If You Want To Add A Slithery Friend To Your Household, Corn Snakes Make Ideal Pets For First-Time Snake Owners
If you would like to add a slithery friend to your household, consider adopting a corn snake. It’s the ideal pet for first-time snake owners because corn snakes are easygoing, low-maintenance, and surprisingly charming.
They also don’t bark loudly or demand to go on walks when you don’t have the time. All they need is a cozy enclosure and a snack at the right time.
Their calm and mellow personalities make them the perfect roommates! Plus, they have stunning colors and patterns.
Outside of being an excellent companion, corn snakes have value to American agriculture. In the wild, they hunt rodents, which helps protect our crops and grain stores.
Corn snakes are found throughout the United States, from southern New Jersey to the Florida Keys. The serpents are not venomous and feed on rodents and other small creatures. They are usually tannish-orange in color with patches of dark red scales.
It is believed that the name “corn snake” originated from the species’ presence around cornfields, where they help keep rodent populations in check.
Modern corn snakes may not be venomous, but evidence suggests their ancestors were. Somewhere along the way, they lost their ability to produce poison.
Their defense tactics are still very effective, though. When danger is afoot, corn snakes can make loud buzzing sounds by vibrating their tails against grass or dead leaves. The noise resembles the rattle that actual rattlesnakes have.
To properly care for a corn snake as a pet, keep it in a glass terrarium with a screen lid. An adult snake will need at least a 20-gallon enclosure that measures 30 inches by 12 inches. Cover the bottom of the terrarium with aspen shavings or dry newspapers.
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Place a small, sturdy water dish inside and prepare to clean it every day. Provide shoe boxes and commercial reptile “hides” as hiding spots for your snake.
Use a heat lamp to keep one end of the terrarium at 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The other side should be at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Depending on the age of your corn snake, you should feed it every five to seven days or every seven to 10 days.
The perfect meal is a mouse that is about the same width as the reptile’s widest point. Experts recommend giving your pet frozen mice since live prey can be dangerous.
In the wild, corn snakes consume lizards, tree frogs, birds, eggs, voles, marsh rats, and mice.
When they receive the proper care, pet corn snakes can live for a long time. The typical lifespan of a corn snake is 10 to 20 years.
The oldest corn snake lived for 32 years in captivity. It just goes to show how much the right care and attention can make a difference.
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