This is a specific care sheet for Corn Snakes, a subspecies titled (Elaphe guttata guttata). For more of this species see Category:E. guttata.

The Common Corn snake (Elaphe guttata guttata), or Red rat snake, is a North American subspecies of rat snake that subdue their small prey with constriction. The name “Corn snake” is a holdover from the days when southern farmers stored harvested ears of corn in a wood frame or log building called a crib. Rats and mice came to the corn crib to feed on the corn, and corn snakes came to feed on the rodents. Their docile nature, reluctance to bite, moderate adult size 3.9–5.9 feet (1.2–1.8 m), attractive pattern, and comparatively simple care make them popular pet snakes. In the wild, they usually live around 15–20 years, but may live as long as 23 years in captivity.

Elaphe guttata guttata lives in the southeastern United States, and is distinguished by having brownish-orange skin with orange/red saddles, the saddles having black borders, and usually a black and white underbelly from the similarity of the belly markings to the checkered patterns of kernels of Indian corn.

Corn Snakes as pets

Corn snakes are an ideal beginners snakes due to ease care, calm and docile nature and the vast array of colour and pattern morphs available. They also take well to mice and rats as a basic diet, rarely becomming fussy as noted with other species of snake such as the Royal Python (Python regius). Corn Snakes or Red Rat Snakes as they are sometimes known, are probably the least aggressive species of the Elaphe genus.

Choosing your snake

Health checks for any snake:

• Firm rounded body.
• Clear eyes (may be a little cloudy if about to shed). There should be no sign of discharge.
• No evidence of mites – check especially around the head and eyes, check for faint specks on body and check your hands after handling the snake
• The snake should not have to open its mouth to breathe and should not appear as if it is gasping for breath.
• The inside of the mouth should be a uniform pink – reddened areas or cheesy looking matter may indicate mouth rot.
• Shiny smooth skin with no scabs or sores.
• Clean vent with no swelling in area
• Should move smoothly with no tremors

If you are unsure about the health of a snake, you can ask the vendor for a demonstration feeding, usually on pre-killed mice. If your new snake appears distressed or overly active, be patient but not ignorant, snakes will be agitated until they settle in to their new environments but if the problem persists it may be necessary to seek veterinary advice.

Preparing a home for a corn snake

Prepare the vivarium set up and regulate temperatures before you get your snake(s) to ensure you can meet the requirements.

Hatchling Corn snake habitats

Hatchling Corn snakes are happiest in modestly sized enclosures such as a shoe box sized 18x30x12 cm (7x12x5”) container until they are ca. 50 cm long. At this age they will feel very nervous in larger open areas and so a bigger vivarium is not yet advised. As with many other reptiles, young Corn snakes should be housed in smaller secure container because large open spaces can stress them out and make them nervous. This would inevitably lead to refusal of food or even a subsequent aggressive response.

Provide small corns with secure hiding spaces and an indigestible substrate such as paper towels, newspaper, reptile carpet or similar. Floor coverings such as aspen are ideal to help Corn snakes feel secure where they will hide in and around it however care must be taken to prevent ingestion of the substrate, and so a separate feeding area may be required.

Housing hatchling Corn snakes together is not advised. At this young and confusing age they have a tendency to eat each other, where they can mistake one another as mice.

Adult Corn snake habitats

Adult corn snakes should not be housed in anything smaller than a 75x40x30cm (30”x15”x12”) vivarium. That is unless you handle them regularly 3-4 times a week to help them build muscle and exercise. All openings should be extremely secure as corn snakes will push, pull and poke at everything. Ventilation is important to allow humidity to escape and air to circulate, however wire mesh should be avoided in this instance as an investigative Corn snake may scrape and damage its nose.

Housing multiple adults Corn snakes together is not out of the question so long as you understand the risks and take precautions against them. It is not unknown for a Corn snake to eat another snake, possibly believing it was a meal with the stench of fresh mouse on its lips. Snakes may become irritated with one another if enclosed in a confined area and if one gets a parasite, it is highly likely that the other one will too. These are also reasons why a Corn snake may begin to refuse food or become aggressive.

Substrates to use in Corn snake enclosures

Typically, the best substrates to use are paper towels or newspaper. They are hygienic, very easy to clean and are inexpensive. The downfall of such substrate is that they are not very aesthetically pleasing.

Aspen is a good substrate to use as it absorbs water from faeces which then clumps together making light work of cleaning. Astroturf or repticarpet are good options as they look good, have no risk of snake ingestion and can be machine washed regularly. Substrates such as sand can cause impaction through ingestion and others like cedar chips which hold moisture can cause humidity increases and serious infections. Similarly avoid substrates such as soil, corncob granules and pine shavings.

Hiding places and climbing branches for Corn snakes

Place two or three hides in the vivarium for your snake to choose from. One at either side of the enclosure would be ideal so that your Corn snake can enjoy the temperature gradient you have provided. Snakes like to feel secure; if a hide is too spacious the snake will feel exposed so ensure a tight fit.

As well as hiding places, a branch should be provided for climbing and exercise. Corn snakes love to climb and the rough surface will also provide a means to remove shed skin. All decor items should be thoroughly disinfected by soaking in a 1:10 bleach solution and rinsing thoroughly and also be securely placed within the vivarium.

Drinking and bathing water

It is important to provide a large water bowl half-filled with fresh water somewhere in the vivarium. Corn snakes love to submerge themselves when it is time to shed so aim for something big enough for the snake to fully submerge and bathe in. Replace the water regularly and do not fill the fully as when the snake gets in the water will overflow and soak the substrate causing humidity problems.

Lighting requirements for Corn snakes

Corn snakes do not require special lighting. Simply provide them with 12 hours of light, either from an outside source or a fully secured and protected in-tank light source. Direct sunlight may cause temperatures within the vivarium to soar so it is important to avoid this. A red night light may be used as many reptiles including Corn snakes cannot visibly see it and so it will not affect their day/night cycle. UV light however is not a requirement.

Providing Corn snakes with the correct temperature

Being cold blooded, it is important to provide a temperature gradient so the snake can select an area of the tank to warm to. Heat mats are an ideal source of heat, as are ceramic heaters or heat lampss however these are expensive and require protective screens. An undertank heater (UTH) will provide a good amount of ground heat to aid in digestion but this should at all times be regulated by a good quality thermostat such as the Habistat mat-stat. The mat-stat is ideal for heat mats but has a capacity of 100w whereas most other more expensive models go up to 300w. You can expect a heat mat to last as long as your snake but light bulbs, heat lamps and most other heating elements will expire several times in one year. Heat rocks should be avoided as these tend to cause severe burns to snakes that wrap around them, especially as the are not thermo-regulated. Corn snakes should be provided a thermal gradient ranging from 21 °C at one end of the vivarium to 31 °C at the other (70-88 °F). At night time the temperature may drop to around 26 °C(78 °F).

Cleaning Corn snake enclosures

Be on the look out to remove any feces as soon as you see it, do not leave it to the flies or to attract any other nasties. Completely disinfect the enclosure at least once every two months.

Feeding Corn snakes

In the wild Corn snakes have a diet primarily consisting of rodents, mostly mice and rats. Prey is killed by constriction. They are proficient climbers and may scale trees in search of birds and bats although they prefer to be on ground level. In captivity however, mice and rats provide enough nutrients, protein and calcium to be a sole feeder. Day-old chicks are arguably also good feeder items however there are unconfirmed reports that they lack nutrients. Frozen foods can be purchased from most reptile pet shops and can be ordered in bulk online from several websites. In general a corn snake will progress through all the different sizes of mice and then on to weaner rats which are slightly larger than adult mice, with day old chicks somewhere in between. Corn snakes are not known to be fussy eaters however, sometimes they will only eat one type of meal so it is important to know what a new pet Corn snake will eat readily.

Live feeding animals can be dangerous to the snake. An animal fighting for its life can do some serious damage to a snake; evidence of which can be seen on Corn snakes in the wild. Similarly feeding thawed prekilled food is beneficial in that the freezing process kills all off many of the parasites so you are limiting the risk of passing these on to your snake. You may want to invest in a pair of long tweezers for feeding, this will help stop the snake associating your hand with a meal and accidental bites. For these reasons food items should be offered pre-killed, and warmed by luke warm water.

Feeding Corn snake hatchlings

Newborn hatchlings are very small and must be fed on day-old pinkies. Pinkies are baby mice and are pink due to lack of fur revealing their skin. Some corn snakes may prefer a cricket or small lizard as their first meal, however this is unlikey in captivity and these should only be offered if the snake is refusing pinkies. From an early age Corn snakes should be fed in a separate container to their regular home as this will stop them nipping and becoming aggressive towards you, associating opening the vivarium with food.

Hatchling Corn snakes should be fed after their first shed, which should occur around a week after they hatch. Following on from this feed them twice a week to encourage healthy growth. Avoid food items bigger than 1.5 times the girth of the Corn snake and do not handle your snake until 2 days after feeding. After feeding Corn snakes move to the warm side of the vivarium digesting the meal.

If you have purchased a bag of pinkies and find that some are too large, take a sharp pair of scisors and cut off their heads. The body of the pinky should be a good size and so feed them to your Corn snake.

Feeding yearling to adult Corn snakes

Mice and rats offer a good selection of food item sizes, these sizes may vary between vendors so make sure you find out before you buy any. As a Corn snake grows so should the size of the food items; starting with mice pinkies and going through fuzzies, small, medium, large and adult mice to finally weaner rats. It is rare for a Corn snake to handle anything larger than a weaner rat and so when a Corn snake is in adulthood a weaner rat or adult mice will be enough. As with hatchlings do not feed food items that are more than 1.5 times the girth of the snake, food items that are too large will be regurgitated as they rot inside the snakes stomach.

Begin to reduce the number of feeding to once per week when you start offering fuzzie mice. Upon adulthood overfeeding may become a problem so do not feed more than an adult mouse per week, some males will be happy with one food item per fortnight. Monitor your snakes weight and shape; this will help with feeding adult Corn snakes.

Dealing with fussy eaters

If your snake starts refusing food do not get stressed, remember that months may pass and your snake may not lose much weight and stay perfectly healthy. When a Corn snake begins the shedding cycle it may refuse food, and its appetite will return after it has shed.

For more information on fussy eaters please read the Snake Feeding Problems page.

If you are worried about your snake, take it to a vet with good reptile experience.

Corn snake shedding

As reptiles grow they regularly need to shed their skin. This is because their skin becomes too small and tight or simply becomes worn out. Because of this, Corn snakes have to produce a larger more spacious skin as they grow. This new skin is produced underneath the old one prior to shedding. The shedding process will happen more when the corn snake is younger and is growing faster. Needless to say, if you feed your snake more, and it grows more, then it will shed more.

As a Corn snake begins the shedding cycle its eyes turn milky blue and it begins to look rather dull and slightly colourless. When a Corn snake is ready to shed its eyes clear up and it will look for a humid area or even a water bowl to soak and soften the skin ready for removal. The shedding will begin as the corn snake rolls the skin off its head and inverts it all the way down its body, until it finishes off its tail.

Before shedding Corn snakes generally go off their food and will not eat until the skin has been removed. The process lasts little more than a week.

Sexing a Corn Snake

There are a few very different methods for sexing corn snakes; these are probing, popping and counting. Another method would be to pair the snake with a know gender snake and see if they mate.

Probing and popping are difficult to master and can be dangerous if done wrong. It is advised to see these methods done by an expert before attempting them and therefore they will not be described here.

The Counting Method

The following method “Counting” has been proven on many Corn snakes, each time being accurate. It works off the basic that male Corn snakes have longer tails than females. That is the length from the anus to the tail tip where there are pairs of scales.

• Try to acquire a slough or two from the Corn snake you wish to sex. You may use the snake itself but this will prove difficult. A marker pen will also come in useful to mark the slough.
• Begin counting the pairs of scales on the underside of the corn snake’s tail up to the anus (expect somewhere near 70 pairs). Write down this number and then count the number of ventral (belly) scales from head to anus (record this number also).
• Subtract the number of pairs of tail scales from the number of ventral scales. For a male Corn snake the number will be below 154, as he has a longer tail, whereas a female Corn snake will have a number larger than 154. Take some time to examine the examples below.

Heres two examples:

A 2001 specimen:	A 2003 specimen:
Ventral (belly) scales = 212	Ventral (belly) scales = 225
Pairs under the tail = 82	Pairs under the tail = 64
Difference = 212 – 82 = 130	Difference = 225 – 64 = 161
The number is less than 154; therefore it is male.	The number is more than 154; therefore it is female

Snake Bites

There are generally two types of bites: a strike and a feeding bite.

A strike is a warning that you have exceeded the bounds of what the snake will tolerate. It will shoot out, mouth open, then retract just as quickly, leaving you with a series of teeth marks.

A feeding bite is just that: they think they have prey, and are not going to let go; the more you move around, the more they try to ‘kill’ your hand. The easiest and fastest way to disengage a snake’s mouth from your body is with grain (not rubbing) alcohol; in a school setting, you can use Listerine or, if none is available, isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. The latter can be toxic, so you must make sure that the snake’s mouth is not flooded with it. Always tilt the snake’s head downwards so that the fluid does not run up into its nose; from there it can get into its respiratory tract, causing infections. Compressed air can also be an effective way to coax a snake into releasing their bite. A quick burst or two into the mouth (not the nose or eyes) should do the trick, but long sprays must be avoided as they can cause frost bite both to the snake’s mouth and to the person’s skin.

Wash bites thoroughly with soap and water. Apply povidone-iodine (Betadine) or hydrogen peroxide, and let dry. Then apply a topical broad spectrum antibiotic ointment. Do not bandage. It should be noted that a snake will always signal when it is going to strike or bite; you just need to learn new body language. Once you see the snake stiffen and slowly retract, head held slightly above the ground or body, be alert and ready to move.

Breeding Corn snakes

Corn snakes are one of the most widely bred reptile in the industry. Captive breeding of Corn snakes is so common that it is unlikely to find any wild caught animals for sale. With so many different morphs they come in an ever-growing range of colour and patterns, which can lead to a beautifully varied collection of just one species.

There are five important steps to breeding corn snakes which are discussed (Corn Snake/Breeding).

• Brumation
• Mating
• Laying
• Incubation
• Hatching

See Also