Care for a Corn Snake

Corn snakes are highly recommended for any snake lover, because they make great pets for people of all ages. Native to the USA and Mexico, they are docile, hardy, attractive, and are easy to care for.

Steps

Setting up the Habitat

  1. Get the right sized tank for your snake. Corn snake adults can get to be as big as 5 feet (1.4m) long. You may not need a {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} enclosure at start, but eventually you will. The enclosure can be either a tank or vivarium. When the snake is small, it is ok to start your pet off in a smaller tank such as a Living World Faunarium or similar product. For a large snake, the vivarium should be around {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} long but there's not real limit on size, just make sure it's big enough.
  2. Give your corn snake enough heat. Provide a heat mat that covers about 1/3 of the tank floor to provide a proper heat gradient. The heat mat must be thermostatically controlled because they reach in excess of 250 degrees F (121 degrees C) which will severely burn the snake. Position the heat mat over one side to get that gradient. Temperatures should be about 75-85 degrees F, 23-29 degrees C, with the higher temperature on the warm area of the tank at one side.
    • Corn snakes are nocturnal and use the heat from the ground, not heat from the sun so heat lamps are not suitable. Hot rocks are never suitable for any pet as they provide a localized source of heat that is too hot. A cold snake may curl around it, seriously burning itself.
  3. Give your snake some hiding places: You should provide some places for you snake to hide in to feel secure. Try to provide a hiding place in the hot side for sure, others are optional. The hide should be placed in the warm area of the tank over the heat mat. Hides can be anything from shop-bought ones to Lego pieces. Be creative here but make sure you materials are non-toxic.
  4. Cover your tank or vivarium with substrate. There are many, many different floor coverings commercially available for corn snakes but you best options are aspen chips and newspaper. Newspaper is the best as it is very absorbent and easy to replace. While practical, newspaper is not very aesthetically pleasing. If you want a decorative substrate, use aspen. Other good options are bark or cypress mulch. Do not use cedar shavings in a snake habitat as it is toxic to reptiles.
  5. Never catch a wild corn snake. Corn snakes are becoming more and more easy to obtain, but that doesn't mean you should seek them out. Wild ones do not adjust well to captivity and have a low survival rate. Captive bred ones have been in captivity for many generations and have become very domesticated. Find a good breeder, either through a forum or other source. Pet shops are not good as you cannot be sure if the snake comes from a reputable source. Once you have your snake, leave it 5 days before feeding or handling it so it can settle in.

Taking Care of Your Snake Day to Day

  1. Give your snake enough water. You should provide a bowl of water for your snake, big enough for it to soak if it wishes. Change the water twice a week. The bowl can be on either the cool or warm side. Be aware that a bowl on the warm side will increase the humidity.
  2. Provide adequate lighting. You do not need UV lights or calcium supplements like you do in other reptiles that eat insects. Snakes DO in fact use UV to synthesize vitamin D3 but in captivity they don't need it because they receive vitamin D3 from the mice They eat. They also get calcium too. Vitamin D is in the liver of mice and calcium is in the bones.
  3. Do not keep a pair of corn snakes together. They are a solitary species. Keeping two snakes together can increase their stress. Corn snakes in captivity (especially hatchlings) have been known on occasion to eat one another, with both snakes involved dying. The only exception is a breeding pair. If you wish to breed, check that your female is 300g, {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} long and 3 years old (333 rule) and consult a good book. Do not cohabit your breeding pair until you know that they and you are ready. Inbreeding is best avoided.
  4. Feed your snake one mouse per week. Baby corn snakes are started on pinkie size mice and progress up the sizes of: pinkie mice, fuzzy mice, small mice (hoppers), medium mice (weaned), large mice (adult) and extra large (jumbo adult) as they grow.
    • Here is a rough guide of what to feed a snake.[1] Note that names vary regionally. The slashes in the size guide work like this: American English/British English.
      • Snake: 4-15g — Mouse: Pinkie;
      • Snake: 16-30g — Mouse: Pinkie x2;
      • Snake: 30-50g — Fuzzy;
      • Snake: 51-90g — Mouse: Hopper/Small;
      • Snake: 90-170g — Mouse: weaned/medium;
      • Snake: 170-400g — Mouse: Adult/large;
      • Snake: 400g+ — Mouse: jumbo adult/large.
    • It is best to feed your snake on frozen/thawed mice as they will not injure your snake and it's much more humane. You can also keep frozen mice for longer as they will not grow or die.
    • To feed, hold the prey item in the tweezers and wiggle it in front of your snake. It will strike and possibly constrict then swallow it's food whole. Do not feed on loose substrate as this can cause a fatal gut block if the substrate is digested. Feeding your snake out of it's tank is an easy solution to this and also it means that the snake does not associate feeding with its tank but be careful because if you handle your snake after a feed then it can regurgitate its meal so wait 48 hours before holding your snake again!
  5. Keep your snake happy in its home. Snake droppings aren’t very big so cage cleaning doesn’t need to happen often. It will need to be cleaned about every 3 or so weeks but scoop out fresh excrement where possible. Feed your snake weekly and give it a change of scene once in a while and it will be happy in it’s new home.

Handling and Shedding

  1. Handle your snake with care. Pick your snake up by the middle of the body and support it with both hands. When holding your snake, hold it away from your face. Pet it in the way the scales go; they don't like it the other way around. Do not handle a snake after it’s eaten for 48 hours. Wash your hands before and after handling your snake. If it struggles, do not put it back but persevere or it will never learn to be friendly.
  2. Know when snakes shed. When your snake’s eyes glass over it’s time for it to shed. Your snake should not be handled at this stage; as they may resort to self defense, wait until after the shed.
    • To aid in shedding, all you have to do is provide a moist hide. This is a plastic container either lined with moist paper towel or filled with damp moss. The container should have a lid and a hole cut out so they can go inside. Although the water dish should be on the cold side most of the time, you should put it on the hot side when your snake is in pre-shed. Mist 2-3 times daily in this time also.
    • After a few days, your snake's eyes will return to normal and a few days after that the shed will happen. You may want to measure and laminate the shed as a record.

Tips

  • Do not mess with your snake in the process of shedding it will make your snake stress out.
  • If there are ever any health problems with your corn snake go to a herpetological/exotic vet immediately.
  • Leave the snake alone during the process of shedding, the snake will be very irritable and will not hesitate to bite.
  • Buy a spray bottle to spray water into your snakes with when they're coming up to a shed. It will help increase the humidity.
  • Heat mats WILL rise to over 120°F. A thermostat is NEVER, NEVER optional! It is essential to the survival of your corn. Probed DIGITAL thermometers secured to the lowest surface of the tank/viv (ex: the bottom glass of an aquarium) are equally essential to provide accurate readings of the low and high end temps in your gradient. Newly hatched corn snakes should be fed every 4 to 5 days, not once a week. Look up the Munson plan for a good, if slightly too aggressive, feeding plan. Two hides, one for the hot side and one for the cool side of your enclosure, are the MINIMUM required, while more than 2 hides are preferable, as they provide security and peace of mind for a prey species like the corn snake. Definitely join a reputable forum, and lean on the advice and experience of those who have been keeping corn snakes for decades. You never know what you don't know, or when you'll need help or advice.
  • If your corn snake gets out check in all the small dark places - corns love being in tight spaces.
  • Do not handle your snake after its just been fed.

Warnings

  • If your snake is breathing through it’s mouth or hanging upside-down by the wall, it may have respiratory problems!
  • Keep your snake away from other pets such as dogs so it won't become aggressive!
  • Some people will advise that feeding your corn snake more or more often will make it grow faster. While true, this will most likely cause your snake to die 25%-75% earlier.
  • When a snake vibrates it’s tail and positions itself in an 'S' shape, it is agitated and may strike.
  • If you can’t find your corn snake, look under the substrate. Corns are burrowers.
  • Be careful! Reptile bark can be lethal if ingested.

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CRuONpyGk8

  • Do Not catch a corn snake from the wild.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/corn_snake

Also corn snakes are aggressive when eating.

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