Ok here is the care sheet.
This is an outline of the basic necessities for a corn snake, but you should do your own research to improve your ability to care for your corn snake.
Check List:
Cage (10-50 gallon) Bedding Water Bowl UTH
Hiding Spots Thermometer (Digital with probe) Hygrometer
Thermostat or Rheostat Frozen Food Gram scale Snake
Corn Snakes:
Corn snakes are the most popular pet snake in the world, and that’s because they are perfectly suited to living in captivity. They are calm, easily handled, and easily kept snakes. They grow to between 3.5 and 5 feet, although snakes over 5 feet are not uncommon. Their medium size makes keeping them simple and handling easy. They are wonderful snakes and the number of color morphs available makes them a colorful addition to any house or collection. Many live past 20 years so owning a corn snake is a lifelong event and you need to be sure you can provide the snake with a home.
Quick Note:
Your snake needs time to settle into its new home. Place your new snake in its fully set-up cage and restrain that urge to handle your new pet - we all know the urge - and let the snake have 3 days to itself without being handled. At that point offer it its first meal as described below. Following that meal you have to wait another 2 days before taking out your hatchling. I know, the agony! But it’s the best for the snake, and that’s what’s most important. After that first meal is down and digested properly care for your new snake and it will be a wonderful pet!
Housing:
A hatchling corn snake is comfortable in a 10 gallon cage for at least the first year of its life, and often longer. For the rest of the snake’s life it needs a cage at least half the length of its body. A 20 gallon long cage is generally considered the minimum size cage for an adult corn snake to live in comfortably and a slightly larger cage (30-50 gallon) is always a good idea. Corn snake hatchlings don’t enjoy wide open spaces in their cages, so if you are going to house a small hatchling in a 20 gallon cage to avoid buying a new cage in a year you will want to make sure there is plenty of décor and fake foliage (adults will quickly destroy live plants) to make the hatchling more comfortable and encourage it to explore.
Corn snakes are also great escape artists so make sure there is no way for your new hatchling to get out of its cage. Any hole larger than the snake’s snout will let the snake slip out. Corns will also push up a lid and slip out that way, so make sure the top of your cage is weighted down, clamped down, or otherwise secured. One of the best readily available tank for corns is the critter cage, which many pet stores including PetSmart and Petco carry. It closes securely with two clips and has two small slits in the back to allow for thermostat and thermometer probe cords, but are too small for even the smallest hatchling to slip out of. The cages also have a slot for a lock to further prevent escapes.
Corns need good ventilation but too much may cause problems with humidity or temperature. The best solution is to have a few large, screened holes in the cage or have the entire top screened off. Most cages, unless made entirely of screen, will work well.
The last, and probably one of the most important parts of housing corn snakes is that you must not house multiple snakes in one enclosure. The list of things that can go wrong is long, and includes pre-mature breeding (which can be deadly), stressing out the snakes, and cannibalism. There are a few people who will tell you there is nothing wrong with co-habitation, but the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming and all respectable breeders house corn snakes alone. Corns are not social creatures, and do not enjoy staying together. Keeping them together will only cause problems.
Handling:
You can handle your corn! As long as you wait the 2 days after each feeding you will be fine. If you have never handled a snake before, start by holding the snake while it’s still in the cage close to the bedding. That way if you jump or drop the snake it won’t get hurt. Once you have a feel for the way it moves you can move away from the cage. Keep handling to no more than 5 minutes for the first few weeks. After awhile you can lengthen the time but try to keep it under 30 minutes at any given time.
Yes corns can bite but the pain, if any, will not be enough to harm you. Don’t give up on the snake if it bites you, it’s not the snakes fault. You are huge and grabbing it, think about how you would act if you were the snake and not the human. If you are worried about getting bitten you can wear rubber gloves until you feel like you can handle the snake without them.
Substrate, water and hides:
Corns need a substrate that will absorb liquids to prevent bacteria growth and won’t harm the snake. The preferred substrate by many breeders and keepers is shredded aspen, but multiple layers of newspaper, coconut based beddings such as Eco Earth, some other shredded woods, and many commercial beddings work well too. DO NOT USE pine, cedar, fir, gravel or sand as they are either not absorbent or are toxic to the snake. I recommend aspen because corn snakes love to burrow in it, it is absorbent, covers up smell, and looks better than newspaper.
Corn snakes need to have a water bowl in their enclosure, preferably big enough for the snake to soak in to cool off or to loosen skin prior to shedding. City tap water is often chlorinated but is safe to use for your snake. Do not use distilled water as it does not contain the necessary minerals to keep the snake healthy. The water should be changed at least twice a week as well as whenever it appears cloudy or has been soiled.
The cage should have 2 hides to make the snake feel secure, as corns don’t have great eyesight and prefer to be able to hide in a small, dark house. There should be at least one hide on the warm side of the cage and one on the cool side (more on heating in the Heating section) to allow the snake to thermo-regulate. The hides should not be massive as corns enjoy curling up in a small place for comfort, but make sure the snake can comfortably fit in the hide and you will be able to remove the hide from above the snake to get access to your corn. Extra cover for hatchlings, as mentioned earlier is also important to make your young snake feel secure.
Although corn snakes often climb in the wild for a variety of reasons, they do not often make use of the height of a tank in captivity, and a stick or something else for the snake to climb on is not necessary. Many breeders have too little space and too many snakes to give each snake a lot of vertical space, but if possible I believe it is a good idea if only to give the snake the option to climb. The snake will be comfortable either way.
Heating and Humidity:
The preferred method for heating a corn snake’s cage is by using an under-tank heater (UTH) stuck to one end of the bottom of the tank. Make sure the heater covers no more than one half of the bottom of the tank so that the snake will have a warm area and a cool area to choose from when trying to find the right temperature. The UTH needs to be regulated, preferably by a thermostat although a rheostat works too, so that the UTH will not get excessively hot and harm your snake. Set the thermostat so that the temperature on the glass directly above the heat pad and under the substrate reads between 85 and 89 degrees Fahrenheit. I keep the warmest point above the UTH in my adults’ tanks at 88 degrees. This gives the snake a very warm spot to lie in if needed, but is not hot enough to hurt the snake. Temperatures above 90 degrees F should be carefully avoided for the safety of your snake. If temperatures are too low the snake may refuse to eat because the cage is not warm enough to allow easy digestion. The cool side needs no heating and preferably it should be in the mid to high 70’s. This set up will provide a comfortable home for your corn. Make sure to test this for at least a week before getting your snake to make sure everything is set correctly.
One common question is if a heat lamp or lighting is required. The answer is no, no heat lamp needs to be used and if it is used it will often lower the humidity considerably, and so should probably not be used at all. You can use a florescent light or other light in your snake’s cage, but it is not necessary and is only for better displaying the corn, not for the benefit of the snake. If a light is used make sure to turn off the light for a period of time each day (8 hours is probably a minimum, although I have never used lights) to allow for a night and day cycle.
The humidity in a corn snake’s cage should stay around 45%, but anywhere from 35% to 60% is fine. If the humidity is too low then the snake will have a very hard time shedding which can lead to worse problems. When you notice your snake is in ‘blue’, looking dull in color and eyes have a blue tint to them, mist the cage about once a day until the snake sheds. That will ensure humidity is high enough to allow the snake to shed easily. If the humidity is consistently too high your snake may develop a respiratory infection (RI), caused by the increased humidity. Immediately air out the cage to lower the humidity and contact a reptile vet. (Go to
www.herpvetconnection.com to find a vet)
Feeding:
Hatchling corn snakes are fed as often as once every 4 days, and adults are normally fed once every 10 days on frozen/thawed mice. This varies greatly. While the hatchling is eating pinky mice, the smallest available size, it should be fed once every 4 or 5 days. When eating fuzzies and hoppers, the snake can be fed a little less often, about every 5-6 days. When the snake reaches the size to eat small mice/weaned mice the snake should be fed every 7 days. From there the snake will need slightly larger mice later on, but should be fed no more than every 7 days. If the snake is gaining excess weight and has skin showing between its scales or has what many call ‘hips’ (excess fat that shows as a very sudden narrowing of the body at the cloaca) the feeding can be as seldom as once every 2 weeks. Remember this is just a guide-line. Each snake is different and you will need to adjust for your snake as it grows.
The best way to judge the size of the food item a snake should be fed is to judge the width of the mouse and the width of the snake at its widest point. The food item should be between 1 and 1.5 times the diameter of the snake’s thickest point. This, along with the suggested feeding frequencies above should keep your snake healthy, happy, and growing fast.
Feeding should occur at dusk, when corns are naturally more active and looking for food. The snake should be removed from his cage a put in another container, like a plastic shoe box or Tupperware, for feeding, and the mouse should be heated up in hot water from the tap (you can microwave the water but not the mouse) to around 100 degrees F. The mouse needs to warm to encourage the snake to eat and completely thawed. The mouse is then dropped into the container with the snake, the lid is put on, and the snake is left to eat in a dark, quite place. Check back on the snake after 15 minutes or so and see if the snake has eaten. If not, leave the snake for another 15 minutes and the snake should have finished off its meal. Once the snake has eaten and the mouse has moved a third of the way down its body gently move it back into its tank.
After feeding a snake needs time to digest the large meal, and so should not be handled or disturbed for at least 48 hours (2 days) after feeding, at which time the snake has digested the mouse enough to be handled again. The main danger with handling a snake in this 48 hour period is that the snake may regurgitate its meal, which can be very hard on the snake’s system, especially if it regurgitates multiple meals in a row. If the snake does regurgitate its meal wait 10 days to try and feed again, the snake’s system needs to settle. Step down in the size of the meal being offered also can help.
Resources:
www.Cornsnakes.com (A great site with a lot of information and helpful members.)
Corn Snakes: The Comprehensive Owner’s Guide - By Bill and Kathy Love
Available at
www.cornutopia.com
Corn Snakes in Captivity - By Don Soderberg
Available at
www.cornsnakes.net
Final Note:
While the easy simple way to get a new snake would be to go to PetSmart or Petco and pick one up but there is are problems with that. Many of those snakes are exposed to mites and other problems that will cost you more money later on. The best way to get yourself a new corn snake is from a breeder. You can attend a local show,
http://www.mdreptilefarm.com/shows/va/nva.asp. Or you could find an online breeder to get your corn snake from. There are many breeders on
www.cornsnakes.com that have a large amount of snakes to pick from. Good luck! If you have any questions my email is ___________, I will gladly help you on your quest to find the prefect snake.
