Keeping corn snakes

With its bright colors and placid nature the corn snake (North American rat snake) makes a great first choice for anyone wanting to keep snakes. On average an adult corn snake will reach 4-6 ft in length.

Accomodation

An adult corn snake should be kept in a vivarium of at least three feet in length and 18 inches in height and width .Juveniles can be kept more easily in a smaller enclosure. Make sure that your vivarium is well ventilated and has good air circulation to prevent high humidity levels. A substrate of wood chippings, newspaper or reptile bedding will be fine. Place a hide and a sturdy water bowl in the vivarium.

As far as lighting is concerned, snakes do not require any lighting at all, so it is purely for our benefit so that we can view the snake. A normal household bulb or tube will be fine.Remeber to use a bulb guard to prevent the snake wrapping itself around the bulb and burning itself.
The heating in the vivarium should be kept between 25-30degrees, the use of a heat mat controlled by a mat stat is recommended by the fish lodge. Only cover 40% of the base of the enclosure with the heat mat which will help to create a temperature gradient enabling the snake to regulate its own body temperature by thermoregulation.check the tempreture every day use a good quality thermometer and a hygrometer for humidity.

Diet

Feeding is a fairly straightforward for a corn snake; they will take defrosted pinkie mice as juveniles, moving up through the sizes to XL mice as the snake grows to an adult.

All frozen rodents should be defrosted to blood temperature before feeding to the snake. Do not handle the snake either side of the day of feeding as this may cause the snake not to feed or regurgitate its food.Never over feed your snake, one mouse once a week will be fine.

Care

Remember that snakes will smell if you do not keep you vivarium spotlessly clean, spot cleaning and regular maintenance and water changing is crucial to the welfare of you reptiles. As with all reptiles, children should be supervised at all times when handling snakes, and should wash their hands thoroughly afterwards.