Considering a corn snake or similar as a pet...amongst other things!

mystra

I currently live in rented property, my letting agents have informed me (after asking if i could bring my fish from my mum's house) that they will consider pets that are kept in a tank/cage.

I am fascinated by snakes, always have been and always will be and I'm now considering getting a corn snake or something similar.

It wont be just for show and will be handled regularly (as long as he's happy!) and I've no qualms about feeding it dead mice and keeping a stock of the things in the freezer! I've heard they have a lengthy lifespan so this definitely a long term thing.

I've grown up having pets so i understand the responsibility, time and effort involved - which is why I'm still at the 'considering' stage. I've never kept a reptile before however and could use some advice about what to expect and all the other countless things to think about before i make the decision. I've got to save up the money anyway so it wont be happening for a while yet - ideas of costs wuld be good too.

At the the moment I just have my two fish to look after, but i do miss having a pet that i can handle rather than just simply watch. I'm dying to have a dog or a cat but with no garden and rented property, now isn't the time.

I've heard ferrets are great pets in a flat, as they sleep a lot anyway, but they would need a large cage to stay in during the day, and I can't see my landlord going for it, as they also have a reputation for being smelly (i don't they smell any worse than a rabbit or hamster in a cage). The flat is carpetted throughout so any accidents during litter training would be costly and get me into trouble. I've looked after ferrets before and adore them, but again my living situation isn't on my side. We probably wont move out of here until we're not wanted by the landlord anymore or are in a position to buy our own home which could be sometime!

I'm such an animal lover, home just isn't home without pets but I can't just have a pet because i 'want' one either.

All advice welcome

Jellicat

I often think that snakes are the perfect modern pet. My snakes have given me less bother than my community tropical fish tank filled with beginners fish, bar one unhealthy royal python I bought who sadly died. Bought from a reputable source, and kept in the correct conditions, snakes are generally very healthy and robust animals. Most of the health problems are a result of poor temperature or humidity. Basically, if you do your research, they are very easy animals to keep, especially corn snakes.

If you go to a reputable breeder or pet shop and stick to a good caresheets advice regarding temperature, you cannot go far wrong. Some things worth bearing in mind with snakes though...

1. Corns are extremely skinny and agile snakes. My first corn snake has escaped three times, fortunately I've got him in a fish tank with a ventilated lid now and he can't get out of that. Wooden vivariums with glass fronts you need to be careful with, the tiniest gap can result in a lost snakey! Its worth using plastic boxes until the snake gets big enough to properly fill a vivarium. Really Useful Boxes work well for this as they have tight fitting lids, but read this for more info:

2. Always always ALWAYS use a thermostat. Unstatted heating equipment can burn and kill snakes. If you use a heat mat which most corn owners do, have the heat mat UNDER the tank not in it, and drill a hole for the heat mat sensor to go into the actual tank to take the temperature.

3. Fasting for a short period of time is normal, one of my snakes went three months without eating. So long as your snake is otherwise healthy there's no need to panic. Its hard though, every time my snakes stop eating I worry! Unless your snake is losing loads of weight or seems weak they usually start eating again when they are ready, there's lots of tricks to try!

Snakes never really become attached to you obviously, they will recognise you and most corns get very tame. A lot of people do get bored with them for this reason, but if snakes fascinate you you'll probably be ok.

Cost wise a bog standard normal corn snake will cost around £30 from a breeder, pet shops charge quite a lot more. Some colours go right into the hundreds, but most commonly available colours stay under £100 to buy.

A plastic faunarium for a juvenile corn will cost up to £15 I think, or you can buy a really useful box and drill holes in it, which is cheaper.

A vivarium for an adult corn snakes will normally cost up to £80 new, but you can pick up some serious bargains on Ebay if you bide your time...tons of people sell old vivs in your local area cheap because they don't want the hassle of posting. I've had 5 vivs off ebay and the most expensive was £40 for a 4ft one.

Heat mats are the perfect heat source for corn snakes, most corn keepers don't bother with bulbs or ceramics. The mat should be a 1/3 of the size of your snake enclosure, and will range from £12 up.

Thermostats are another good thing to get second hand off Ebay. I suggest you avoid the Habistat Mat Stats as instead of a dial they have a "tamper proof" mechanism which is really hard to change up and down for day and night temperatures. The temperature stats are a little pricier at around £35 but are much less fiddly. I have read if you are very handy with electrics you can make a thermostat with stuff from maplins for like a tenner but I wouldn't know how to do that lol!

Then you need a water dish and at least two hides, one at each end of the tank so the snake can choose whether it wants to warm up or cool down.

I havent bought mice from my local rep shop for my snakes for ages so the prices of things escape me as I get deliveries from internetreptile now. As far as I remember pinkies are around 50-75p each and I believe adult mice are under £2. Small to medium size snakes are incredibly cheap to feed and keep, a few quid a week for food and bedding if you use it (if you do use aspen substrate but do NOT feed the snake on the aspen you will need a seperate feeding box) and heat mats are very economical to run, especially with a thermostat attached. On going costs are tiny, but its worth putting away a little every week/month for vets bills as reptile vets charge an arm and a leg!

If you shop around you should be about to kit out a corn for £100 or less if you are willing to buy second hand vivs.

When you get the snake its worth having a check up and faecal at a reptile vet to check for any worms or internal parasites!

mystra

WOW! thank you so so much Jellicat, some brilliant and useful advice there

It's really helpful as there were a few things that i would never have known about, despite noseying on the internet, so many thanks!

Would defo get a viv off ebay or gumtree second hand, i'd rather spend the money on other bit such as the heat mat and bits, but sound advice on no wooden ones, i think my neighbours might kill me if i had a snake on the loose in the block of flats!!

Hannah_10

Mystra I think your attitude is great, usually when people are talking about getting a pet they haven't put half the thought into it you have. I could only find two possibilites you didn't mention. If you lost your flat and had to stay with your parents agains for a bit would they mind the snake moving in too? If at short notice you needed to travel (unwell relative, incredible opportunity through work) who would be willing to snake-sit?

mystra

Hannah_10 wrote: »

Mystra I think your attitude is great, usually when people are talking about getting a pet they haven't put half the thought into it you have. I could only find two possibilites you didn't mention. If you lost your flat and had to stay with your parents agains for a bit would they mind the snake moving in too? If at short notice you needed to travel (unwell relative, incredible opportunity through work) who would be willing to snake-sit?

Good points!

Well, my Mum loves animals, and although she's never had anything really to do with snakes she certainly wouldn't mind one in the house and would probably love getting to know it haha

As for snake sitting, you bring up an important downside for me... i currently live alone, and wouldn't get the snake until my boyfriend moves in from stoke, by then i would hope i will have made closer friends with more people by then. Currently, i don't know anyone here who would snake sit. But then, you can have cat sitters and dog sitters...maybe there are pet sitters who would look after a snake. But until i've done my research on that point then i guess the snake will have to wait, i wouldn't want it to be neglected should something come up meaning i had to go away. No holidays planned which is a plus but like you said anything can happen for me to have to go away, and having no-one to look after would be a serious problem. So i will bide my time until then, thanks for the advice

Hannah_10

There are commercial pet sitters/pet hotels with reptile knowledge yes, my friend does it (although not in London). I would also say ask your local reptile shop or vet about what's around as they are likely to have heard tales of who is good and who isn't. Then take a look at the pricing. If you could find some options and you have a the ability to make informed choices if something comes up then go for it.

vodooelephant

Jellicat wrote: »

I often think that snakes are the perfect modern pet.
. Wooden vivariums with glass fronts you need to be careful with, the tiniest gap can result in a lost snakey! I

...... I can vouch for that when my then fiance moved in with me with his corn and rat snake, they really were lovley animails............. then one night he didnt quite close up the doors with the door lock.. and i found the corn snake in the gerbils cage the next morning with a very full belly . . . . .

Jellicat

No problem glad I could help! If you've got any specific questions join reptileforums.co.uk the people on there are very knowledgable. Some of them are also a little bit rude but mostly people are nice lol. You will probably be able to find a decent breeder from there too.

mystra

vodooelephant wrote: »

Jellicat wrote: »

I often think that snakes are the perfect modern pet.
. Wooden vivariums with glass fronts you need to be careful with, the tiniest gap can result in a lost snakey! I

...... I can vouch for that when my then fiance moved in with me with his corn and rat snake, they really were lovley animails............. then one night he didnt quite close up the doors with the door lock.. and i found the corn snake in the gerbils cage the next morning with a very full belly . . . . .

OOOH NOOO!!! not very nice for you even tho snakey is just doing the natural thing! Will be keeping a very close eye on my snakey to be if i get one... they sounds like little escape artists!:rotfl:

mystra

Jellicat wrote: »

No problem glad I could help! If you've got any specific questions join reptileforums.co.uk the people on there are very knowledgable. Some of them are also a little bit rude but mostly people are nice lol. You will probably be able to find a decent breeder from there too.

thanks, will check out the forum, i guess you get trolls on all sorts of forums haha! Would rather buy from a breeder who will take the time to answer questions and be helpful rather than some shop that sells them by the kilo and 9 out 10 of the staff haven't a clue!

My main worry as well as all these is the landlord/letting agents, part of me wants to be honest and ask, as they were fine about me keeping fish (my contract says no dogs cats birds, reptiles fish you name it you can't have it!) so i checked to see if they would consider it... they laughed and said of course don't worry about it! As long as its not the sort of pet that can physically damage the house/furniture. But then I'm scared they'll say no at the same time... but then while snakey is still small and not fully grown, a smaller viv will be easy to hide in a wardrobe.... i know people who keep lots of pets and never tell!! No-one ever comes round... but then i should probably ask really... it would be foolish not to.

How long do they take to become fully grown out of interest? May work in my favour the idea of a relatively baby-sized snake... corns get to about 4-5 feet (?) and they're quite thin, so less scary than say a python... just trying to think how the landlord/estate agent will react when i ask and want to be well prepared. We plan to stay in this flat until we can afford to buy, which may be a while. I just have visions of me asking and them assuming i'm going to bring an anaconda to the flat!!

Any issues you could see the landlord/letting agent having with it and what could help pursuade them? We have a pretty good relationship with the agents and never speak to the landlord themselves as they deal with it all thru the agents.

meritaten

my daughter kept a corn snake - she had it nicely tamed, but everytime I picked it up it peed on me!
her rats were most amusing! I liked them! even though the male had a thing for lighters and used to nick anyones lighter and hide it.
my fave pet of hers was George the Bermuda Python - he was about 5 foot and used to coil up on my lap then slide his head down to my foot and i would swing my foot - he would let me do this for about half an hour then slide up and go to sleep on my lap. her vet said the most fun snake was a boa as they were most intelligent snakes and when tamed would play with you!
corn snakes are ok if you just want them in a tank - pythons will interact with you though and they are beautiful and feel gorgeous! but all snakes are wild - they arent domesticated and you have to handle them properly if you want to tame them.