Hi

[Shrimply]

Just thought I would say hi and tell you about my less than successful time keeping corn snakes.
I got my first snake last October. It was a 2 month old normal corn. She only ate once while I had her and one morning about a month after I got her i found her twisted back on herself going round in circles. The man at the reptile shop had never seen anything like it and advised that if I took it to the vet all they would do would try to hydrate it by putting a syringe down it's neck and the shock would kill it. He took it and looked after it but it died a few days later. No explanation has ever been found as to why this happened.
He kindly said he would give me another one half price. so as soon as they ca,e in i chose the one I wanted. The man fed it two pinkies then a couple of days later phoned to say that all was fine and I could collect her, he also gave her to me free of charge. The next morning she had regurged one of the two pinks and i was not able to get her to keep down a thing. Again she went back to the reptile shop but soon died.

This time the man suggested that I took one which he had had in for a while and even came up to the house to make sure everything was all right. Everything went fine for a few months then it had a regurge. I fought this battle and eventually it took 1/4 of a pinkie i worked him back up to fuzzies again which was great. I woke up about two weeks later to find it gone. It had been in a geo box inside a main vivarium and it had been a very hot and I had opened the vivs doors to cool him down and that night he chose to escape. I tried every trick in the book but he was not in the house I had no chance of getting him back.

Three months later I was in the reptile shop and saw an anery hatchling I just have to have. It took a while to convince my parents this time but they eventually agreed. The hatchling who we think is a girl (The man want pop or prob the at that age but you can't guess why ) was called granite.

Guess who turned up 10 days later. Whats more it gave my mum a huge fright when it crawled through the compost heap. It had learned to catch its own food and had I would say a full sized mouse in it when I caught it. It had grown nearly a foot and more than doubled in width. My parents agreed to let me keep it and I took it to the shop to get checked over. The guy couldn't believe how much it had grown. He also said if it wouldn't eat frozen mice he would take it away and sort it out and if I asked no questions he would tell no lies. He also probed HIM and warned that i wouldn't be able to hold for a while after wards and that he would probably get bitten. However he proved true to form and let himself get probed than continued to explore. I had to handle him not long after and had no problems.He remains nameless.

Sorry that turned out so long. At the minute every thing is going fine they have both just shed

[sparkle**]

Hey Shrimply! You've come to the right site.
Sorry to hear about your promlems, but it seems to be working for you now. Anything you want to know no matter how silly you think it is the guys and girls on this site will help .

[John Pilling]

Sounds like quite an ordeal for you. If it was me i wouldn't use the pet shop again as 1 death of a hatchling is tragic, but 2 deaths to the same person? more then a coincidence IMHO.

Glad things have turned out good for you tho, and welcome to the forum. Don't forget pic's when you have them.

[jason]

Hi Shrimply, sorry to hear about your troubles, but there are a few things that I feel the need to comment on..

Your first snake should have been immediately taken to the vet. It's easy to place your trust in the pet shop owner as he designated himself the expert when he advised you against going to the vet, but he was wrong. If you were sick and someone decided to stuff you with food rather than taking you to the doctors or the hospital then I bet you wouldn't be impressed.

I think your second snake regurged because he was stressed. If the pet shop guy fed him and he regurged at home then I very much doubt that he waited two days before calling you, it sounds like he fed the snake and called you the same day or maybe the next day. My hatchlings poop in 2-3 days after a feed, he should have waited for the snake to poop first to make sure he had digested his food before calling you. As a side note, when you get the snake home did you leave it to settle in for a few days?

Keep an eye on your third snake as in three months he could have gotten used to the wild and may take exception to being captivated again.

And what on earth did the pet shop guy mean by...

"He also said if it wouldn't eat frozen mice he would take it away and sort it out and if I asked no questions he would tell no lies."

The pet shop guy strikes me as someone you don't want to place much faith in when it comes to your snakes wellbeing.

You're at the right place now, in a community where the group as a whole is in possession of a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience.

Sorry if it appears I'm 'having a go' at you, but I'm not really, I'm more irked by the pet shop guy and his lack of good advice.

-J

[Vicki]

Welcome to the forum ;D

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but what can I say... NEVER trust a pet shop. It may sound harsh but at the end of the day they are not vets, so if you ever have health concerns always go the vet.

With regards to not eating with the first snake... Did you get the snake with feeding records that showed she ate regular before you got her? If not then it may be that she had always been that way.

With regard to the second one...it may be that he fed it soon before you picked it up and the transporting/handling made her regurge (you should not transport a hatchling for at least 3 days after feeding).

Im glad everything seems to be going well at the moment ;D What worried me a little was the fact that you left the door open on the main viv as it was too hot. Do you have a thermostat attached to your heat source? If not this may be a problem. Temps that rise above 90 can be fatal to a corn snake. You can pick them up for about £25.

Good luck, and if you have any Q's im sure we will be able to help.

Oh and we LOVE photos ;D

[Shrimply]

Firstly when I have complete faith in the man at the SPECIALIST REPTILE SHOP and all the info he tells me. He is the only person in Scotland that has a licence to keep alligators and since none of the vets around where I live know one thing about reptiles in my opinion he is the most qualified. In fact if he knows one of the vets very well and after a few days he was going to take the second snake to the vets for me at a reduced price. As for the second snake he fed when I was in and it was at least two if not three days before I collected it. All my snakes have been left alone to settle in.

"He also said if it wouldn't eat frozen mice he would take it away and sort it out and if I asked no questions he would tell no lies."

This comment simply meant he would obtain the live mice and illegally feed them to the snake as he got it back on to frozen.

I now for the very reason that without opening the doors at night the temperature would not drop although during the day the temperature was fine have a thermostat.

The man sells all his snakes with feeding records. I feel really bad for making the man sound bad. He will bend over backwards to help anyone e.g. he came to my house to make sure my set-up was alright, anything you need he will order in for you and he will keep the shop open late if you can’t get in on time. All his alligators are rescued like the one not that long ago in Edinburgh that was getting kept in a bath and they tried to sell out the boot of a car. The SSPCA phoned him up and asked if he would take it and he agreed.

[Shrimply]

Just to add i did phone the vet about the second snake and he read me questions out a book. He suggested I take it to Dan (the man who owns the reptile shop).

To take the snake to the vet to the vet would have cost me fortune. They don't have a clue about reptiles and Dans experiance with how they handle hatchlings is to hydrate them by putting a syringe down it's neck and the shock ends up killing them.

He also gave me third snake free of charge which I forgot to mention.

None of you have tried to guess why Dan won't pop or prob them as hatchlings.

[John Pilling]

Probabley the same reason i won't before they are 18" long, they are so delicate at that age and popping/probing can do a hatchling more harm then good.

[Shrimply]

Nope way off it may be part of it but there is something more important

[sparkle**]

Hey! dont stress! The people on this site are only trying to help you and your snake.Unfortunatly there are too many shops that sell snakes that don't no the first thing about them.They are only out for wot money they can make. Their for the way you worded your thread people thorght that this guy was one of them people and i'm sure that they are sorry for misunderstanding.But you must realise the people on this forum are all her to help and give you their own advice and this advice comes from them having snakes for along time.

[Shrimply]

I did not mean to offend I just felt really bad the man got blamed instead of my bad luck

[sparkle**]

No worries!! You didn't offend me. But the people like John,Dav and Vicki and everyone else( sorry to those that i didnt mention theres not enough time) have helped me alot and I know that they all are trying to help!

[Shrimply]

Yeah i know that they were only trying to help but Dan has been very good to me and he does know what he is doing. I suppose it is my fault for not fully explaining in the first place.

[sparkle**]

No worries!!

[Shrimply]

For those of you that are interested and don't think I am a total idiot for trusting Dan this page contains the contains the alligator story.

www.scottishspca.org/inspectorate/casebook.htm

The photo was taken inside its old cage at Dan's last shop. It is now in much larger housing in the new shop.
It's enclosure is just like one at the zoo (please don't take this to mean something bad). It has a pond hollowed in to the concrete with a fountain as well as plenty of space out the water. Much better than a bath!

I think he has 4 or 5 rescued alligators in all.

[Shrimply]

I found another story which says the alligater is now in Spain so maybe it is a different animal in his shop. But the picture in the report is deffinetly from his shop.

None of you played my guessing game so I am going to tell you. He was blinded in one eye by a puppy.

www.redtailboa.net/modules.php?name=News&file=showarticle&op=lastreply&threadid=12566


This is the story I think the bit about him giving up his collection has been very much exagerated as as far as I know he still has all his reptiles. You can't believe all you read.