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Snakes

2K views 21 replies 12 participants last post by  auban 
#1 ·
My wife and I just acquired two new corn snakes, and were wondering if anyone here keeps snakes, knows about snakes, or knows a good forum/website with good information. Thanks in advance for any help.

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#5 ·
Hmmm, I don't know. I don't think they would care for the humidity in a terrarium. Perhaps someone else has tried that with these. My Jayapura GTP loves her terrarium, but she's a tropical snake that needs humidity.

Most keepers have corn snakes in a simple setup with a hidebox of some kind, a water dish big enough to soak in and aspen bedding for easy cleanup. I only feed thawed mice and rats, never live.
 
#7 ·
I have a few snakes.
You will find that live plants are difficult to maintain in a snake setup. Not only will they get smooshed and uprooted occasionally, but when your snake pees or poops on them, all bets are off.
Also the light needed for plants will make temp control more of a hassle.


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#8 ·
I agree here. You'd need to keep it a bit more humid than the snake would care for. Not saying it can't be done, but as previously mentioned, the lighting thing would be more difficult. Your snake may hide in brighter light as they do not really require or necessarily even like much light. You could do a potted plant that is kept up off of your substrate to allow you to water it easier without saturating the whole tank. If the plant doesn't require much light to grow, keeping it near a window will allow natural sunlight to help it with photosynthesis. Be careful during summer though! The tank can overheat if the sunlight is too strong!
 
#9 ·
A good point.... Snakes in general need a dry substrate or they can get scale rot. Live plants would need to be carefully contained so that your pet has access to the dry bedding needed for good health.
Humidity is actually quite fine for most snakes, especially during shed.


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#10 ·
i guess i was very vague haha! i was thinking about keeping the substrate wet and causing a problem with scale rot. i don't know why i downplayed the importance of humidity. if you look at most of my posts, the edit reason is always "clarity"! i need to be more specific!
 
#11 ·
Thanks for all the great info and tips. I guess I should post pics tomorrow so they can be more properly identified. Knowing the exact species of these snakes will probably help me get more specific info on how to keep them happy and healthy.

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#13 ·
corn snake is only one species elaphe guttata (possibly spelled wrong.

I kept babies on white paper towels with a heat source and a water dish/hide box. lightly mist the container every other day.

larger snakes on critter litter, I believe, made from recycled newspaper. a water dish/hide box and another hide box with moist sphagnum moss. and heat source.

always feed your snakes in seperate containers. or you will find they both latch on to the same mouse and one will begin to eat the other. had it happen to mine.
 
#16 ·
My two new snakes. Both female.

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Corn snakes indeed. As others have said, they're super easy to take care of. Also, feeding each in a separate brown paper bag will ensure that they do not start biting when you place your hand in the cage. If you just drop a mouse in with them, they will start to associate movement within the cage as food (AKA your hand). Fighting over a mouse is also highly likely. I've seen two snakes grab a hold at both end and work their way towards each other. I had to cut the mouse in half with scissors. =/

...Not pleasant...

Don't over think it. If you miss a feeding one week, no big deal. You can feed once a week, once every ten days, every fourteen days, or whatever works for you. :proud:
 
#15 ·
Cornsnakes are very easy to care for. I was breeding them and Ball Pythons before my house fire... None of the smake made it out.....

Here are some pics.















 
#21 ·
Well, bigger, less active snakes can afford to go that long without eating. They have a slower metabolism than smaller, active colubrids (like yours). While you could go months without feeding it, I'd advise not to. Pythons and boas can do that with minimal issues though.
 
#22 ·
in response to the original question, i used to keep some corn snakes in planted aquariums, but found that it works best if you keep only potted plants, which can be switched out every so often with fresh plants grown out of the tank. my problem was with scale rot due to humidity. lights that are bright enough to grow the plants produce a lot of heat, which raises the humidity and leads to problems watering the plants, and scale rot....

now, you might be able to get away with it if you use LEDs and kept a fan on the tank to keep the humidity down. regardless, corn snakes are ill suited for a planted terrarium.

i have had pretty decent success with various watersnakes and garter snakes though. some of the blue eastern garters can be quite stunning, and they are much more resistant to scale rot than corn snakes.

a snake that will have no problem in a planted terrarium is an eastern ringneck snake. they are my all time favorite snake. the only downside is that they tend to spend a lot of time in the dirt hunting for earthworms. they can handle very high levels of humidity, are easy to keep if you can get them earthworms, and will breed readily if you have a healthy pair(you need baby worms to raise the young). plus, they are so small they are cute as hell.
 
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