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Corn Snakes As Pets

Commonly known as the corn snake or the red snake, is very popular in zoos and private collections due to its attractive coloration, its skin is breathtaking. Before committing to buy a corn snake you have to be aware that an adult has a length of about 120-180 cm and a lifespan of 10 years.

Primarily the corned snake is leaving on ground floor, but you could see some hanging from trees.  The snake is originated in the south of United States and the north of Mexico, in the pine forests, hill area or even lurking around farms.

The snake is characterized by a dark orange scale; on the back of the snake, darker scales grouped together form a saddle pattern, each saddle has a black border, on the sides of the body have chequered markings. The Underneath the body, the corn snake have a row of broad scales, this scales are called scutes, the scutes go across the snake’s body, it is a scale adaptation present in snakes that move on the ground, for a better grip of the substrate it moves on.

After many years of breeding and selection, other color and patterns have emerged and several hybrids, such as “missing black”, albino, red albino and Miami face.

This snake is a good startup if you don’t have any experience with snakes, this snake isn’t venomous and the teeth are short, generally easy to handle and care for, with a great adaptability in captivity. Also these snakes thrive when hosed alone, as they are solitary snakes.

For housing it is advised to use a fish tank with a capacity of about 80 liters, with a secured top, you wouldn’t want to have a pleasant surprise when you have guests over, to see someone else occupying the couch, as they are escape artists and once they see an opportunity they take it.

Wooden shavings are suitable for a good substrate, also paper towels or tissue paper, newspaper or even reptile carpet can be used. It is important to provide plenty of spaces to hide, as they can become stressed if they can’t hide, also branches for climbing and resting should be available.

A 21-29 degrees Celsius is the appropriate temperature for your snake, also the regular room humidity is fine for your snake thought, and changes should be made in case it’s having problems shedding. When heating the terrarium, you can use lamps or heating pads or heating rocks available in pet stores. When positioning your terrarium find a quiet place, with reduced traffic, low noise, away from direct sun light and draughts, preferably about 10mm from the wall to prevent fungus to grow.

A small water bowl should be made available, as snakes will need to immerse the whole body in the bowl especially in the shedding period. As snakes defecate in the water bowl, regular changes should be part of the cleaning routine.

Youngsters can be fed with 1-2 days old mice or if they aren’t available, they can be fed with small frogs and lizards.

For young snakes, strips of chicken, pigeon or even chicken hearts should be supplemented with vitamins and calcium.

Adults can be fed small rodents and small birds, the snake kills it’s pray by wrapping themselves around their pray, this procedure is called constriction.

You should never let your snake unsupervised with a live pray. Youngsters should be fed every 5 to 7 days and adults every 7 to 10 days. The corn snake needs clean water for drinking every day, even if you will never see it drink.

Holding the snake requires minimal effort if the whole body is supported, the snake will not snuggle too tight around your arm, in movement, usually it tends to choose the direction of moving, but gently moving its head in the wanted direction.

If you wish to mate your snake, stop feeding it in mid October, and allow three month hibernation at 10 degrees Celsius temperature, from March to June, these snakes usually mate, in this period you should supply enough food. An adult is considered sexually matured around the age of two years old.

 

1 thought on “Corn Snakes As Pets

  1. Nice article. I would however mention that the alternative name of the corn snake is the red *rat* snake, not just the “red snake”. Hope that clears things up!

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