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Care Information - Temperature – create a temperature gradient of no cooler than 70 degrees on the cool side of the enclosure and no hotter than 89 degrees on the hot side. Heat tape or heat pads work ideally for this purpose.
- Cage size/Housing – Each snake should be housed in a separate cage. Our snakes graduate from deli cup size container, to plastic shoebox size, to 3-gallon plastic sweater box size and then finally to a plastic blanket box size for adult snakes. Any similarly sized enclosures with secure lids and with no abrasive insides should work fine. Note: No size cage is too big for an adult snake, but baby snakes need to be kept in appropriately sized small container. This makes it easier for the snake to find food, and encourage it to eat.
- Furniture and Substrate - Corn snakes should always be provided with a hide box and moderately sized water dish. If at all possible the hide box should cover areas of both the hot and the cool sides of the enclosure (or multiple hide spots may be provided). We recommend aspen wood bedding for the substrate, as aromatic woods (cedar, pine, etc.) can cause irritation of the respiratory tract.
- Frequency of feeding – We feed hatchling to yearling snakes at 4 to 7 day intervals. Especially important with the hatchlings is leaving them undisturbed for three or four days after feeding. This is helpful in preventing regurgitation (see information about that later on). Yearling to adult sized females get fed at 7 to 10 day intervals and yearling to adult sized males get fed at 10 to 14 day intervals. You may safely add days to the above schedule, but very young snakes should not be overwhelmed with too much food too often.
- Type of food - Captive raised corn snakes eat laboratory-raised rodents, which are offered either live, or frozen and thawed. Never feed your snake insects or any food item from a wild source as you may introduce parasites and disease.
- Size of feed item - Hatchling to yearling sized snakes are notoriously fragile digesters and special care must be taken not to offer food items that are too big. The smallest size snakes eat the smallest sized newborn mice and so on. If your snake is unusually small, you may even need to cut your pinky mouse in half. If it takes your snake longer than 5 to 10 minutes to swallow a food item then you might be pushing the snake’s limits. (If in doubt, feed a smaller item.) No such caution need be taken for well-established adult sized snakes.
- Regurgitation - This is a common problem for very young snakes and is something that should be taken seriously. Three such regurgitations in a row are often fatal. There can be several causes including; too large of a food item, incorrect temperatures (either too low or too high), stress from too much handling, or other environmental factors such as noise and vibration. Sometimes infection and disease are a factor.
- Stopping the regurgitation cycle - First review the above factors and correct any and all of the potential causes. Corn snakes loose stomach acids and enzymes each time they regurgitate, and need time to replenish. After waiting no less than 10 days, offer half of what would be their sized food item. Wait 6 or 7 days and offer half rations again. Wait five or six days and offer half rations again. After 3 such successful feeding continue with normal feeding but keep your eyes peeled for continuing problems for a while.
- Incomplete shedding - if your snake is not completely shedding all of its skin, you need to increase the humidity of the enclosure by either adding a larger water dish, or occasionally misting the enclosure with a spray bottle. You may need to leave your snake in a smaller container full of wet paper towels over night. If your snake has not rubbed of his or her bits of stuck on skin, you may need to offer assistance.
- Handling –If you purchased a hatchling from us, then handling should be kept to a minimum for the first three to four weeks as your new snake gets accustom to its new environment. Even though you may be excited to hold it, the more you handle the hatchling, the more it becomes stressed. Stress for the snake can lead to other issues that are very serious such as regurgitation. After the four week period, introduce handling for short periods of time (a few minutes). Initially keep your handling to one or two sessions per day, and then after a week you can slowly increase the amount of time or the amount of sessions. Go slow to avoid stressing your snake too much.
- Wash Your Hands - While the risk of salmonellasis is small, the risk is completely avoidable by simply adopting the habit of always washing your after handling your snake.
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Corn Snake Caresheet