I've had this male baby corn for about 2 weeks. He eats regularly every friday(one pinki a little bigger than the width of his head and he eats it fine). I had a undertank heat mat and his substrate is coconut husks. He has a water dish big enough to submerge his whole body in, i've seen him drink from it and everything seems fine...but he spends most of his time in his hide spot on the cooler side of the tank and only moves from there when i handle him. We also have a baby leopard gecko who needs the heat mat...the house temp stays around 80-83F, but now i have no way to heat the tank other than the house heat....he is also getting ready to shed...his color is getting cloudy. Have there ever been baby corns that can live happily in a warm house without another form of heat? I have an overhead light by his cage(he's over by my sink on this little bar-like table attached to the wall, so the light would be right above his cage) but I read that unnecassary light can cause stress...what can i do? His tank reads right now between 80 and 82F right now. Any advice is apriciated.

Corns usually do fine at around 80-85 ambient. Remember that most snakes are not active during the day. Corns are considered to be diurnal however they will do most activities at dusk and dawn, crepuscular.

I keep all my corns and rats at room temp.......however I do have a herp room that stays around 82-85.

On another note.....I do not know of any breeder friends that use heat mats with Leos......"shrug"

well...nothing else was keeping Leos at a safe temp. None of the bulbs worked but the heat mat has worked. He should be doing better now. So keeping a baby corn at room temp is okay?

So long as room temp is within range, then yeah.....I have done it for years. Raised up many hatchlings that way.

thank you so much. He seems fine...probly will shed tommorrow...i'll try and get some good pictures after he sheds....and get some pictures of his enclosure up here too^^ so everyone can see my little Osiris.

and try to get rid of the coconut and replace it with aspen

y? he's been fine on it. He also likes burrowing in it sometimes...but not as often now. I've never done well with aspen...i had a baby garter snake that hated the stuff....she would litterally climb along the top of the tank to the warm side on her fake leaves to avoid it....and i had checked the temp AND humidity and they were perfect...she just didn't like the aspen. Besides...coconut husks absorb 90% of his waste and keeps the cage from getting too hot because it carries the heat better...so the heat evens out. I don't agree with switching a snakes substrate once it has adapted to its enclosure...it could just cause more stress on the snake if you mess with its home too much. Oh, and just to clear things up a bit....the posts on Osiris are not the same person as the posts on Leos...i'm Ryuka's fiancee and i've taken care of a lot of wild snakes in captivity. I'm not new to snake care in general...just corns^^;

I use paper towels or newsprint for all my snakes unless in a "show" enclosure in which I use cypress mulch.

So long as cedar is never used I think a snake will adapt fairly well to most other sunstrates. I say most, not all. Snakes are fairly versatile and hardy and that's one reason my fiance and I got one. Thanks for all your help too. I might get a red-heat bulb for him so I can turn on the ac once in a while and because he seemed to like my leopard gecko's light^^