This is by no means a definative care sheet. just some information i have put together form my many years of keeping corns.
Common Name: Corn Snake
Scientific Name: Elaphe guttata
Size range: 120cm -190cm (4ft-6ft)
Life span: (Captive) Pet Corns have the potential to live for 18-20 years; records exist of Corns over 22 years of age.
Origin: USA (Range Found throughout Central and Eastern America)
Habitat: Forest, rocky outcrops/hills and around farms and grain stores
Temperament: With the odd exception, Corn Snakes are generally calm, docile, placid snakes that do very well in captivity. Due to their temperament Corn Snakes are a recommended first snake to keep as they are quite easy to care for and they don't grow too big like some boa's and pythons can.
Corn snakes make a good choice for novice keepers as they are easy to handle and care for. They are also favorites with experienced keepers due to the vast array of beautiful colors and patterns that are available.
Corn Snakes are not terribly active snakes and do not need a vast enclosure. A medium sized vivarium will house your Corn Snake adequatly. The vivarium should allow a minimum of 1 square foot of floor space to each foot of snake and be roughly a third of the snake’s length in height. Hatchlings should start out in an appropriately sized small vivarium or r.u.b. as they can become stressed and stop feeding if placed in a vivarium that is too big.
Corn Snakes are excellent escape artists, so great care must be taken when planning their housing. Make sure your vivarium or tank has a tight fitting lid, which can be clamped down. or a sliding door lock . Corn snakes are very strong and can push a loose fitting lid from a vivarium.
Substrate
With corn snakes, there are a few different substrates that can be used:
Shavings
Aspen shavings are safe to use as substrate for Corn Snakes. The shavings can't be cleaned and so have to be removed and replaced with fresh shavings when dirty. If you use aspen shavings the urine and feces can be scooped out with a cat litter scoop, and replaced with fresh shavings as needed. Be sure to remove any soiled substrate as soon as possible as urine-soaked material can become a breeding ground for bacteria, which could cause harm to your Corn Snake. If you are going to use aspen as substrate you should place your snake in a secure area to feed it; you do not want it to ingest any of the shavings, as they can become impacted in its gut.
At least once a month, all shavings should be removed and disposed of, and the entire enclosure cleaned and disinfected before new shavings are placed inside. There are a few vivarium disinfectant cleaners available, from good herp supply shops.
Do not use Cedar or Redwood as shavings, in a snake or mouse ( if you are breeding your own as food) enclosure. They are Toxic to all animals. Neither should you use them in any vivarium panels, furniture, or anything that will come into contact with your snake.
Newspaper
Layers of newspaper have been used for many years in animal keeping. It is quite absorbent when several layers are used, inexpensive to replace and readily available. However, the inks used in printing are known to be harmful to some animals, (Cedar shavings were accepted as a safe bedding material for years before it was discovered that the natural oils within the wood caused skin, respiratory and reproductive system damage.) So if you can get unprinted newspaper, this would be better.Unprinted sheets can be bought at shops selling moving supplies, or roll ends may be available from some newspaper companies. As with printed newspaper, it is relatively absorbent when several layers are used, Unlike printed newspaper, it has no potentially harmful inks that could harm your Corn Snake.
Paper towels/Kitchen roll
readily available and quite cheap to buy , paper towels and kitchen roll make excellent substrates for reptiles with belly injuries and those in the early stages of quarantine.Also good for hatchlings in small tubs.
Hides:
corn snakes like to hide away somewhere they feel safe. Lots of things can be sucessully used as a hide, from coffee jar lids (for hatchlings) and cardboard boxes ( both of which are easily replaced as needed) to commercialy made specialist hides ( like exo terra). Give your snake a choice of hides throughtout the heat gradient so it does not have to make the choice between heat and security.
Climbing:
Branches and plastic plants can be bought from pet shops and over the internet , these provide a place for climbing and resting, they also aid the snake when shedding its skin.
Corn snakes are inquisitive and do like to explore their surroundings, so changing their vivaruim decor around once in a while will help to stop them becoming bored.
Water:
You should change your snakes water daily, at most every other day. Water should be given in a reasonable sized bowl which is fairly heavy to stop your snake tipping it over.Corns also like to soak in their water bowl, as is helps them when sloughing their skin.
Some snakes, chhose the water bowl of all places to go to the toilet in!!!!! if this happens the bowl should be disinfected and fresh water given immediately
Heating:
Corn Snakes are cold blooded and get heat from their surroundings, this is called thermo-regulation.In the wild they will sit in the sun to warm up, or hide in the shade to cool down. The ideal temperature for you snake's vivarium is a temperature gradient of 21-30oC (70-86oF)
Heat should be provided using either a heat mat with thermostat or a bulb on the roof of the vivarium with a bulb guard to stop the snake burning itself.
Heat mats should only cover about a third of the floor space to allow your snake to thermo regulate.
It's useful when using both methods to have a small thermometer on either end of the vivarium to check the temperature. One end should be around 30oC and the other around 21oC. Your Corn Snake can thermo-regulate by moving around the tank.
Feeding:
Corn Snakes feed on mice appropriate to the size of their body.Never give a food item that is more than 1 1/2 times the girth of its body at its widest part.
Hatchlings start on pinky mice, one every 5-6 days and increse this up to an adult mouse every 7-10 days as they grow. Very large snakes may require 2 adult mice per feed. Shop brought frozen rodents are available from most pet shops or bought over the internet these can be thawed to room temperature by placing in warm water and make an excellent all round food for your snake. Wild rodents carry parasites and should be avoided at all times.
Never handle your snake straight after a feed, as it will regurgitate its meal.It will need time to fully digest its meal before being handled. Corn Snakes that are preparing to shed their skin, will sometimes refuse to feed until after shedding.
Shedding:
Corn snakes shed their skin at regular intervals as they grow. Approximately 7 to 10 days before the skin is shed the old skin will appear grey and dull and the eyes will appear to be glazed over or "blue". The eyes then clear again and usually within a couple of days the shed begins.
During this period your snake's eyesight will be a lot worse than normal and this may cause him to strike out in a nervous reaction. It is good practice not to handle snakes during the shedding process because of this increased risk of a bite and the extra stress on the snake.
Corns are usually quite active as they start to shed, searching out something to rub against to get the old skin off. the Skin should come away in one piece, from nose to tail as the snake moves around.( Dont worry if you never get to see this event taking place, a lot of corns shed in the dead of night).
After the snake has shed, it is important to check your snake and the skin over for any retained parts of the shed, important areas to look are the eye caps (make sure both of these have come away on the shed skin) and the tip of the tail .
Social :
In the wild, Corns are solitary creatures and in the main lead a solitary life but they do come together to hibernate and of course breed.Captive adult females can be kept together with little or no problems. Males have been known to harass each other and fight particularly in the breeding season so are best kept individualy. Adult animals of opposite sex should be kept apart unless you want to breed from them.
It is not recomended to keep hatchlings together as there have been cases of hungry snakes cannibalising each other, which leads to certain death for both snakes.
Determining sex:
Visually this can be quite difficult, especially in younger snakes but some visual indicators or sex are, the males tail is usually thicker than the females, to accomodate the hemipenes for the first few scales past the vent.The females tail base tapers quickly just past the cloaca.
The safest and best method of determining your snakes sex is to have it probed. This is quite difficult to do for the inexperienced and can lead to harming the snake if done incorrectly so should be carried out by an experienced keeper.
Breeding:
As corn snakes breed quite well in captivity, the market has become flooded with them, and many even reputable breeders struggle to sell off their hatchlings so it is worth doing a lot of research into the market before any attempts to breed your snake are made, unless you plan on keeping all the offspring yourself.
Many snake breeders follow what is called the 3x3x3 rule when determining if their snakes are ready to breed this is:
3 years old (at least)
3 feet in length(at least)
300g in weight(at least)
there is some leyway on this rule but it is very good as a guideline.
This intel first appeared on: http://www.herpuniverse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=88
