New addition! Rescued Russian Tortoise named "Zoom"

[Foofy_Miru]

Shanna66

dont worry, we always check his tail now, and ever since we started using the humid hide he has perfect sheds now. im still trying to talk her into using a heat mat but she hates them. and im pretty sure his tail came off because of so many bad sheds. he isnt a snow but he is some sort of albino. i cant remember the name to save my life though


i love how gecko poo doesnt really smell at all. the ball pythons poo didnt used to smell bad but after she started eating rats..... well its very stinky, ill leave it at that lol XD and beardy poo smells too. my old beardy used to stink up my room all the time. plus when she was in her advanced age she started getting bad gas.

beardy farts and rat farts really stink. i recently made the mistake of giving my rats pepper seeds and my god i couldnt go in my room that night. i have such stinky stinky boys XD

Good! =3 And now I'm confused. xD The only "Albino" gene in corn snakes is Amelanistic (no black pigment), but, unless he's a really young and really light Amel, he should be dark enough to see stuck shed on. Then you have Snow and Blizzard, which are both Amelanistic combined with Anerythristic genes (no red--Anery A for Snow, and Anery B/Charcoal (less yellow/darker background than Anery A) for Blizzard). It could also be a Caramel (yellow replaces all red in this gene) or a Butter (Amel + Caramel), but Caramels are pretty dark and Butters aren't exactly common unless you're buying it AS a butter. The most common morphs in pet stores, if she got it in one, are Amel, Snow, and Anery... Plus Normal/Classic, but those aren't a morph--"albino" or otherwise. I hate the term "albino"... With the way it's used in corn snakes, EVERY gene could be some sort of "albino." One nickname for Anery is "Black Albino." By that, you could call Caramel a "Yellow Albino" or Lavender a "Purple Albino"... Blah. I got off on a tangent again. Just call me "That Rant Lady"!

Is your sister, by any chance, affiliated with my former vet...? Lol. My ex herp vet once spent an hour ranting on and on about how heat lamps are the end-all get-all heating device (Think "God" of heat) and heat pads were... eh... Satan. Whether or not you regulated them. ("God" and "Satan" aren't her exact words, of course, just my way of wording her direct sentiment) All this instead of fixing my ball python's eye problem, which said ball python still has. Any guesses as to why she's my "ex" vet?? Yeah. Talk to your sis about the humidity issues, for one thing. Even in super-hardy corn snakes, they cause MAJOR problems.

Here are some examples, starting with my own personal experience (feel free to direct quote, because I'm typing as if I'm speaking directly to her... lol): My first-snake-ever was constipated for MONTHS after I used a CFL bulb in a small heat lamp just as a "display" light (she was in the living room) and had chronic bad sheds for longer than that, even with a humid hide and frequent mistings... And it wasn't even a full-blown heat light!!!

As well, corn snakes are NOCTURNAL. And Crepuscular. You'll notice neither say "Diurnal"... That's because they don't hang out in the open during the day. Some will risk life and limb to come out and warm up during the day under a heat lamp, and some will come out to bask in the light just for the hell of it (my girl was one of these... We had a large branch wrapped with a fake, leafy vine and she would hang out at the top. She liked people- and TV-watching), but that does NOT mean all of them will, do, or, if they do, that they even like it.

Now, if you're like my former vet and make this argument that "In the wild, they get their heat from above, so the 'natural' gradient from a heat light is best!"... Come on now. They come out in early evening, nighttime, and early morning. When the sun isn't a factor. At the hours they are active, their heat source is the ground... You see, when the sun goes down, the air cools. The ground, which has sucked up a good amount of heat during the day, will start releasing that heat. What's that? Sounds like the makings of belly heat to me!! Yep, that's right, folks, corn snakes get belly heat in the wild. I know. NO WAY.

Sure, during the day, the heat comes from above. That's all well and good. But, during the day, most corn snakes are hiding under rocks and in burrows. Kind of makes overhead heat a moot point. And the sun doesn't throw out the kind of gradient that a heat lamp does... It doesn't heat in a straight line and dwindle off on the edges of its light range. The sun heats up our entire atmosphere. There are variations, yes, and a gradual gradient, that's irrefutable. But that gradient happens over MILES of land and ocean. Not in the few inches or feet that your corn snake utilizes.

And if you're worried about your snake being half cold and half warm if it decides to curl up on the edge of its heat pad? If you're worried that heat pads don't create a "real" gradient because it's just a square of heat surrounded by no heat at all? Well, yes, that could make sense. Except.. Glass does warm up and conduct heat outside of the heat pad's direct range. And, more importantly... You forget that blood moves. That blood is what is being heated and cooled. Have you ever picked up a hot cup of coffee when you were really cold? And not just your hand being cold--all of you being cold. Isn't it uncanny how just holding a hot cup of coffee will make your entire arm warm up? How taking a sip of that hot cup of coffee makes your entire body warm up, even though it only comes in contact with your mouth, esophagus, and stomach? That's because your blood is in constant motion. A snake can successfully thermoregulate by laying half on a heat mat and half off because the warm blood travels to the cool part of the body, cools off some there, then travels back to the warm part of the body... Effectively evening out and regulating the body temperature without having to worry about finding the perfect spot of that "natural" gradient you're so proud of. Effectively making your "natural" gradient otherwise useless.

I could think of more, but here's this for now. Hm... I think I need to send an email to my ex-vet... o.O

Oh my god smelly poo. My Beauty's poo is absolutely nuts. It's always massive and smelly... It doesn't help that Beauty Ratsnakes are smelly snakes to begin with... But when you compound that with a nice, big rattie meal... Ewww!

Haha. The only non-human animals we have here that fart are the dogs. But, I've become immune to that. When you have 2 full-grown boxers (and a very toot-y father, for that matter), it's hard not to get used to smelly farts... Lol. At 10 years old, my little old lady still farts the night away without fail. Romeo isn't much better... I think it's all the bully breed and boxer in him.  

[Shanna66]

surisingly the corn is out and about during the day. he sleeps at night and is awake all through the day and prefers his dinner during the day. one of my leos is also like that so we have never given it that much thought. i think he is just a weird snake, he loves comming out of his hides when the dogs sit by his tank or when we are in the room with him. i think he is awake during the day because he is a people watcher like my biggest leo.

and your vet sounds like my vet. he hates UTH's but he is one of the best vets for leo and beardy care so i still go to him. if i can overlook the fact that my cat and dog vet swears by science diet then ill forgive my exotic vet for his heating methods, plus he is also a great rat vet and keeps girls. its hard to find a good herp vet in my area so as long as they know the medical stuff well enough then ill use the internet to get the rest of my info. ive only taken one of my leos to this guy but he sees my rats at least once a month because of their respitory issues (thank you petco)

he was really young when the tail thing happened. it happened just a few months after we got him and we got him at 6 weeks. he is a neon orange sort of color with some blood red on him. i need to take a pic of him one day  

[Foofy_Miru]

Shanna66

surisingly the corn is out and about during the day. he sleeps at night and is awake all through the day and prefers his dinner during the day. one of my leos is also like that so we have never given it that much thought. i think he is just a weird snake, he loves comming out of his hides when the dogs sit by his tank or when we are in the room with him. i think he is awake during the day because he is a people watcher like my biggest leo.

and your vet sounds like my vet. he hates UTH's but he is one of the best vets for leo and beardy care so i still go to him. if i can overlook the fact that my cat and dog vet swears by science diet then ill forgive my exotic vet for his heating methods, plus he is also a great rat vet and keeps girls. its hard to find a good herp vet in my area so as long as they know the medical stuff well enough then ill use the internet to get the rest of my info. ive only taken one of my leos to this guy but he sees my rats at least once a month because of their respitory issues (thank you petco)

he was really young when the tail thing happened. it happened just a few months after we got him and we got him at 6 weeks. he is a neon orange sort of color with some blood red on him. i need to take a pic of him one day

Regardless of whether the snake likes to explore, scrapping the heat lamp is the best thing you can do. You can put a fluorescent tube (either no or low [2.0] UVB) or something similar over the enclosure for light if she just likes having a light over it, though. Heck, it'd be pretty fun to get a plant light and do a planted viv for him... But maybe that's just me.

Ick. I feel so grateful... There is a nice abundance of competent vets near me. (I just have to drive 3 or more hours to get to any of them.) Does your vet condemn you at all for your views on heat pads? That's the main reason I dropped my vet. I would've put up with it and continued going to her, but it was the last straw when she insisted on wasting my $50 and an hour or so telling me how stupid and how bad of a snake owner I am to use heat pads, while blatantly ignoring the ball python sitting in front of her that obviously had a health problem... A problem that, to top it off, I'm 99% sure was caused by her previous owner using a CHE and a nighttime heat bulb for heat for. The important thing, anyway, is you have a vet who will treat all your animals. (Though, if you're interested in finding a better herp vet in your area, herpvetconnection.com is a really good resource.)

Sounds like an Amel--maybe a "Reverse Okeetee" type... Does he have wide white borders around (the) deep red saddles? Is the bright orange its background? They're also called "Albino Okeetee" and "Amel Okeetee" by some people. They are called "Reverse/Albino/Amel Okeetee" because they are basically an Okeetee (selectively bred normal with thick black borders, deep red saddles, and bright orange background) in Amel form.  

[Shanna66]

well my dad is getting more and more aware of the energy bill so he may make her switch to heat pads soon anyways

and my exotic vet respects my use of heat pads, he hates them but understands that they work well for other people. he has had some bad expiriences with them so thats why he hates them. he had a tank break because of one but i think he spilled some cold water on it while it was on or something. we also have differing opinions on the best bedding for rats. i prefer fleece while he prefers newspaper

and yes, he has white around his red saddle parts. when i get a corn i want it to be the same morph in a planted viv, he is very pretty and im in love with the little guy. i wish i had gotten him instead of my sister

also i think i will use that site since ill be moving out soon. we didnt get the house we wanted but we are looking at another house thats closer so ill still be able to go to my favorite pet store to get my favorite brand of dog food ^.^ it has a vet right down the street but im not sure if they do exotics.  

[Foofy_Miru]

Energy bill? What energy bill?? wink I hope she embraces the heat pads soon. Her snake will be better for it.

That was my vet's other argument (her main arguments: heat lamps are more "natural," and the chance of thermal burns). It sounds like he either had really shitty thermostats/rheostats that failed, or he had no 'stat of any sort... As you know, if they're properly regulated and set to the proper temps, there should be little to no risk of burn with a heat pad. Certainly less risk of a burn than there is a risk of overheating or not enough heat with a heat lamp. (Part of what I hate about heat lamps is, where do you measure the temps? Snakes can climb and get closer to the lamp, but they aren't necessarily going to stay right up next to the heat lamp, usually in the open, when they have a full belly and need it most). I've never had a cracking problem with my heat pads (temps varying from 83*F to 95*F), water spills and all... Which makes me lean more toward him not using a 'stat or having them set to waaaay too high temps. Of course, there's always going to be some disagreement on husbandry (like you and your vet disagreeing on bedding), but the key is respecting the other person's choice, if they're successful. Like the heat pad issue... Some people won't use them (which strikes me as more dangerous than using them, but that is partly my opinion), and some swear by them. You're lucky to have a vet who respects your opinion... Mine was one of those that would declare "I have a degree in this and that so I'M RIGHT and YOU'RE WRONG!" (As well as that, since I was coming to her for help, I had to listen to her on everything... It's difficult to try and get across the point that you come for MEDICAL advice, not CARE advice when a person won't stop violently ranting her head off.)

Depending on how thick the borders are, he could be an RO. The key behind anything "okeetee" is superbly thick borders... Like the Abbott's line Okeetee or the aforementioned Reverse Okeetee. You can have a would-be Reverse Okeetee with not-so-great borders, which would, at least in my opinion, make it just a very pretty Amel.

Look up "The Art of Keeping Snakes" by Philippe de Vosjoli. It's a great book... Maybe you can talk your sis into letting you help her put together a nifty planted viv for her snake? I'll be waiting for pictures... wink The only downfall of planted vivs is they kind of wreck your ability to utilize a heat pad, since planted viv usually = thick substrate layer. If you can keep its room in the upper 70s/low 80s, though, you shouldn't need heat for a corn. (Supplemental heat is always good, but there are plenty of corn breeders who are successful with heated rooms instead of heated racks, and, even if you needed to supplement it, a low-wattage heat lamp while he digests shouldn't be TOO bad with the extra humidity supplied by live plants.) =)

So sorry to hear you didn't get the house... Good luck on the job hunt, and I hope you can find a more qualified herp vet in the area. =)

Shanna66

well my dad is getting more and more aware of the energy bill so he may make her switch to heat pads soon anyways

and my exotic vet respects my use of heat pads, he hates them but understands that they work well for other people. he has had some bad expiriences with them so thats why he hates them. he had a tank break because of one but i think he spilled some cold water on it while it was on or something. we also have differing opinions on the best bedding for rats. i prefer fleece while he prefers newspaper

and yes, he has white around his red saddle parts. when i get a corn i want it to be the same morph in a planted viv, he is very pretty and im in love with the little guy. i wish i had gotten him instead of my sister

also i think i will use that site since ill be moving out soon. we didnt get the house we wanted but we are looking at another house thats closer so ill still be able to go to my favorite pet store to get my favorite brand of dog food ^.^ it has a vet right down the street but im not sure if they do exotics.