Suzy is my young corn snake (Elaphe Guttata), he is old and black & white in colour (Anerythristic). Suzy is a tame snake with a very large appetite, he enjoys climbing and often sits on the roof of his vivarium in a way that looks impossible.
If you have any questions about Suzy, or other corn snakes please feel free to email aaron@webbedfeetuk.com. Thanks
Suzy is my young corn snake (Elaphe Guttata), he is old and black & white in colour (Anerythristic). Suzy is a tame snake with a very large appetite, he enjoys climbing and often sits on the roof of his vivarium in a way that looks impossible.
Although he's called Suzy I believe that he is male. The reason he is called Suzy is that I named him before I knew his sex. Despite many jokes from people, I'm sure he's not going to get a complex, get bullied by other snakes or require emotional counselling when he's older!
I bought Suzy as a baby hatchling (about 10 weeks old and 12" long) in August 2002. He was bought with his vivarum for £65 from Reptiles Plus in Southbourne, South UK (01202 421117).
Since buying Suzy I have been obsessed with snakes (hence this web site), and have absolutely no regrets. He's a wonderful little snake and I'm sure we'll be friends for years to come!
Many people ask that question and suggest that snakes are boring and I should get a "friendly" pet such as hamster or cat. Well they are wrong, snakes can be friendly too! Although they, like most other pets, require a little taming, they learn to like their owners, and can enjoy the attention. At the moment Suzy is too small to slither around my house, but when he's bigger he'll be able to leave his vivarium in the evenings and crawl along the floor or sit on my lap. If this all seems far-fetched for a "cold blooded" reptile, just speak to a few of the other snake owners on my snake links page.
Again, most people find this strange, but I think Suzy is cute, to me he's not a snake, he's a clever friendly little reptile who I'm just starting to get to know properly.
The day I first decided to get a pet was just after watching the film "Eight Legged Freaks". I was visiting a client for work and due to a mix up with locations had 20 minutes to kill, so I thought I'd go to the local pet shop (Porton Garden Centre, Salisbury, 08707 701011) and find a bit more out about pet spiders. I wanted a pet, it had to be small so I can keep it inside, but my main requirement was that it gets "friendly" - I wanted a tame pet that will get to know me, and one that I can play with. From what I could tell the spiders seemed quite dull, and just sat there, I wasn't impressed. Then looking behind me I saw a large snake shedding his skin, he looked so cute, and I then decided a snake was for me. I spoke to a sales assistant and he said that corn snakes are the best snakes for beginners as they are easy to keep, I looked at a couple of large ones and decided they were perfect.
I went home and looked on the web for a few hours gathering information about them from sites such as this. I found out what they ate, how big they grew, where they come from and how to keep them. I came across a site run by a bloke called Steve (snakepictures.members.easyspace.com), I emailed him a few questions about taming snakes, and from what he said I had no doubts. He recommended his local shop Reptile Plus as a good corn snake supplier so I went off and bought one.
I thought corn snakes were all colourful (reds, pinks and oranges) so went with the view of getting one of those. But they had a selection in the shop, I looked at the patterns and colours in all of the hatchlings and decided that the black and white one (known as Anerythristic) looked best. His pattern was crisper than the others, and I decided black eyes looked better than red ones. So I took him to show my parents as they were on the way home), then went home, set up his vivarium and let him get used to his new house for a few days.
Since buying Suzy I've had absolutely no regrets, he is lovely and will soon grow and be even better. The only problem with getting a snake seems to be addiction; it's not just drugs that can be addictive, for example, if you get a tattoo you'll want another one, and if you get a corn snake you'll want to get him a little friend! I can now see why people end up with hundreds of different snakes. I'm resisting for the moment, but give it time …
After putting Suzy in his new home I left him for about 4 days to settle, then I tried to pick him up to clean his vivarium. Poor thing, he was petrified. As soon as I touched him he moved away very quickly and hid. So I resorted to picking him up in short sessions, leaving him a day or so in between. He didn't try to bite me at all, but wasn't enjoying things. However after the first week he was tamer, he didn't mind me looking at him (before he used to hide), and didn't try and slither away from me quite as urgently as before. The bond had started!
If anyone says snakes are stupid, then they are definitely wrong. After Suzy realised that hiding under his bark wouldn't make me leave him alone, he resorted to other means to try and distract me.
Firstly he tried to confuse me by burying himself under the bark chips in his vivarium, he deliberately moved erratically in one direction, then did a U-turn and moved very carefully in the other direction. From the surface it looked as if he only moved in one direction, whilst actually he had moved to a different part of the vivarium.
His next cunning plan, I believe, is seen in quite a few snakes. After playing with him he went under his bark chips then stayed very still, when I touched him he didn't move at all, I think he was "playing dead" he did this for a while until I uncovered his head, when he quickly slithered off to another hiding place.
Although this is more instinct that intelligence, watching Suzy climb is amazing. He'll stand on end until he touches the top of his vivarium, then push himself against the very fine (and smooth) channels in the lid meaning that he can move around, and rest on, the roof of his home. Watching him defy gravity like that is fantastic.
Although I haven't seen Suzy do this yet (as he is quite tame already), apparently when they are threatened corn snakes can rattle their tails to mimic the venomous rattle snake. Wow.
The best time to watch Suzy, and probably other snakes, is feeding time. For those of you who have seen the film "Road Trip" and the famous snake-feeding scene, then this is spot on, it really is exciting. Corn snakes swallow their food whole, and watching them swallow something twice the size of their head, in one go, is just beyond words. Although this does not do it justice, there is a video clip of Suzy feeding on the Pics + Videos page. In this clip he is 12 weeks old and eating a pinkies 1-2 times a week. Yummy.
After handling him a lot one day (at about 12 weeks) I thought that I'd freaked him out. This was because that evening, and the one after, he wasn't exploring his vivarium or climbing. He wasn't his usual self. I knew that he wasn't seriously ill or something as he didn't have any problems eating, but worried that I may have scared him too much I asked advice on what was wrong. I noticed that his eyes were blueish in colour - ah ha, he was about to shed his skin.
The next day he had a new shiny skin, and his old one was in one piece in the middle of the vivarium. After the shedding he was happy again, and so was I.
The shedding enabled me to determine that Suzy was probably a boy (by counting the scales from his bum to his tale), it will allow me to monitor his growth by measuring the skins every few weeks. The shedding probably made Suzy feel better too.
Now, in our third week together, Suzy is nearly my friend. I've handled him every other day and he is certainly getting used to being touched, he no longer seems permanently scared, and he seems inquisitive rather that petrified whenever he sees my hand. There is still a lot of work to do before he is complete relaxed, but at least I can see an improvement.
One method that I am using is putting an item of my used clothing in his vivarium (as his vivarium is small I've just used a sample of cloth that I tied around my chain for a day). This way he should become used to my scent and not think I'm a predator - it's worth a shot.
Still in our third week, Suzy has really calmed down. Today I picked him up and he wasn't bothered, he let me take him out of his vivarium and was happy to explore my hands and arms. Then, whilst cleaning his vivarium I gave him to a friend who has never handled him before, he seemed more intrigued than anything and was more than happy to check things out.
It's taken 3 weeks, but I'd now say that Suzy is a tame little snake ... and I love it!
Another week on and Suzy is even more tame. 9 times out of 10 he'll let me pick him up from his viv (day or night) without even flinching.
When out he'll climb all over me, down my shirt, around my neck and never seems scared. He'll sleep on me, lie still, or climb all over the place. Quite often he doesn't want to go back in his vivarium.
He's quite good with strangers now too. So long as I pass him over he'll be happy on them (but he still prefers me).
The only problem is that he can be too relaxed and has crapped on me twice - little bugger.
Since the last update Suzy has had two baths in a plastic container. The first contained water just below room temperature, and he hated it, he tried to escape and ws not impressed. I then gave him slightly warmer water which he drank, then went swimming by himself. He then floated, went to toilet and got out and went across the floor - ace!
Know I know what temperature he likes I'll be able to bath him more often which should stop him crapping on me - result.
Suzy is now very tame, even with a shedding due in the next day or so (his eyes are very blue) he lets me pick him up without flinching at all, and seems to really like exploring and sleeping on me.
The bond is really there and it's obvious that he now knows and trusts me.
Now Suzy is over 3 months old he's getting a bit bigger. I was feeding him two or three pinkies at a time and they went literally in a minute or two. So I popped off to the pet shop and bought him a new treat, a fuzzy.
These are quite a bit larger than pinkies, and have a little fur (or fuzz). I defrosted it, warmed it up to body temperature, then dangled it in Suzy's face. WHAM, he liked that, he bit it, paused for a while, then swallowed it whole.
After the success of the first fuzzy, the next week I tried another one. This time I kept wiggling the dead mouse by its tail, Suzy thought it was alive and constricted it until he was sure it was dead. Then, swallowed it. This is very good to watch. It's strange seeing my tame and innocent pet in "hunting mode".
Pictures of a fuzzy and the first feeding can be found on the pics & videos page.
Suzy is still as happy as ever. He never flinches when I take him from his vivarium, he is relaxed on me and my friends, and he always feeds. I often give him baths in a plastic tub, which he seems to like. This also has the advantage that it makes him go to the loo which stops him doing it on my lap - much more convenient!
I'm in the process of building Suzy a new and better home so he has a little more space.
Unfortunately, due to the start of the UK winter, and poor heating in my lounge, the humidity seems to have dropped and Suzy didn't shed properly. His skin came off in pieces, and the last few inches stayed attached.
I therefore 'manually' shed him by very gently rubbing him with a damp tea towel. He didn't seem to like it, but would still let me do it, and of course he was much happier afterwards.
It was important that I removed the skin as it could build up and restrict blood flow and harm him. It's also important that, if you try this, you don't literally pull the skin off as this can fatally harm your snake.
He's due a shed in the next few days, so I'm going to increase the humidity in his vivarium. This can easily be done by putting some damp tissues in a plastic pot inside his home.
As well as snakes being addictive to their owners, most guests that I have around seem to love Suzy. They are all amazed at how cute he looks and how scary he isn't. A couple of my friends now want to buy a corn of their own. Perhaps sometime in the future people will realise how friendly reptiles can be and the general phobias and stigmas about snakes will disappear.
It's been a long time since I've done anything snake-related on the web as I've been very busy. Suzy is still well, still tame and still ace. Suzy is now 9 months old.
His new vivarium will be needed very shortly as he's grown a lot and it's not fair keeping him in what he has. I shall hopefully do some work on it this weekend.
He has progressed onto a couple of small mice per week, and will shortly be eating medium sized ones.
I've updated the photo page and will probably next be making an update when Suzy's vivarium is finally made. I can't wait.
Sorry folks, been ages since an update but at last it's here. Suzy is now 2 years at 7 months, about 4 foot long and over an inch thick. He's eating a large frozen (thawed) mouse weekly.
He's still very tame, still has never bitten anyone and has recently moved into a new homebuilt vivarium. He looks at home and keeps exploring his new surroundings.
Thanks for all your positive emails about this site, they're appreciated! Soon it will be updated further, mainly structural changes so that information will be split into separate pages. I shall try to add lots of photos (not just of Suzy eating) as well.
Thanks for reading
In early 2005 Suzy decided not to eat. This is because he's nearly 3 years old, male, and he was looking for snake totty. This lasted about 2 and a half months and he has eventually eaten a medium sized rat.
During this time his skin got rough, he shed a lot and I tried to feed him every fortnight.
... he didn't pull :(
More news will follow shortly.