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CORN SNAKE CARE SHEET!

General Information

Corn Snakes (Elaphe guttata guttata) are one of the most common types of snakes kept as pets within the UK. They are relatively easy to care for and will tolerate slight mistakes a beginner may make. They are most suitable for teenagers or older as they may not tolerate the rougher handling of younger children. They grow to between 4ft-6ft , with females generally being larger than males, on average they live for 12 to 15 years of age but have been known to live as long as 20 years. They originally come from central and eastern America. This caresheet will guide you through the various aspects of caring for Corn Snakes, covering all topics required for you to keep them successfully.

Housing

Corn Snake enclosures do not have to take up much space, as the are not highly active and like to feel safe, preferring smaller living environments. They key is to start in a small faunarium and upgrade in stages into vivariums as the snake grows. A 3ft-4ft vivarium is suitable for an adult Corn Snake. You can make a Corn Snakes housing as simple, or as naturalistic as you like, aslong as you provide the basics that they need to thrive. They need a warm end and a cooler end in their enclosure, the heating section below will cover how to achieve this. At least one cave/hide/log is needed as they need to have a sense of security. You may add foliage to the vivarium if you wish, this gives more hiding / exploring space and makes the vivarium look more appealing. You must also ensure they always have fresh water available to drink, this should be provided in a bowl and changed every day / other day. The water bowl not only provides a drink to your snake but also a place to bathe when in shed, when you notice your snake has gone hazy coloured moving the bowl to the warmer end of its enclosure will make it slightly more humid helping the shedding process. There is a debate to whether Corns should be housed together as in the wild they would lead solitary lives, in captivity females have been known to live together without problems, mature males have been known to harass each other during breeding season when house together, generally male and female will cohabit together but unless planning to breed this isn't recommended (they would also need to be at a suitable breeding age/size before hand or the female could become eggbound. If housing together always keep an eye on their behavior and a back up plan for if they need to be separate.

Substrate

So what substrate should you use on the bottom of your vivarium? You have several choices, these are listed below, along with any advantages and disadvantages of each one.

Aspen - Advantages: easy to spot clean, looks natural. Disadvantages: can cause impaction if ingested, although very unlikely to be eaten. Bacteria can harbor if not removed and replaced regularly.
Newspaper - Advantages: no risk of impaction, easy to change. Disadvantages: looks unnatural, hard to spot clean.
Coco/Orchid bark - Advantages: looks natural, easy to change. Disadvantages: although sometimes recommended this substrate is much better for snakes requiring higher humidity levels than Corn Snakes.

Heating

With Corn Snakes being cold blooded like all reptiles you must provide them with a heat source so they can regulate their own body temperature. All reptiles thermoregulate, what this means is that they move around in their environment to regulate how warm their bodies are. When you see reptiles basking they are warming up their bodies, needed to carry out all daily functions. If they get too warm, they simply move to somewhere cooler to cool down. If they cant cool down, they run a great risk of suffering from heat stress, which can and does kill. You can now see how important it is to have the correct thermal gradient in the vivarium. You want the warm end at around 86* and the cool end about 70*. So you now know that you want a warm end and a cool end, so how do you go about achieving this? Below are several ways of creating a warm end, or basking spot, if your vivairum is the correct size, the cool end should sort itself out, aslong as you don't keep the vivarium in a really hot room. Please be aware that all heat sources should be connected to a thermostat to control their temperature. The type of thermostat depends on your heating method, so I will include that below.

Heatmat: A heatmat is the easiest way to provide your Corn Snake with a warm end, you should use a heatmat which covers about 1/3 of your vivarium floor space, and place it right at one end. When using a wooden vivarium you need to place the heatmat inside, if your using a glass tank, you can place it outside, but make sure you raise the glass tank slightly or it may crack. When using a heatmat, you can use a mat or temperature thermostat, there is no need to use dimming or pulse thermostats, I can also recommend Habistat or Microclimate thermostats. Make sure your thermostat probe is placed in the vivarium on top of your heatmat and substrate, this will allow you to accurately control how warm your warm end gets. You now need a digital thermometer (with a probe, or an infra red gun) to measure how warm it is getting and adjust the thermostat as needed. Please do not use the analogue thermometers as they are not accurate.
Heat lamp: You may also use a heat lamp to provide your basking spot. You should use a red light bulb for your Corn Snakes heat source, this must be covered with a bulb guard as snakes are notoriously known to try to wrap around the bulbs and direct contact can cause burns or irritation on your snake. You again need to set this up at one end of the vivarium and set it up just like you would a heat mat. The only difference is that you need to use a dimming thermostat. This type of thermostat dims down the bulb to create the correct temperature, a normal thermostat would turn it on and off, creating a disco and shortening the life of your bulb. Depending on the size of your vivarium and how warm the room you are housing them in is, you may have to try different wattage bulbs to find one which works best, however 40W / 60W is normally ok. Remember to check your temperatures carefully with a digital thermometer.

Lighting

Corn Snakes do not require any specific lighting, infact natural lighting from the room the snake is housed in is perfect as snakes can get stressed from too much light over a period of time. If you are using a heatmat, and would like lighting in the day you can add a low wattage (energy-saving bulb) as you don't want to add any more heat (even a low wattage bulb will need a guard put over it).

Food / Supplements

Corn Snakes are one of the easier reptiles to feed as they do not require any supplements or a varied diet. A hatchling Corn Snake will eat pinkie mice (bought frozen from your local reptile shop and thawed out before feeding) fed every 5 days or so, as your snake grows he will move onto fluffs, then small mice, mice etc. The rule of thumb is to make sure the mouse being offered is no more then 1.5 times the diameter of your snakes body. Once onto small mice the feeding period for your Corn Snake can be varied between 5 - 10 days as in the wild they would not have a regular feed, this will also prevent them from becoming overweight, as when they are getting hungry they will move around more looking for something to eat.
Its best not to handle your Corn Snake for 2-3 days after feeding as it can cause the snake to regurgitate its food. If regurgitation occurs do not stress and try to feed your snake again for at least 10 days as it will need to build up the stomach acid it has lost and without this it could cause the snake to regurgitate its food again. Other factors that could cause a snake to regurgitate its meal are over handling, stress (due to a new environment or change in environment) or food that is too large. If regurgitation occurs you should seek advice from a reptile vet.

Cleaning

Corn Snakes are not messy reptiles, they only tend to defecate a few days after they have been fed, which should be spot cleaned when seen. Other than that a full clean out can be done every 3 - 4 weeks changing/cleaning all substrate and during this you should clean any furniture in the vivairum with a reptile disinfectant. If you keep the vivarium clean in this way you should minimize any health problems.

Breeding / Sexing

Snakes are easiest and best sexed by a probing method which should only be carried out by experienced snake keeper, vet or herpetologist. However you can sometimes tell yourself when comparing Corn Snakes of a similar age as males tend to have longer tails.

Breeding to be added shortly.

Morphs

Corn Snakes do not just come in one form, there are many different colourations / patterns to choose from they are being bred to try and get brighter, bolder and new patterns, with more appearing on the market all the time. Below is a list of different morphs:

- Carolina
- Okeetee
- Miami
- Rosy
- Amelanistic
- Anerythristic A or Black Albino
- Anerytheristic B or Charcoal
- Anerytheristic c or Cinder
- Hypomelanistic
- Caramel
- Blood Red
- Lavender
- Butter
- Amber

- Pewter
- Snow
- Ghost
- Blizzard
- Creamsicle
- Fantasy/Frosted
- Avalanche
- Diffused
- Dilute
- Granite or Pepper
- Honey
- Opal
- Snopal
- Phantom
Plus many, many more.

And in patterning such as
- Striped
- Hurricane
- ZigZag or Aztec
-Motley
and more.