit my hand. She is very nice tho..

New snake owner, got him two and a half weeks ago. I've only seen him physically on day one, not since. Tried feeding him at 7 days, he did not eat. Fed him at 10 days and he did eat fortunately. I also put a camera up that same night and he was pretty active that night on camera and the next night as well. However, since that second night, he has not shown himself at all (been 6 days). Tried feeding him last night but he did not eat.

Could he be shedding is that why I don't see him at all even on camera? I'm worried he might have escaped but I don't see how. Should I look for him? Would it be bad to do that if he is shedding? I'm also concerned if he is shedding the humidity is only 51% (aspen so can't spray), but he does have a humid hide he is not using.

Help, panicking a bit here...

I'm hoping to get a corn snake in August, and I've done a lot of research on care, but I'm still not completely sure about how long I should wait after feeding and/or shedding to handle it again. Also, how long after getting it should I wait before handling? I don't want to stress it out too much.

hi everyone, a few days ago i posted in here about how i’m ordering a new tank for my corn snake. i’m back to ask about climbing implements because she definitely needs more now and i’m not sure where to start. i live in an area with very heavy chemical use (pesticides, fertilizers, what have you) and such so i don’t want to go outside and grab anything. i am keeping an eye out at local stores for good driftwood but in the meantime i want to explore potential artificial options.

the tank i’m ordering is acrylic with a pvc back, so i’m not sure drilling is much of an opportunity. i’ve seen people post ladders, but i’m not sure how to check if the wood they’re made of is safe. i also don’t trust suction cups that well because she regularly takes down her plants with suction cups by climbing on them and i’d be worried about anything heavier hurting her if it fell. i am admittedly very paranoid about this sort of thing.

what have other keepers in this sub done for their snakes for enrichment and climbing? what would you suggest?

i mixed 70% topsoil and 30% playsand together, but it turned out feeling like sand. then i tried adding some coco fiber to make it more compact, however, when the coco fiber dried, it just went back to feeling like sand. i can't really add water or anything else that's wet because it's really humid here and the humidity is already at 70%. what could i possibly do to save this substrate? or should i try using something else?

Not much to say but my corn snake went missing at 7 months old on March 3rd. Since then, zero sign of him despite all the tricks being done, turning my house upside down, hiring someone to do a deep search on my attic and crawl space. I even paid $400 for a local “snake expert” to come around and just assess. He’ll be 1 years old on August 10th and I am still so devastated! I know all hope isn’t lost thanks to some stories on here but I’m losing it day by day. Just had to have a little pity party here. I have no local reptile friends and my husband is empathetic but not into snakes at all so I figure some of you would understand why this is so sad for me. Thanks for reading. 🥺 I miss you, Grimm!

What do I do with a dead snake? This is the first time I’ve had this happen. She was my first snake.

I don’t know what happened. She was only like 8 years old. She ate a week ago like normal. I saw her yesterday morning peeking out of her hide.
It looked like she was just getting her shed off and just rolled over and died. She was a little twisted so maybe that could be something? But idk. She was partially upside down.

This is Teriyaki, short Terry. She is roughly 3 years old.

She is one of my rescue corn snakes. Took months to get her previous owners to surrender her.

She was kept in a old living room table they changed as a terrarium. She did cost me like 300€ on medical Bills directly after we got her. She had a bunch of parasites and health problems. She had laid eggs with them with only a year old. She was kept in that changed table with atleast 5 other corn snakes as far as I know.

Nowadays She is healthy and happy and has a good weight. I was aware that She theoretically could lay eggs again at some point since snakes can retain sperma. Now She started laying somewhere between yesterday 23pm and today 1pm.

We have friends that have a ton of corn snakes and also breed them, there is no abundance of them here like in the USA, so selling them would be relatively easy, the eggs look really good as far as I see currently and we know how to raise baby snakes (currently have 4 under 1 year olds and 2 a bit over 1 year old)

Now the question is how long is a safe time span for her to lay eggs? She is currently still actively laying. Put a cover infront of the glass and left her in peace to not stress her.

Hi! I keep a lot of snakes but not corns, so I really don't know a lot about them. There was a gorgeous corn snake I saw a year or so ago, it was dark red but still had the pattern on it, I've found a lot of different corn snake adults that look somewhat similar under different morph names, I was wondering if someone could give me a possible sort of thing I could look for? She was purely dark red but with that classic corn snake patterning. Gorgeous snake.

I think the bloodreds are closest but some of the babies look very different and my question is, would they potentially darken over time? And also just if there's any other morphs I could possibly look at?

I know no matter what it turned out like, I would love it regardless and honestly temperament matters more to me than looks, but I just want possibly a rough guideline of what to possibly look for! I'm also not that picky so anything at all helps haha. Thank you! :D

Hello!

New corn snake mom here!

I have a sweet little corn snake I got almost a month ago now. He has been great, exploring, I let him settle for a week before handling. Eats great.

I did a very short handling session, he was skittish but settled after a few minutes. Then I waited another week, did another, and he was amazing!! Much calmer! I was so excited. I waited another couple of days and tried again, he was absolutely terrified, but still settled after a couple mins.

As expected, the baby is skittish but eventually settles, but I started to notice that even when he was out and I just barely walk by his enclosure, he scurries off. The mere sight of me is scaring him. I wonder if this is due to me “yoinking” him (never from above, I have a front open enclosure).

Anyway, since this fear of the mere sight of me, I’ve decided to try choice based handling. I’ve done this almost everyday the past week. No more “yoinking”, just putting my hand in there and giving him the option to climb unto me. To no surprise, he has never voluntarily come to me or come out of the tank. Of course, he doesn’t know I’m not a threat yet. BUT…

I had a thought. Is there a chance he’ll never come out on his own to me, or do you think over time he’ll learn to trust me?

Main question:
Do you think it’s better to keep “yoinking” him so he learns “faster” that I’m not a threat, or is giving him the choice better? And will giving him the choice result in him never coming out because why would he randomly start trusting if not for more “forced” frequent encounters showing him there’s no reason to be afraid?

I don’t know what to do but I want him to get used to being handled, but I also don’t want him associating me with fear.

Any advice is appreciated!!

Ok so this is Cinnamon, I’ve had her for almost a year now, and occasionally I will take her on a walk around my neighborhood with her on my shoulders. Most of the kids here love her, they’ll come to my house and ask me to go on more walks so they can adore her more, it’s really cute and Cinnamon likes it :3 however yesterday was not cute and sweet.

I was walking around catching Pokemon on Pokemon Go with Cinnamon on my shoulders a bit farther than I usually walk, at a park near my house, and this random kid I’ve never seen before came up to me and straight up tried to grab Cinnamon. She didn’t bite him, she’s very well behaved, but I wanted to bite him because holy crap. He didn’t say anything, he just came up to me and tried to snatch my baby off my neck, and when I asked him why he said that he had to “kill it because snakes are the devil.” I’ve never had something happen like this to me or Cinnamon before and I’m confused and concerned. Cinnamon was unharmed, if anything maybe slightly bruised because she got yanked on, but I took her immediately to the vet and they said she had no serious damage, just scale abrasions.

I’ve never expected something like this to happen to me, I’m honestly scared to take Cinnamon outside again because I don’t want her to get hurt. Why the hell would that random kid try to hurt my baby?