approachablelion
New member
I purchased my first corn snake from a breeder whose name I'm not releasing, as I have no idea if this was my own doing. I purchased two siblings, a male and female, from a breeder who claimed she had been breeding corn snakes and boas for 20 years. She was one of the few breeders I could find anywhere nearby, and was willing to drive and meet me halfway with the snakes, although because of time constraints, I chose to have them shipped. She had their pictures on here, although the account only had two posts. I had her send me videos of the snakes, which she did, posting on her Instagram and tagging me. I assumed the lack of info about her and her husband and their breeding was simply because they seemed to be private people. I was worried for a while that I was getting scammed and would be receiving zero snakes, as I found very little of their existence as people anywhere online. Eventually, I found marriage records for the two of them in the state they had said they were located in. That and the Instagram was enough for me at the time, although I will be more careful in the future. The woman seemed very helpful and kind, and she recommended the pictured anery male to me, saying it was her favorite. I eventually decided to purchase a female sibling as well.
The first picture is of when they arrived, where I briefly handled them before putting them in their enclosure, and the remaining pictures are in sequential order of the time I started handling him (5 days after they arrived) to his death a little over 2 weeks after I received him. The last picture is roughly 13 days after I got him. I've had many people say that he looked sickly upon arrival. He was 1/3 the size of his sister, something the breeder explained by saying that he was "a little finicky, but usually eats if you offer it to him every day until he eats until the third day or so" and "Yeah, she usually eats two so that's why she's bigger" . She assured me that they had both eaten the 3 days before she shipped them. I had/have had no luck getting either of them to eat. It has been almost 2 months since I received the female, and she has not eaten. Both seemed terrified of the frozen thawed pinkies I offered them no matter what method I tried.
I realize now I did a lot of things wrong. The breeder gave me a lot of bad advice, and I chose to listen to it rather than things I had read myself. So it's very possible that this is a situation of my own making. I am just curious as to the opinions here because everyone who I've talked to about it has said that the anery did not look or act healthy. Here are some of the things I did wrong, and how I've tried to correct them:
-The breeder said that I could house them together--when I told her I planned to put them in separate cages just in case, she argued and said that I should at least keep them together for a little while because they were used to each other. I planned to move them the day that the anery died. As of now, the female is still in that cage. It is a pretty densely furnished (lots of cover and hides to choose from) 20 gallon terrarrium.
-The breeder told me to repeatedly try to feed them everyday after they refused food. I now realize I should have offered food to them weekly regardless of whether they ate or not. I have taken this approach with the female for a month now.
-The breeder told me it was fine to handle them as soon as they started exploring. I handled them after five days (I had read 5 days to a week) for probably 15-30 minutes a day everyday. As of a month ago, I have stopped handling the female completely save for a minute or two every few day until she feeds, which seems unlikely to happen at this point.
I would also like to point out that the female was extremely frightened after her brother died. She was in a hide curled up next to where he died. The only time she ever struck me was when i reached to check on her. It was very much a defensive strike. She remained skittish and rarely ventured to that side of the enclosure for a while. I checked them both for signs that they had fought, but found none.
I think he looks sickly and starving, something I attributed to his small size at the time. But I also know I'm not very experienced and don't want to jump to conclusions.
The first picture is of when they arrived, where I briefly handled them before putting them in their enclosure, and the remaining pictures are in sequential order of the time I started handling him (5 days after they arrived) to his death a little over 2 weeks after I received him. The last picture is roughly 13 days after I got him. I've had many people say that he looked sickly upon arrival. He was 1/3 the size of his sister, something the breeder explained by saying that he was "a little finicky, but usually eats if you offer it to him every day until he eats until the third day or so" and "Yeah, she usually eats two so that's why she's bigger" . She assured me that they had both eaten the 3 days before she shipped them. I had/have had no luck getting either of them to eat. It has been almost 2 months since I received the female, and she has not eaten. Both seemed terrified of the frozen thawed pinkies I offered them no matter what method I tried.
I realize now I did a lot of things wrong. The breeder gave me a lot of bad advice, and I chose to listen to it rather than things I had read myself. So it's very possible that this is a situation of my own making. I am just curious as to the opinions here because everyone who I've talked to about it has said that the anery did not look or act healthy. Here are some of the things I did wrong, and how I've tried to correct them:
-The breeder said that I could house them together--when I told her I planned to put them in separate cages just in case, she argued and said that I should at least keep them together for a little while because they were used to each other. I planned to move them the day that the anery died. As of now, the female is still in that cage. It is a pretty densely furnished (lots of cover and hides to choose from) 20 gallon terrarrium.
-The breeder told me to repeatedly try to feed them everyday after they refused food. I now realize I should have offered food to them weekly regardless of whether they ate or not. I have taken this approach with the female for a month now.
-The breeder told me it was fine to handle them as soon as they started exploring. I handled them after five days (I had read 5 days to a week) for probably 15-30 minutes a day everyday. As of a month ago, I have stopped handling the female completely save for a minute or two every few day until she feeds, which seems unlikely to happen at this point.
I would also like to point out that the female was extremely frightened after her brother died. She was in a hide curled up next to where he died. The only time she ever struck me was when i reached to check on her. It was very much a defensive strike. She remained skittish and rarely ventured to that side of the enclosure for a while. I checked them both for signs that they had fought, but found none.
I think he looks sickly and starving, something I attributed to his small size at the time. But I also know I'm not very experienced and don't want to jump to conclusions.
