Things You'll Need:
- Enclosure
- Substrate
- Heat source/lighting
- Water dish
- Feeder rodents
- Corn Snake
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Step 1
Purchase a secure and well ventilated enclosure for the snake. A new born can be kept in a 10 gallon glass aquarium or similarly sized enclosure. An adult Corn snake will require a 20 or 30 gallon aquarium. Many breeders and collectors choose to house Corn snakes of all sizes in rack systems that use plastic tubs to house the snakes.
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Step 2
Cover the floor of the enclosure with a suitable substrate. Newspaper, butcher's paper, paper towels and corrugated cardboard make a good cheap cage liner. Aspen shavings or cypress mulch also make good substrates, be sure to never use a substrate containing cedar as the oils in cedar can be fatal to snakes.
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Step 3
Provide your snake with a hot spot around 88 degrees Fahrenheit and a background temperature of 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. This can be achieved using an under tank heat pad/heat tape, a heat lamp or ceramic heat emitter. Arrange the hot spot on one side of the cage so the snake has access to a the full range of temperatures. Never expose your snake to temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit for long periods of time.
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Step 4
Provide your Corn snake with a water bowl with clean, fresh water at all times. There is no need to provide any additional humidity to the cage unless your snake is not shedding properly. In which case providing humidity hide box filled with damp sphagnum moss should resolve the issue.
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Step 5
Providing these snakes with extra lighting is not necessary. Make sure that you do not expose your snake to bright lights for long periods of time. Also be sure any supplemental lighting runs on a 12 hour on/12 hour off schedule.
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Step 6
Feed hatchling Corn snakes pink mice. As your snake grows increase the size of the prey offered. A good rule is to feed a prey item about the same size as the snake's thickest point. Adults will eventually feed on large mice. Prey can be purchased frozen and then thawed or live. It is always best to offer pre-killed prey to your snake. If it will not accept a pre-killed prey item you can try live prey. Never leave a live prey item with your snake over night, prey can injure or even kill your snake.
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Step 7
You should also provide a hide spot on one or both sides of the cage. This should be large enough for the snake to completely hide in/under. Clay flowerpots, plastic flowerpot trays, plastic tubs with a hole cut out and commercially available hide boxes all work quite well.
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Step 8
Maintain your snakes enclosure by spot cleaning feces, urates and sheds whenever present. The water bowl should be cleaned and disinfected at least twice a week. Once every 45 to 60 days you should remove and disinfect all cage items and the cage itself using either a 5% bleach and water solution or a commercially available reptile safe cleaner such as Nolvasan.
