Now I'm back living in Scotland and I was over the moon when I heard there was a reptile shop in Aberdeen (about 20 minutes from where I live). I went in and was amazed by all the different reptiles they had leopard geckos, fake water cobras, hog noses, bearded dragons, spiders and of course corn snakes to mention a few. I immediately fell in love with the corns and, after about a month, I went back and came home with an okeetee hatchling.
At the time I had my own flat so my parents knew nothing about Pretzel (I was looking after him for a friend!). All was going well until, one day, Pretzel was nowhere to be seen. He had managed to escape through the tiniest of gaps in his vivarium (something to note if you are thinking of getting a corn they are brilliant escape artists). After about a month we gave up looking for him, presuming he had got outside and died. It was winter up in Aberdeen after all!
I decided that the vivarium looked empty but didn't want another snake,I guess I didn't want to replace him so I got two leopard geckos instead. One pretty coloured female for me and the runt for my boyfriend (I felt sorry for it, it was so tiny!). Three months later (after moving out of the flat and back with my parents) my boyfriend got a phone call from his old flatmate saying the snake had been found outside the flat and could someone come and pick him up?! I couldn't believe it, Pretzel was ALIVE!!
After carefully reintroducing him to a new escape-proof vivarium, he is still alive today albeit very small for his age. I now had to confess to my parents that the snake was actually mine but they were OK with it and eventually became corn crazy too! Mum even bought a corn herself, a lovely female ghost called Macy. The collection has now grown to three. I bought an amelanistic stripe (called Noodle) and am hoping to start breeding them once they are all mature.
Don't ever think you will only buy one corn, one turns to two, and two to several! They are highly addictive!
