lighting for my corn snake

I just got 2 corn snakes ( female and male) the other day they are a couple weeks old and I just fed them. I got them in a 10 gallon aquarium and I have a heat pad and this heat lamp that came with tthe aquarium. I was wondering if I leave both the light and the heat pad on 24/7?

You can certainly leave the heat pad on 24/7, as long as the heat pad does not cover the entire bottom of the cage and they can get to a cool side if they want to. But for the light, I would use it to create a normal day/night cycle. Just follow the day/night cycle outside and duplicate those hours.

Andrew...

Heating pads (assuming you mean an under tank heating pad) attached directly to the glass cause the surface of the glass
to become extremely hot...if you haven't already attached it to the aquarium use some kind of heat resistant tile (i've used slate) to rest the heating pad on without having it contact directly with the glass, and raise the tank up so there is @1/4" gap between the surface of the heating pad and the bottom of the aquarium...if you've attached it already to the tank you can buy a thermostat to adjust the temperature...you can leave it on all the time...jmho with a heating pad a heat lamp is unnecessary...a low watt true light (UVA) florescent is nice (or any low watt incadescent) to replicate day/nite cycles; it's a matter of taste more than nessessity...run thru a timer you can set it and forget it...you may also want to separate your corns, also; that, too, is a matter of debate...the general consensus is that it is best of the snakes health to keep them separate...peace and enjoy them; hope this helps


ps got a thermometer?...whats the temps on the hot/cool side?

wait so why do i need to keep the snakes separate arn't they spose to live witheachother? what abotu mating do I separate them then let them live witheachother for a while until they do there thing? Do they fight or somthing?

if you search the forums you'll find several debates about housing together. Some poeple do it without any problems. The Corn Snake Manual by Kathy Love will also provide tons of information about breeding and housing etc. If housed together, they should be fed separately and kept apart for a bit till feeding response and food scent fades.
Housing together -
Pros: only using 1 cage, heat pad, thermostat, etc. saves $. neat seeing them together in hides or interacting etc.

Cons: STRESS, can not identify which regurge or bad feces belongs to which snake, disease or parasite transmission much more probable - you now have 2 sick snakes, accidental mating of an immature female can have serious health consequences, more?

Breeding - there are signs that will tell you when adult corns (3yrs and suitable size) are ready to breed. Apparently they just need to be introduced for a while and not necessarily housed together. The manual has lots of good information.

The cons seem to outweight the pros in my opinion. Stress can be very subtle and hard to detect but still have serious consequences.

Disclaimer: I am still a newbie myself but read these forums religiously. These are just my opinions. The Corn Snake Manual, and online care sheets and forums ( http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/ ) are a tremendous help.


Bruce Hatfield