How To Care For Corn Snakes
Follow Mark Amey's step by step guide to looking after your pet. Corn snakes are placid, non-poisonous snakes and are good pets for all ages, so follow VideoJug's guide to caring for them properly.
Step 1: Housing and Bedding
Corn snakes should be kept in a glass or wooden tank called a vivarium with adequate ventilation. The tank should measure about 1 metre by 45 centimetres by 45. It should include a heat source controlled by a thermostat. Place the thermostat sensor over the heat source. Fit a UV light which is no more than 2 percent UVB. It should be on 12-14 hours a day and replaced every 6 months. Place a thermometer in the tank; the temperature should be 25-26 degrees during the day, and 22-25 degrees at night. The snake will have a basking area by the heat source of 27-28 degrees. Use newspaper, orchid bark or wood shavings as substrate to cover the floor of the tank. Provide several climbing areas and dark places to hide such as branches, plants, plant pots and boxes. Make sure the water bowl is kept away from the heat source.
Step 2: Handling
To pick up a corn snake, let it see your flat hand so it knows you don't have food, and scoop it up by the middle of the body. Don't try and grab it behind the neck as it will be threatened by this aggression and may bite.
Step 3: Diet
Give your corn snake bottled water which should be changed everyday. They eat mice, which should be bought frozen from a reptile shop or farm shop and defrosted in warm water. Feed your snake once a week with one mouse or more if it is still hungry. You should use feeding tongs. Offer the mouse nose to nose with your corn snake. It will constrict its prey before eating it.
Step 4: Exercise and Play
Corn snakes can be handled everyday, as a form of exercise, but don't handle your snake for a few days after feeding, as they don't enjoy moving around too much when digesting their food.
Step 5: Cleaning
Clean out your snake's faeces once or twice a week and clean the water bowl every day. Change the substrate at the bottom of tank and clean the tank with a reptile friendly disinfectant once a month. Snakes shed their skin and so you do not need to wash them.
Step 6: Health
If old skin gets stuck to your snake around the eyes and tail after shedding, put it in a box containing moist moss, and this will help it remove the dead skin. Corn snakes are prone to obesity so do not overfeed them. If your snake puts on weight but isn't eating, or you notice anything abnormal, take it to the vet. Make sure you wash your hands before and after handling your snake to prevent spreading bacteria such as salmonella.
